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Source: https://jakewallissimons.substack.com/p/in-defence-of-the-settlers
Palestinian Hate Is the Overlooked Obstacle to Peace
(Substack) Jake Wallis Simons - Ostensibly, the reason that Britain sanctioned Israel was its building plans for E1, a 4.5-mile strip of land connecting Jerusalem to the nearby community of Ma'ale Adumim. Jews want to live in Judea and Samaria, the land their ancestors inhabited 3,000 years before anyone had heard of Palestine. Israel has put a full, sovereign Palestinian state on the table more than once, most memorably at Camp David in 2000 and again under Ehud Olmert in 2008. On both occasions, the Palestinians failed to accept. This is a matter of historical record. Any debate that overlooks this fact is not being conducted in good faith. The wars launched by the Arabs to annihilate Israel - in 1948 and again in 1967 - were fought before a single settlement existed. Israel faced liquidation before holding an inch of the West Bank. So the claim that settlements are the obstacle to peace is, by the historical record, a myth. This myth fraudulently recasts the obstacle to peace as land rather than hatred, which lets a rejectionist Palestinian leadership off the hook and hands Israel's critics in Britain a grievance that sounds reasonable at a dinner party.