Embattled Israeli Prime Minister to cave in

to American demands, but that won't help either


Someone once said that the most difficult job in the world is to be the Prime minister of Israel. Benjamin Netanyahu is feeling this difficulty right now as almost unprecedented pressure is being put on Israel to do things against its best interests. Barack Obama is determined to solve this most difficult of conflicts no matter what the obstacles are. He is pressuring Israel to do what it simply cannot do. It cannot choke its own population by denying housing to ever expanding populations in Judea and Samaria and accepting a Palestinian state on its border.

Let’s examine what would happen if Israel acquiesced to these demands. The first demand would be impossible to implement as housing permits have been granted and money paid for hew housing. The housing shortage is acute in Judea and Samaria and completely stopping construction is a pointless impossibility. That’s not even mentioning that the livelihood of thousands of local Arabs depends on this so called “ illegal construction “. This demand reaches absurd levels as massive construction continues in a Jerusalem suburb called “ Har Choma “ . This neighborhood is legally a part of Jerusalem on the “ good side “of the green line. It is not under military rule and is as much a part of Israel as Tel-Aviv. Nonetheless the building there is considered settlement expansion. The two sides do not even agree what constitutes settlement expansion. Even if Israel agreed to completely halt settlement expansion work would continue at “ Har Choma “ That would be seen by the other side as a violation of the agreement.

As far as a Palestinian State is concerned the wording is probably less important than the essence. Netanyahu will only agree to high authority autonomy in Judea and Samaria. He cannot and will not agree to anything more. That would mean no real army or free air space for this autonomous entity. The Arab side will never agree to these conditions or that Israeli settlements remain inside its autonomous areas. Dismantling of these settlements is logistically impossible and will not happen.

Those two issues I mentioned are considered the easier issues on the table and clearly are unsolvable. The more difficult issues of Jerusalem and refugees are just completely stymied that all involved refuse to talk about them.

Obama should use his time doing other things.

He will not solve the problem. He may be adding to it