Netanyahu Vows to Maintain Israels West Bank Settlements Forever

[Ken Burch]

5. I suppose they could, but the vast majority would refuse.

The whole point of being a West Bank settler is to claim those lands, by one's presence, as being part of "the land of Israel".

If the settlers became Palestinian citizens, they'd have to admit the land belongs just as much to the Palestinians as to them.

As to land swaps....I'm not sure if there are any unpopulated or barely-populated areas on the Israeli side of the Green Line that could be swapped-or at least none remotely comparable to the areas the settlers have taken. They could have swapped the Negev in the past, possibly, but I can't imagine the Palestinians trusting them on that as long as they keep tearing down the Bedouin villages.

And as part of that, there would need to be measures addressing the past-compensation and apologies to the families of those driven out in 1948, the vast majority of whom were noncombatants fleeing for their lives and for those whose olive and lemon trees were stolen by the settlers later, an admission that the West Bank/Gaza settler program should never have been authorized and that violence from the IDF should have been limited strictly towards those actually involved in terrorist activities.

Anything that took it out of the arrogant Likudnik "you brought this on yourselves and you guys could make it stop anytime" mentality would help. There were some bad choices by the Palestinian leadership, but the Palestinian people never deserved collective punishment and repression as a result of those choices.