Outmanoeuvred in the UN, Israel has huffed and puffed against the house that is the international community and taken the policy of increasing settlements in East Jerusalem and the West Bank in the corridor of land termed E1 out of cold storage.  The air of desperation is palpable. The Palestinians, having gotten the crumbs of non-observer status at the UN in an overwhelming vote, have stirred Benjamin Netanyahu and members of his government into violent action.  Since they can’t launch an invasion in protest or initiate another wave of assassinations against the Palestinian moderates, they are left with a policy of unmitigated anger.

 

The plans for constructing settlements on E1, a policy that will connect Jerusalem with Maaleh Adumim, would effectively divide the northern and western West Bank.  Should that occur, a contiguous Palestinian state would be dealt a blow even before its formal creation (Al Bawaba News, Dec 4)....

 

Such tactics are true to form.  On November 3, 2011, after the admission of the Palestinians to the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), the Israeli authorities announced that 2000 new units would be built in East Jerusalem and in the West Bank settlements of Efrat and Maaleh Adumim.

 

On November 15 that same year, the Ministry of Housing published tenders for 2,230 new housing units beyond the Green Line (Amnesty International News, Dec 3).  Each step the Palestinians take on their treacherous road to statehood is marred by Israeli efforts to subjugate and quash them....

the January 22 election date looms, and Netanyahu has no intention of losing it. The propulsion of Israeli policy, for that reason, will be to the right