Israel steals another 1000 acres of the West Bank

[Famous Mortimer]

This is very bad. I condemn it strongly.

I still don't think it justifies violence though.

I think if the Palestinian leadership renounced violence, and sincerely denounced those who didn't, they could get this land back through negotiation.

It probably wouldn't be easy though.

I think it would have been at one point. I think as late as the Olmert premiership, Israel would have jumped at the chance to give land for peace.

The Israeli leadership now is more dickish, as this move itself shows. I don't think they are impervious to negotiation though. They probably would stall. They would probably be hoping in the back of their heads that the Palestinians respond to the stalling with violence, so they could say they were right about them all along. If the Palestinians could resist the urge to take up violence at the first roadblock though, there is basically no one Israel would be able to stall long term.