Al Jazeera seems to be “on a roll” this morning when it comes to relations between the United States and the rest of the world. The latest “News” article has the subcategory “Occupied West Bank.” I would guess that most readers know that this refers to the territory between the Jordan River and the eastern boundary of Israel. It would not surprise me that many readers know about Israel’s attempts to occupy this territory. So it was that the Al Jazeera headline “Europe, Canada condemn Israeli plans for new West Bank settlement” came to my attention.
A Palestinian flag placed as a memorial for three Palestinians killed by Jewish settlers occupying West Bank territory near Ramallah (photograph by Zain Jaafar for Agence France-Presse)
Apparently, Israeli does not want Palestinians to settle anywhere west of the Jordan River. Put another way, they want the Palestinians to be “Jordan’s problem,” rather than theirs. Unless I am mistaken, however, I do not think that many (if any) Palestinians settled to the east of the Jordan. Does Israel think that problems of settlement will be resolved if the Palestinians “just went away?” That is a proposition that is at least absurd, and I would not blame any Palestinian to dismiss it as downright obscene!
Does Israel want to “get even” with the suffering of Jews in Europe during the last century? The Palestinians have every right to settle somewhere between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea. By all rights, such settling should take place with “good neighbor” relations. This leaves me wondering whether or not “good neighbor” can be translated into Hebrew!
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