This is why things are so twisted and deeply troubled in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict/ peace talks- there is no consensus on any of the sides, and by any I do mean emphatically that there are more than two. The “This” I am referring to right now is the planned protests by Israeli citizens in the West Bank over the proposed (sort of) settlement freeze by the Israeli government.

Just to reiterate- Israel has a whole bunch of settlements on the West Bank, which is not part of Israel, and they have been steadily adding settlements there for years. The leaders of the Palestinian Fatah government (the one that is the elected voice and governing body of the Palestinians except those who live in Gaza, where they have elected separate Hamas leaders) have said that they will not continue negotiating peace talks with Israeli authorities until Israel puts a freeze on settlement building in the West Bank. Israel has said that they can’t put a freeze on it, that it would be irresponsible to the people who are living there that need housing. Etc.

This week Reuters reports, “Jewish settlers widened their protests on Sunday against a temporary construction freeze by shooting at a Palestinian home, torching and stoning vehicles, and assaulting Israeli officers in separate West Bank incidents.”

Let’s examine how this is being reported:

1. Jewish settlers, not Israeli settlers.

2. The “separate West Bank incidents” that involve burning vehicles and assaulting police are called incidents, not terrorist activity or insurgent uprisings or something like that.

3. “shooting at” rather than fired upon or fell under gunfire or something.
Just saying- it’s a bit of a soft sentence for the fact that people are attacking Israeli officers of the law and Palestinian citizens.

On Israel’s official part, they are listening a little bit to the Palestinian requests for the settlement building freeze, as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is trying to convince his citizens and government to agree to a 10 month freeze. But he has very publicly said that he would start building again after 10 months, and promptly.

"This is a one time decision and it is temporary. It is not an unlimited freeze,” said Netanyahu to his government, addressing internal hits at political rebellion.

As always, it is wrapped up in the Old Testament and what many Jewish settlers see as an ancient birthright to live on the land- and then there is the modern political reality that Israel doesn’t actually count the West Bank as official territory- it’s basically long term occupied territory. Like if the U.S. just moved up to Vancouver and started building houses.

Now, the violence erupting from an attempt to freeze settlement building for less than a year is threatening to stop the first progress in months on the Israeli-Palestinian peace talks.

It’s sort of ridiculous on both sides- the Palestinians are so out-politicked and out-gunned with military power, it’s hard for them to negotiate. They don’t even have an official state from which to work. And then Israel has this sort of manifest destiny feeling to all of it- I wonder if this is what it was like to be alive in America about 150 years ago?