Nov.22 2011
Evelyn Gordon published an article on Nov.17 (COMMETARY Magazin), titled:
"If Settlements Are Only 1.1% of West Bank, How Are They An Obstacle to Peace"?

E.Gordon found out that Defense Minister Ehud Barak told Charlie Rose in an interview that "after 44 years, the whole Jewish settlement in the whole West Bank together doesn't cover even 2% of the area."

She also found out that Saeb Erekat, the chief Palestinian negotiator told in an interview to the Arabic radio station As – Shams that the settlements cover 1.1% of the West Bank.

After bringing this information, E.Gordon asked:
"So if settlements cover only 1.1%of the West Bank, why does the entire West deem them the main obstacle to peace?"

E.Gordon concluded that the real reason the PA blame the settlements is:
"Because admitting that settlements are not the main obstacle to peace would force it to confront an unpalatable truth: that the real obstacle to peace is Palestinian unwillingness to accept a Jewish state in any borders."

E.Gordon believes, based on 2 polls in July and October, that the Palestinians refuse to accept a Jewish state.
66% said in July that the 2 state solution is a mere stepping – stone to Israel's eradication.
89.8% said in 0ctober that they are opposed waiving the "right of return."

This demand, if accepted, will eradicate the Jewish state demographically by flooding it with 5,000.000 descendants of refugees. In other words, says Gordon, "If getting a state of their own means giving up their goal of destroying the Jewish state they'd rather keep living under THE BRUTAL ISRAELI OCCUPATION."

George Mitchel, former envoy to the peace process, said in a lecture, Gordon tells us, that when Israel accepted a 10- month moratorium on settlement construction in Nov.2009, "The Palestinians opposed it on grounds, in their words, that it was worse than useless. So they refused to enter into negotiations until 9 months of the ten had elapsed. Once they entered, they than said it was indispensable. What had been worse than useless a few months before then became indispensable and they said they would not remain in the talks unless that indispensable element was extended."

Gordon concluded that "the freeze issue was just an excuse to avoid actually having to negotiate."

The question Gordon raises is why "the Obama administration put intense pressure on Israel to extend the freeze, as did other Western countries," instead of admitting that the PA does not want to negotiate

P.S: Jonathan D.Halevi discovered in his article that the PA parliament accepted a law in 2008 which stated that the Palestinians will never give up the "right of return."
http://rslissak.com/content/palestinian-right-returnlaw-leaves-no-room-p...

My opinion:Settlements should be part of the negotiations - not a pre - condition.