Settlements are THE Impediment to Peace

Part of the need is to find moral equivalence between Israel and the Palestinian Authority, assigning each responsibility, or blame, for the impasse between the two. 

One of the most frequent issues used to demonstrate this phenomenon is the settlements. Unfortunately, Israel has submitted to this position as well, making the argument that "settlements are THE impediment to peace" that much more persuasive.

This argument was the basis of the Mitchell Plan. When broken down, the absurdity of the proposition comes clear. How is simply residing on territory regarded as anathema? The argument goes that the settlements are illegitimately there. Indeed that is the case for some, but far from all. There are, indeed, legitimate settlements, built on land that was under the administration of the Jordanian government until 1967 and was not owned privately. 

At the basis of this problem is that one of the Palestinian demands is that no Jews live in a future Palestinian state. That the international community does not see a link between defamation of the settlement enterprise and a Judenrein state is problematic.