Settlement Freeze or Brain Freeze? Obama's Singular Focus on the Settlement Issue

"Israelis Say Bush Agreed to West Bank Growth"; By Ethan Bronner; A6

In an important factual article, Times reporter Ethan Bronner airs Israeli complaints that President Obama failed to acknowledge “clear understandings with the Bush administration that allowed Israel to build West Bank settlement housing within certain guidelines while still publicly claiming to honor a settlement ‘freeze.’”

Through this piece, it appears that the Bush definition of a settlement freeze entailed no new construction of settlements but permitted construction within the “existing community outline” of major settlement blocs that were expected to stay under Israeli sovereignty after a final agreement. The difficulty seems to be that these community outlines were never specifically outlined.

On the other hand, the Obama definition of a settlement freeze is absolutely no construction of any kind within all existing settlements in the West Bank. This includes the “natural growth” of the settlements, as any town or city has a natural population expansion. Bronner fails to note that the Israeli consensus is that this is a preposterous and onerous demand given that 1) certain settlement blocs are expected to be part of Israel 2) settlements are not the principal impediment to peace, so why place it under a magnifying glass while ignoring other key issues?

And another key question is what the legal status of Bush’s 2004 letter to then Prime Minister Ariel Sharon (who let us not forget is still somehow alive!) which stated: “In light of new realities on the ground, including already existing major Israeli population centers, it is unrealistic to expect that the outcome of final status negotiations will be a full and complete return to the armistice lines of 1949.”

To Obama, it apparently means nothing. In his world, Palestinian grievances far outweigh Israeli concerns (maybe if Israel yelled loud enough to they would be grievances too), so the only just solution must be Israeli withdrawal to the 1949 armistice lines. Unfortunately, Palestinian grievances aren’t so limited. Can Obama see that?