Throughout the negotiations on an eventual Israeli-Palestinian peace agreement over the past decade-and-a-half, Israeli prime ministers strove to ensure that the major settlement blocs adjacent to the Green Line would be incorporated within the future borders of Israel.
Both security- and demography-wise, these settlements, where some 80% of the settlers live, were considered by prime ministers Ehud Barak, Ariel Sharon and Ehud Olmert as part and parcel of a Jewish-democratic Israel. They understood the imperative to differentiate between the main settlement blocs, Jewish Jerusalem and the settlements in the rest of the West Bank.
Unfortunately, the current Israeli government’s attempt to erase the Green Line and to blur the distinction between Israel proper and all the settlements is becoming an international issue, as demonstrated last week by three developments.