Ed Miliband, the new Labour British Foreign Secretary, has announced that the United Kingdom will boycott goods made in Israeli communities over the Green Line, which he calls “settlements.” In a joint statement with the foreign ministers of 11 other countries, including Canada, France, Ireland, and Spain, he explained his reasons. This action is in response to, in part, “settlement expansion, including the unacceptable decision to publish tenders for the E1 settlement project,” on the outskirts of Jerusalem, and to protect the possibility of a two-state outcome between Israel and the Palestinians.
“Together,” the foreign ministers say, “we are resolute: the two-state solution must be protected … The Government of Israel must immediately halt the expansion of settlements.”
What, though, does this really mean? Reading between the lines, what are Miliband and his friends really saying about the prospects for peace in the region when they claim that Jewish settlements will prevent a Palestinian state?
About 2 million Arabs live as citizens in Israel, or about 20% of the population, with full civil rights and equality under the law except with respect to the draft. (Many Arabs enlist voluntarily.) About 300,000 Jews and about 4 million Muslims live as minorities in the U.K. Obviously, many minorities live peacefully in the United States.
So when Ed Miliband says that settlements are “undermining the possibility of a two-State solution,” what he means is that Jewish settlements can never become a part of a Palestinian state. His unspoken assumption is that Jews will never be able to live peacefully as a minority, protected under the law, in a future state of Palestine.
Read more at the Washington Examiner.
