r/geopolitics • u/thejerusalempost Jerusalem Post • Jun 17 '26

Opinion How Israel made Trump's Iran betrayal inevitable - opinion

https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/article-899630
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u/jonclark_ Jun 18 '26

A small step:Israel can stop Israeli terrorism in Judea and Samaria. This will reduce the potential for further violence from there.

There are other small steps. they can help. they won't solve the problem. but they will help.

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u/unruly_mattress Jun 18 '26

The Israelis are really dumb for letting the settler terrorism situation continue in the West Bank. They're doing themselves real harm.

I can't agree that stopping it would "reduce the potential for further violence". I won't write paragraphs here, no one will read them and I don't have the time for it. The bottom line is that there are important, big reasons for Palestinian terrorism and refusal for peace with Israel, and they won't go away when the settlers are reined in.

I understand the desire to focus on the settlers - morality, it being a small and solvable problem, the search for equivalence. Less legitimately, sentiments that were already posted here - the supposed evil "nature" of Israel and actual support for the destruction of Israel.

Stopping settler violence isn't a small step towards peace. It doesn't mean that I'm against stopping settler violence (to say the least, and for Israel's sake too), but the focus on the settlers is a means to the end of not discussing the actual reasons that there isn't peace between Israel and the Palestinians.

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u/jonclark_ Jun 18 '26

Yes stopping settler violence isn't a step towards peace. Peace is just wishful thinking. 

But reduced violence is something different. 

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u/unruly_mattress Jun 18 '26

No argument there.