Via the Beeb:
Israel approves settlement growth
To which I say: Oh, crap.
Granted, it's hard to look at building houses on the one hand, versus opening fire on students on the other, and say "Oh yes, the houses are definitely worse than the mass murder." Of course not.
On the other hand, the mass murder is obviously crazy. CRA-ZY. And ordered by bloodthirsty ideologues who are either fanatics or profiteers. The settlements, on the other hand, are the considered plan of a democratic government to de facto absorb disputed territory. They put civilians on land that may not be theirs to justify putting soldiers on said land which obviously agitates the other claimants to said land who then attack the civilians and are killed by the soldiers. I fail to see what this does besides raising civilian casualties on both sides.
As a fun aside, here is some interesting data on the casualties on both sides:
| Year | Palestinian Deaths | Israeli Deaths | Palestinian Injuries | Israeli Injuries |
| 2005 | 216 (52) | 48 (6) | 1260 (129) | 484 (4) |
| 2006 | 678 (127) | 25 (2) | 3194 (470) | 377 (7) |
| 2007 | 396 (43) | 13 (0) | 1843 (265) | 322 (3) |
| Total | 1290 (222) | 86 (8) | 6297 (864) | 1183 (14) |
From the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs for the occupied Palestinian territory, via Wikipedia (numbers in brackets represent casualties under the age of 18).
Now if you'll excuse me, I have to go find a non-partisan peacebuilding organization to which to give all my worldly possessions.
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