yes, its good to see a thread on israel has been started. i have a few things to add that are key to understanding some of the new developments taking place.
first off, a. ariel sharon is sincere about puling out of gaza in june/july this year, and if as read above he also plans to evacuate 4 settlements in northern gaza then well and good; even though the p'stinians have abosultly no say(they welcome egyptian envolvement, however sceptical) they cant say no can they? in the wider scheme of things gaza is of absolutly no economic/strategic interest to israel.
b. the devil is always in the detail. even though israel is commited to a freese on increasing the size of settlements in the west bank, the territorial size of settlements is more often double that of actual housing settlements, so while it seems sure that gaza will lead to increaded migration to the west bank, settlements themselves 'won't increase'.
it's not going to give up greater west bank clearly. its almost logistically impossible becuase communities I and P are so entrenced and intertwind together, however unequal an arrangement it might be.
c.the wall is a force to be reckoned with. this will be built, regardless of court ruling or u.s pressure., isolating p'stnns on both sides; if you think it being built arround the west bank, wrong, its being built Within the west bank, almost entirely annexing jerusalem, in particular all of the holy sites, to israel.
i went to a talk on zionism (by John Rose)last week. many people were there from the international solidarity movement who had spent time in p'stn and the outlook with pretty bleak, despite these new developenmts.
being heavily critical of the motives of zionism has to be distinguished from being anti semetic, and anti jewish.
zionism is the apparatus of israely state and the u.s. ; and right to return for palst'nn refugees 'should' be a central issue.
ok, (said enough) a few links ive seen recently,
year in the arab israeli conflict -radio piece behind the political scenes.
John Rose - Israel: the hijack state - article in the guardian
photos,
Some intersting areal photographs of settlements
these areal photos are good too