Israel Continues Ill-Advised Settlement Expansion

As Reuters reported yesterday, despite the apparent progress made at Annapolis recently, this past weekend Israel confirmed that in 2008 it will build 740 additional homes in two locations—Har Homa/Abu Ghneim (500) and Maale Adumim (240), areas captured by Israel in the 1967 war. Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas understandably protested.

Today (Monday) a second round of talks is to begin in Jerusalem between Abbas and Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert. Whatever may be going on in the background (Olmert is politically weak and pressured by rightist partners), such moves do not serve the cause of peace, exacerbate tensions and render a negotiated future much more difficult. As historian Barbara Tuchman put it so well in her book, The March of Folly, governments continue to behave in ways destructive to their best interests long after it has become apparent to all that they are doing so and despite feasible alternatives—in a kind of disastrous lockstep.