The word "appease" was heard a lot when Israel approved the building of the first settlement in the occupied West Bank in nearly two decades. It will be created to "appease" 40 settler families after their February eviction from the Amona outpost in the West Bank. Establishing the new settlement was a way for Benjamin Netanyahu to "appease" far-right members of his coalition government who will surely object to any concessions to US demands for restraints on building illegal settlements. Netanyahu may also be trying to "appease" Donald Trump by telling his cabinet that henceforth, any further building would take place only within the boundaries of the current settlements. Trump is being appeased after that joint press conference in Washington in February when he declared to Netanyahu: "I'd like to see you hold back on settlements for a little bit". Amona settlers are being appeased after Netanyahu said he intended to keep his promise to give them a new home, because politically speaking, it was impossible for him to renege on it. And Netanyahu's most right-wing Israeli government in its history, the one that helps him govern by building more of these settlements, is being appeased. Everybody is being appeased except the Palestinians. Nobody is accommodating the Palestinians who need and deserve to have their wishes and dreams prioritized before anyone else. It is being reported that Israel would never have taken such a decision without making sure that the new US administration would agree to it. But it could also be that the new Israeli settlement blind-sided the US administration. How else to explain White House envoy Jason Greenblatt already making two visits to the region, including attending the Arab summit in Jordan, in hopes of renewing peace talks for the first time since 2014. Just a day after Greenblatt discussed with Arab leaders how progress could be made toward a peace agreement between Israel and the Palestinians, a new West Bank settlement cropped up? That does not paint the US administration in a pretty light. It remains to be seen if the US is able and willing to translate its largely verbal objections to Israeli settlements into proactive tangible measures on the ground. American capitulation to Israel on such a highly sensitive issue would be interpreted in the world's capitals as a de facto US admission that the two-state solution strategy has collapsed and that Israel, not the Trump administration, is the one calling the shots in Washington. An American surrender to Netanyahu on this issue would also send an unmistakable message to the Palestinians and other Arabs and Muslims that it is futile to count on Washington to force or persuade Israel to end its decades-old occupation of Arab land. It's a challenge not only to the Palestinians but to the international community represented by the Security Council that passed a resolution only three months ago against settlement expansion. In the West Bank, the situation is deeply unstable and exploitative. Israeli settlers live as extraterritorial, privileged people with rights that resident Palestinians do not have. This is a prescription for extending, not limiting, conflict. Israel has been truncating and carving out Palestinian land for decades, building illegal settlements in violation of international law. And yet, the people who are under occupation, whose land is being parceled out right and left to others, are left to struggle with little help. They are the pawns being shifted here and there as the parties with the power appease each other.
