Livni says 2 state is in israel s interests. lets see-rockets fly into ben gurion, more terror from E. Jerusalem, more grads coming in from gaza to west bank, more jews being killed and livni runs to the UN on pointless resolutions. What an absolute dumbell. She learned from the number one appeaser of all time, oLmert who bragged about his concessions but couldn't answer George Bush's question--'How can you trust assad'. You can't and olmert was delusional in his lawyer's costume without any understanding of security matters. Livni is olmert's twin.

When will we realize he can't even run this country much less than someone else's! Please don't let him back in Israel, in fact the ME. What a buffoon! Thanks, Lenny

...except that there is allready a housing shortage in Israel, specially in Jerusalem. What will happen when people from Jerusalem suburbs want to move to other side of green line in Jerusalem area? Where are appartments going to come from? Is the state going to give them 500k $ per family to buy a 3 bedroom appartment in Jerusalem, or 400k$ in Mevaseret? Or are they going to make them move to the south, and become unemployed hi tech workers in the middle of nowhere? Compensation law didn't really work out for gush katif expelees, more then half of them will never manage to build a house, and are unemployed. That was a few tousand people. With judea and samaria we are talking about half a million people. Where is the money, and housing going to come from? Besisdes, Tel Avivans are not happy about religious people moving in next door...

What do you mean "move back into Israel" Mr. Bergman? They already are in Israel! What king of brainwash is this?

On many occasions Israel has offered most of the West Bank and Gaza to the Palestinians. Even when offered 90+% by Olmert, Sharon, Barak, and Peres the answer was not interested. If they had wanted to have a country they could have done it with any of those Israeli PMs, but then the conflict was more important than land, prosperity, or peace for the Palestinian people. So why are settlements the big issue now? Because Obama says so, not because Abbas says so, not because Egypt says so. But Obama has decided that taking Israel to task for keeping its end of the bargain with Bush is the way to be better friends with the Muslim world. This will not improve the chances for peace, in fact it will delay the creation of a Palestinian state by dealing with small issue rather than real problems. Israel has proven in Sinai that Israel can and will move settlements for a real peace deal, and after Gaza Israel will do it for nothing less. So why argue over settlements now rather than as part of final status talks for boarders?

A myopic and agenda-driven article.

Enough already. The reason nothing is going to come out of this because it is based on pure lies. How ever you want to look at this international law, historical, genetics. It all leads to the same conclusion that there is no reason that Israel should stop building or leave any part of this land. Who cares what Oblama thinks. First of all he could never get congress or senate to pass anything against Israel. He is no better then a puppet for his hater bros. Yes the Jews are influencial regardless if you like it or not. Maybe it is time to thank jews for all they have contributed to man kind. Islam? they have contrubuted what?

For starters, let's assume that 40% jump at the opportunity. Who is going to pay? If 200,000 settlers decide to take up Bergman on his offer, let's call that about 40,000 homes. Say the average price is $150,000. Do the arithmetic and it's a whopping $6 billion. Actually, it's going to be a lot more, since you simply can't pop up 40,000 homes overnight on the same infrastructure. Probably closer to $8 billion. Cheap compared to the Iraq war, but is Uncle Sam going to foot the bill? Then, of course, just what is a settlement? Does Bergman include Jerusalem neighborhoods like Ramot and Gilo and French Hill? No. There will be no movement of anybody until a peace treaty is in place. And Bergman will have to deal with the issues of Palestinian racism and ethnic cleansing, since they are already calling for ethnic cleansing of Jews. And if Bergman is compensating, then why not have Arab countries pay compensation to all Jewish "settler refugees" who were kicked out of Arab countries in the '50s and '60s? Why should a Jew who was ethnically cleansed from Egypt or Yemen or Morocco leave Judea or Samaria unless the Arabs pay the bill? Sorry, but the issue is even deeper and more difficult than Bergman contends.

The US is supposed to pay Israel to evacuate illegal settlements? Israel got itself into this mess by telling itself the lie that all of the West Bank and Gaza were 'given to them'. I have a better answer. Boycott Israel

For more than 50 years we Americans have been hearing how the Jews turned the desert into this great paradise. Yet, the Negev is just as barren as it was when the state was founded. Fact is the settlers at the Israeli governments behest go after the little good land left in the West Bank, because they know that its a fallacy that even the great Jewish people can make the Negev bloom.

It worked for the people of Gush Katif. Or did it?

It is good to have the Compensation Law passed in Israel but the US Taxpayers have nothing to do with it. The settlements were and are illegal and the settlers cannot be compensated by anyone but the Israeli government only.

This is an internal matter for us, not for the US. We need to meet our needs, not America's needs.

Micky Bergman the program director of the US-Palestinian Public-Private Partnership that tells us where he's coming from and what he's all about..Obama's ratings are slipping daily.Also has a Nuclear Arsenal let Obama dictate to his beloved Islamic kin

You can go shove all of the money you want to offer us. We're not leaving. Not only that, but others will be joining us. If you want to pay someone to leave, pay the Arabs.

wow - try not to hide your anti semetic overtone - and if you are jewish you are a self hating jew - who i bet voted for obama. unless you are from israel - keep your opinine to yourself - the only one that should be bycotted is you -

their hostages held in Israeli institutions, there will be room for all the settlers with room left over. And from what TBer's tell me, they will get an opportunity for a free education, which Leiberman as a settler, could also take advantage of. Winner all way round.

More and more,obama is diving into oblivion If a president does not stick to previous administration agreements and support all dictatorships, he becomes really IRRELEVANT ! Let us hope for republican victory at forthcoming congress elect

He steals your belongings and robs you in broad daylight. You say no problem, just transfer ownership deeds to the thief? I've said it a thousand times and I'll say it once more. You don't get to keep what you stole. Your territorial adventures in the West Bank are a classic text book example of illegal land annexation under international treaties. This is not the position of the Palestinian people alone but that of the entire world. Therefore you are asked to return the goods and turn yourself in for theft.

TRY DOING TESHUVA GO BACK TO TORAH SECULARS WILL SOON PERISH... ISRAEL SUFFERS FOR THAT LIFE STYLE... ITS ALL THERE READ THE PROPHETS I DIDNT MAKE IT UP ANTIDOTE: JEWS CRY OUT TO THE ONE G'D OF ISRAEL. BEG FOR FORGIVENESS FROM HASHEM.. MAKE A DECREE.. NO MORE GAY PARADES , NO MORE SLAVE TRAFFICING NO MORE DRUG LORDS NO MORE LOOKING FOR LOST JEWS THAT ARE REALLY NOT JEWS BUT MISSIONARIES NO MORE CORRUPT POLITICIANS NO MORE MISSIONARIES NO MORE ARABS IN KNESSET THIS IS NOT YOUR LAND THIS IS G'DS LAND. BRING BACK GD DACON9 EMAIL.jewswithviews@gmail.com

In this case, "tension" between Jerusalem and Washington is a good thing. The reason being, Mr. Obama is not on the side of right or justice. He is wrong. Were Prime Minister Netanyahu as skilled at brinkmanship as Obama, he would essentially wait Obama out. Mr. Obama will ultimately 'give in' because not only is he morally wrong, he is on the wrong side of justice and history - I am speaking of history in the long-term. No telling what Mr. Netanyahu will do in the short-term, given his history of weakness. The point being, the land of Israel belongs to the Jews; all of it. Jews have more of a right to build and settle in Judea and Samaria than George W. Bush has to build and settle in Crawford, Texas, than Barack Hussein Obama has the right to build and settle in Chicago, Ill., than Mr. Bergman has right to build and settle where he lives and where he and his family are settled. Secondly and more fundamentally, the author is wrong to assert that by Israel vacating the territories (Judea and Samaria), this will solve the conflict. It will not solve the conflict but it will exacerbate the conflict. Mr. Bergman, as a special advisor to the Aspen Institute's Middle East Strategy Group, is apparently ill-informed about the region, its history as well as its differing cultures. Either that or he is so personally invested on the Arab side, he cannot maintain objectivity or impartiality in this conflict. Bergman betrays a significant anti-Israel bias.

Something is illegal only if it breaks some law applicable to the situation. So, which Israeli law are the settlements violating? I see a solution to the problem, but I don't think you really want to know what it is. You'll just have to wait and see what happens.

Given that I reject Bergman's premises, it shouldn't surprise that I reject his prescriptions. It's not just that I find immoral the notion that it is "illegal" for Jews to build in the Jewish homeland. Jews have legal title to many of the properties on which many "settlements" are built. Moreover, building within territory allocated to the Jews under the Mandate of 1922 (which the US Congress itself confirmed) can't be deemed illegal, nor was it prohibited under UNSC 242 in 1967. Nor was it prohibited under the Oslo Accords of 1993. Bergman's figure of 500,000 obviously includes Jerusalem, so presumably he wants to kick Jews out of Ramat Eshkol, French Hill and the Jewish Quarter of Old Jerusalem. I wonder, does he consider Mount Scopus - isolated from West Jerusalem from 1949-1967 - also a "settlement"? Bergman is clearly operating beyond the Israeli consensus. As to Obama, in less than six months I've developed a loathing for the man that took Nixon years to earn. He imbibed his understanding of the region from such "scholars" as Wright, Abulima, Power and Khalidi. Winning over one operating under their narrative is well nigh impossible, because he believes Israel is in the wrong. So Israel will just have to tell him "No" and deal with the blow-back.

You have it all set up but you forgot one little matter - the Americans are not going to give one cent to move Jews anywhere. Maybe ask Assad to chip in a few bucks.

He'll be out on his butt in three years -- 7 years at the most. Why demand concessions from Israelis when the Arabs never honor any agreement or treaty? It seems pretty one sided as usual.

The world did not begin in the year 1900 and I was not born yesterday. Go back to Syria and end your illegal, immoral occupation of the land even your joke for a holy book says was given to "al-yahood". Palestinian nationalism is a crock of BS and I have no sympathy for those who occupy other people's countries then hypocritically claim to be under occupation.