A very thoughtful and well written article.Although I appreciate the contributions of all the segments of the israeli society the contribution of the so called settlement community in spritual and physical terms is incommensurably positive.

I thought that Mr Yair Lapid was different from his Dad, what a shame . "These are Israelis who would be happy to take their children to visit ancient Jewish sites in Judea and Samaria and who believe that Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob are indeed buried in the Cave of the Patriarchs." Indeed buried? are you questioning this fact. No wonder they don't like you. Same father same son

It's rare to have someone of Yair Lapid's public stature actually say a thing and get it so close to 100% right, you have to read it again to be sure. The only puzzling part of this article is what he means when he talks about "here". It's not mere semantics. A number of state organs, the Tourism Ministry and the KKL, put out maps that do not show the Green Line. So when Yair says "here", doesn't he actually mean "there", on the other side of the both the Green Line and the security barrier? It's an interesting confusion in another sense. The settlers, that 4%, can't have the blurring of that Green Line and the security barrier as well. Trying to means that in fact they've locked themselves "in" or "out", depending on your point of view. It would help if Yair would just clarify this point, so that we can decide where to throw the key away, when we finally conclude that the door should be locked on the settlers and they can be forgotten, or enabled to live on in their self-imposed ghettoes.

"Israelis, who are Zionistic" A new way to offend Zionist Jews? Please Yair.......

If you believe, as I do, that creating an Arab state sandwiched between the Jordan River and the outskirts of Tel Aviv is a bad and unacceptably dangerous idea, then you have to be thankful to the settlers for making it much harder to bring that about.

The governments of the State of Israel since 1967 and the IDF have made it difficult to create the Palestinian state which was mandated in 1947 by the UN. The settlers are nothing more than window dressing.

While you make some valid points, you ignore the question of Who is a settler. Are you talking about just the hilltop settlers, with their flying payot and fanaticism? Or are you taling about the secular settlers of Ariel? Or about the middle-class residents of Efrat and Gush Etzion? Or about those Jerusalemites who live on Betar Street and the new high-rise buildings carved out of Ramat Rachel's old cherry orchards?

Yes. We do care. So much more than you imagine. I have never heard of any neighbour happy when a problem occur in Tel Aviv. But I have sadly seen more than often some leftists almost too happy to see a terror attack in Judea or Samaria. I've never heard of a boycott from settlers. Useless to describe how much some israelis LOVE to boycott us.

Only about 4% of Israeli voters vote for Maaretz, yet no matter who's voted into the Knesset, it is Maaretz's policies that are followed, from Oslo, to bringing in Arafat and reviving his movement after it was dead, to letting unlimited weapons into their areas, allowing 250 thousand Palestinians into Israel under (family reunification), ethnically cleansing Gaza (under the threat of indicting Ariel Sharon's children - which dissappeared after he did so) to the current policies of the Bibi Likud government which was voted to do the exact opposite of what they campaigned on. Palestinians are led by idiologues who haven't changed their demands. Israeli leaders are the only side that are never stiff necked in theirs - other than to blindly follow past mistakes, in the hope of getting a different result. Einstien called that insanity

Well, I would like to say something about settlements. No, instead I will say something about these intramural conversations about 'who is really to blame for the lack of peace.' Mainstream or 'conformative' Israelis like Lapid Jr. believe that peace is just a matter of getting the details right. The analysis then devolved from there into 'which Israelis' (not Arabs) messed up the great peace chance. It's all noise, since the enemy does not recognize your right to exist, Yair. He will, however, accept more unilateral gestures and withdrawals that push the balance of power towards his side.

The truth is the settlers hate secular people, why should we go to reserve army duty to defend these fanatics. Lets face it most secular people have never set foot in the occupied west bank. Once again the entire nation pays the price so that these fanatics can live in their fancy villas at the exspense of us all, why dont they go settle Holon or Rishon, last time i checked that was part of Israel.

Just like there is no "us", there is not "settlers". Who are your "settlers", Yair? Is it the 30000 haredim in Beitar Illit who do not serve in the army as you described? Are they the 80,000 residents of Gilo in Jerusalem (whom the Palestinians demand must leave their homes that are over the '67 border)? Are they the self-appointed "Yesh" Council? (Nobody else has dropped the "a" from Yesha, which stood for Gaza and no longer exists) If they are, rest assured that most of us "settlers" don't think that the Yesh Council speaks for us. Did you bother noting that in return for the construction freeze Israel got absolutely nothing? Well, until the last month of the freeze when the Americans twisted the Pals' arms and forced them to show up. Did you note that even if the settlers rolled over and cried "uncle", that Abu Mazzen couldn't sign a peace treaty if he wanted to. Why? Because he'd never sign for the west bank only. Can he sign of Gaza? You're a journalist and you should know the obvious answer is NO. Will Gaza ever in our lifetime agree to peace with Israel? Again, as a journalist you should know that the answer is NO. So just what is going to be accomplished by these current talks? A deal that the Pals can't agree to and can't sign? Show us some depth, Yair. This op-ed peace is waaaay too shallow.

Before the Gaza expulsion I told a cousin of mine who lived in Lehavim that without the settlers in gush Katif the rockets will fall on her head. I am not a settler. in 2006 the rockets fell on her family in Bet Hagadi. She is not a Settler in 2008 the rockets fell on her Now they are falling on the Settlers who do not live in Settlements. costing too much? Maybe its costing too much to allow Arabs to live in Israel? Maybe its costing too much to be a socialist country? Maybe its costing too much to allow the Schalit camp to support Hamas position? Maybe?

They only show to the international community the real nature of israel´s state. Both settlers and non-settlers share the same aim but settlers are not hypocrites,they say what they want.

as if you have a garantee that this situation will be remained forever and as if it is not so bad only to palastinians .. the only garantee that it will be worse and worser without a chance to return back one step

Yair Lapid was given his job by his fathers connections. He is from the self-appointed elite and that is his constituency. Of course, turning the blame on national-religious is a natural redirection ploy. Don't pay attention to the uber-wealthy and their paid spokesman blame someone else.

Lapid speaks for a tiny minority of rabidly leftist Israelis (likely less than 4%) who pretend to speak for "the rest of us". Two obvious facts stand out. The first is that Judea and Samria rightfully belong to Israel AND are vital for Israel's security. Ceding Judea and Samraia would trim Israel's waist to 8 miles and render Israel totally indefensible. The second fact is that the vast majority of Israelis disagree with Lapid. That is why Israel consistently elects patriotic right leaning coalitions.

Please read up on your history. The Palestinian state was not mandated by the UN in 1947--it was a recommendation of the General Assembly, a recommendation to have a Jewish state and a Palestinian state. The Jewish side accepted, hence Israel exists. The Palestinian side turned it down, lock, stock, and barrel, 100%. There was no clause in the recommendation that said "If you turn this down, you can still have it anyway in the future." In the 1967 war four Arab armies set out to destroy Israel with the backing of the great majority of Arabs, including Palestinians. It would have been very strange if Israel had reacted to this by creating a 23rd Arab state in the territory it had conquered in the war, from which it was attacked.

Yapid, what is a Jew without a jewish ideology. How is a Jew jewish if he doesn't believe or 'do' jewish things? Your use of the word 'Settler' is used in a negative connotation. Might I remind you that we were told but HaKadosh HaBaruch Hu to 'enter and settle the land'. Shavua tov achim.

No peace talks are/were actually taking place because the issue is about religion and not land, and Bibi and Abbas know it as do all others with half a brain in their head. Did Yair Lapid know why the PA and Hamas amongst others won't agree to the wording "Two States for two peoples"? Does he understand that the PA etc want a Palestinian state with no Jews and for a second state that would have a majority of Arabs/Muslims? I don't know anybody that doesn't agree with Lieberman that there is no chance of peace until the teaching of hatred stops, and that means at least another generation; but then I don't live in N Tel Aviv. A referendum based on Lapid, Livni nonsense would fail very very miserably.

Lapid uses"settlers" to DEMONIZE all religious Jews. It is easy to see through his smokescreen. It is obviously in his genes.

Do the settlers think they're view is the correct one? Yes. Does Yair Lapid think his view is the correct one. Of course. Do they play games to deligitamize the others view? Yes. Do they stretch the limits of what is permitted by law. Yes. In short hypocritical claptrap seeking to deligitamize a viewpoint because they are a minority and their viewpoint comes from religion. Yair lapid seems like a sweet guy and a good interviewer. He should really leave the politics and his fathers shadow once and for all.

Every resident of judea and samaria won't ever hesitate to give their life for ANY israeli, in ANY town. Sadly, you and your kind seems to forgot that we are all one people...

Its not about the 300'000 jews living in Judea and Samaria ! Its about the muslims who want to deny to the jews the right to live in the historical heartland of Israel as well as in Israel at all.

We are all settlers Mr. Lapid. I see the apple hasn't fallen far from the tree in your case. You are just like your father. You and man other radical leftists vilify those that live over the green line as if they are criminals. In fact, I suppose you believe they are. You vilify them, the same way the Arabs vilify you for being a descendant of Hungarians living in Tel Aviv. They say you should go home to Hungary, just like you say residents of Ariel should go home to Kfar Saba. I live in Yokneam and I support Israelis who live in Judea and Samaria as they have just as much right to live there as you do in Tel Aviv. In fact, all the Likud supports the settlers and we are FAR greater than 4%. And the government is in our hands now which you need to remember....sir.

The Lefties are today a minority in Israel, we should totally ignore them, like the author of this article and let us be generous, give Barak to the PALs as a present.

Yes Yair, if we can continue to say THESE Israelis are the problem. THESE are the reason that the charters of all Palestinian bodies call for the destruction of the State of Israel. The government policies that encouraged the movement of it's law abiding and patriotic citizens to these places should never be noted, only THESE fanatics which threaten your right to go out in Tel Aviv on Shabbat for Bar-night Oneg. Although Tel Aviv is as removed as one can get from anything like THESE evil Settlements, it will not be out of range from Gaza forever. The concessions aren't about protecting the hilltop youth and some sort of manifest destiny across the Middle East. There is simply no reason anyone should say "These are the graves of my forefathers, this is my Temple, this is my home. Please when I give you this last piece, will you allow my children to live?"