To the good Editors of Ynetnews: Since English is not your native language, please be aware that although the word "settlers" seems benign, it has become filled with negative connotations. Drop it from your translation and you'll be doing a better job. And while we're on the subject of those Israelis who chose to move to the West Bank during the time Israel has sovereignty over the area -- it would seem to me that rather than try and exclude them from the new "Palestine" (if that is what's coming), Israel should demand they be given citizenship there. 350,000 well educated citizens won't be a bad thing for either side. Of course, they shouldn't be forced to lose their Israeli citizenship and just as there will be some way to create a connection between Gaza and the West Bank, they should be entitled to free passage back and forth across the border. If they are mistreated or not protected by the new Palestinian state, we're close enough to move in and protect them. We'll all have an opportunity then, to play the role of minority. With any amount of luck, the Palestinians will benefit by having 350,000 highly educated citizens.

The problem is that I'm not sure these "settlers" will be very happy moving under the Palestinian authority... that's the reason some in Israel think that some population swap can work better (some areas in the west bank to be swapped with some areas of Israel, based on population character). The real irony is that most of the arab population in Israel wouln't like also to move under palestinian authority... makes you think that if their brothers can't trust them, how do you exect Israelis to trust them??

They say that a picture is worth a 1000 words. This one is worth a miillion,

Shomrun and Yehuda or, in their English translation, Samaria and Judea. "Settlements" should be referred to simply as villages for that is what they are.

1. 'nachal' or ' mitnachalim' is the Ivrit version of settlement or settler, both sets are pretty neutral words in both languages. 2.Sovereignty isn't won in war, territory occupied in war should be administered to the benefit of its inhabitants(UN). 3.If you want to live outside the 4 main settlement blocs - Ma’ale Adumim, Modiin Illit, Ariel, Gush Etzion, Givat Ze’ev - that will be annexed to Israel, you basically risk finding yourself living in a future Palestinian state. But since mitnachalim don't respect the state(jewish or arab) this shouldn't matter much. What kind of rose tinted glasses are you wearing? Mine are double focus :-).

Good posting Alan ,but you should be aware by now that education in whatever form is the bane of the leftist looney rabble and their Arab/Palestinia n lackeys ,the less the sheep know the easier to control them ?

Enjoy all your biblical fairy tales and accept Arab majority imminently.

they want a state, when they really don't. Anyway they are too fractious to run their own state. My guess is we'll be having this same stupid conversation 10 years from now.

Oh, Israel will annex the West Bank -- that is a geopolitical inevitability. The part you fail to understand is that you will be repatriated to Jordan. There is no room for violent terrorists in the Jewish state. Sorry.

I like the idea. I think that YNet should now refer to them as "pioneers." Any semblance of a "Palestinian" state in Judea and Samaria would not tolerate a Jewish presence -- you need look no further than what happened to Jews in Hebron, in Jerusalem and in Schehem in Mandatory Palestine. There is no reason to believe that things have changed. No, the realpolitik is that Israel must annex Judea and Samaria, and its Arab residents will be repatriated to Jordan, where -- courtesy of the 1954 Citizenship Law -- they are citizens. The "Palestinians" will never fit in to Israeli -- or Jewish -- culture, and we cannot risk losing the uniqueness of being the sole Jewish state in the entire world. Finally, the last thing on earth that the "Palestinian" so-called "leadership" wants is 350,000 highly educated citizens. Prior to Israel's takeover in 1967, there were no universities in the West Bank. When the "Palestine" Authority took control of certain areas of the West Bank, there were six universities dedicated exclusively to educating Arabs. Today, all but two have closed. No, a highly-educated citizenry is anathema to the "Palestinian" so-called "leadership." They want gullible sheep, not educated individuals who might have the temerity to protest corruption.

with Jerusalem reaching the Dead sea soon and the west bank is devided in 2 half ,and the jewish russians constituting a third of the population ...the only way out for us is the palestinians plan ..one state ..just like it was in 1947 ..deferent name ??who cares .

There ain't gonna be no Pal state by this summer. Fayyad and Abbas won't sign on a deal that doesn't include Gaza. Hamas won't sign on a deal at all. Why do all these ninkompoops drone on and on and on about a Pal state within a year or by this summer? Nobody has solved the Hamas problem. Nobody is even talking about it. Peace is not going to happen until they do.

palestinian offered citizenship to all settlers if they don't want to leave, but they have to live under the Palestinian law, there is 1.5 million Palestinian living inside israel as israeli citizens, settlers can be given Palestinian citizenship, but they have to respect the Palestinian law and the Palestinian people. palesitnians have gave answers to every israeli offer and offered 10s of solutions for many problems, and the whole world found these solution and answer logical, israel did not accept any because it is as simple as this ISRAEL IS NOT A PEACEFUL COUNTRY. **( when palestinian state is achieved it will be more of a secular state, non religious state, same as lebanon) the law wouldnt be harsh on anyone.

Rivlin and others in Bibi's government are doing the Palestinians' work for them by portraying Israel as a country looking for reasons to avoid peace. The arguments Rivlin makes are points that just prevent any type of peace process. Yes, Rivlin has good points, but so do the Palestinians. In August Fayyad will go to the UN for recognition of a Palestinian state. To the extent Bibi's government continues to obstruct the U.S. led efforts it risks a U.S. abstention from the UN vote. Don't underestimate Fayyad. The situation isn't static. The Egyptians underestimated Israel in 1967. Israel underestimated Egypt in 1973. And now Bibi is underestimating the Palestinians. The time has arrived for Israel to at least give some type of real support to the peace process.

ago.

They should be reffered as colonies.

Hamas Their control of Gaza brings all efforts to true dead halt.....for now. Only the reality of Hamas ends what would otherwise be overwhelming pressure from every direction of the planet to see the West Bank become a Palestinian state alongside Israel proper. When Hamas finally topples, as that strange, lil incompetent fiefdom is fated to do, then the sheer weight of global pressures will force the transformation of the West Bank into a formal state. The pressure of time & cold facts on the ground make the matter absolutely inevitable.

It should be remembered that there are no recognized borders between Pals and us. Thus each side has equal rights to build and any construction freeze should cover the WHOLE disputed territory, not just us. Hope idiots running our gov can understand and work with this obvious concept.

Israel should take the painfull steps NOW out of a position of superior strenghth and not wait untill decisions will be forced on it. And I fear, they will. Please, Israel, out here many people love Israel, I do, and it would make them sick, me too, if all this ended up by Israel being humiliated and dragged out of the occupied territories like a battered dog. The only way to avoid this is by stopping to cling on policies that are just re-acting : go ahead, shape your own future, force peace on the Palestinians !