| The West Bank was a part of Jordan, in the original partition. That is why it is negotiable. Now, it is likely that the Israelis will insist on annexation of the Jerusalem suburbs on the West Bank side, because their territory is absurdly narrow at that point, as a security buffer, but the rest of the West Bank is likely to revert to the Palestinians. Many solutions have been proposed, from autonomy under Israeli sovereignty to a condominium with Jordan, to full sovereignty, to conditional sovereignty. The settlement movement is actually relatively recent, and accelerated under Shamir. The Likud theory was that they enhanced security and provided something more to trade in negotiations, in need be. I fear that they cannot defend themselves, and therefore are mere irritants and potential hostages, and therefore there only residual use is to be negotiated away, with the possible exception of those near Jerusalem......... |
