Netanyahu downplays Israeli settler violence

Judging by disturbing reporting on how Palestinian families on the edges of the West Bank are being targeted, violently, by Israeli settlers, the steady and increasing encroachment onto Palestinian land, especially the valuable olive-growing farmland, is dramatically and dangerously raising tensions in this area. Yet, Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister and Great Political Survivor, dismusses the violence as the work of a few extremists. If the reporting is accurate and I have no reason to doubt its validity because some of it has come from the excellent Lucy Williamson, the BBC's Middle East correspondent, then Netanyhau could be accused of turning a blind eye to what is going on. The expanding Jewish settlements have been criticised by the US and Britain and most of Europe, but Tel Aviv is not listening. The trouble is that while the world, and in particular Washington, is focusing on trying to sort out a future for Gaza, the rising violence in the West Bank has become a side issue when it should be part of the whole regional problem. The West Bank must be part of the solution for peace, not an an add-on in small print. Netanyahu has once again stipulated that he doesn't want a Palestinian state of any kind because he says it will reward Hamas, and Hamas will then have a bigger role if there is an independent state. But Trump's plan includes the demilitarisation of Gaza and the disarming of Hamas. If eiter of these conditions for peace fail to come to pass, then the Trump plan itself will fail. I don't think Netanyahu will mind.