Daniel Kurzer,the U.S. ambassador to Israel, 2001-2005, has an essay in the current issue of The American Interest. It shows the tenuous legality of the West Bank settlements and the views of some Israeli officials with whomKurzer negotiatedthat those illegalities are what is undermining the legitimacy of the State of Israel. Sobering."Gorenberg has noted the vital role that settlers and settlements played in the pre-state period, concluding that the success of this Zionist enterprise was the declaration of Israels independence in 1948. At that moment, however, the national mission changedfrom building the infrastructure of a state-in-the-making to the protection of that state and the achievement of its recognition and legitimacy. He [Gorenberg] argues that, by pursuing an unbridled settlement push in 2009, Prime Minister Netanyahu was deconstructing the very state he has sworn to protect, confusing the issue of what Israel is and isnt." http://www.the-american-interest.com/article.cfm?piece=781

Margaret O’Brien Steinfels is a former editor of Commonweal. 

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