At the risk of stating the totally obvious:

- the objection to settlements is to Israel building settlements on land which does not belong to Israel; Beit El, like all the rest, would be fine if it were built in Israel

- the "Zionist national identity" is objectionable because it involves the expulsion, and continued exclusion, of Palestinian refugees (those whose homes were in what is now Israel and were expelled or fled the fighting in 1948)

It seems clear from the author's expression that

"the most far-reaching proposal by an Israeli leader and included the most significant territorial concessions ever offered"

in fact consisted of giving back to the Palestinians some of what is theirs, and keeping some.

'Once Israel is falsely depicted as a "colonial enterprise," instead of the result of long struggle for self-determination for the Jewish people (who came not just from Europe, but rather from all over the world - including many who are indigenous to the Middle East region), one can pretty much be certain that we are not talking about settlements, human rights or peace anymore.'

Israel IS a colonial enterprise. Zionism was a movement to colonise Palestine for the creation of a nation for Jews. It succeeded in the creation of Israel.

There is only one thing which will satisfy the Muslims in regards to Israel, it must cease to exist, exactly as stated repeatedly by the leaders of HAMAS and Hezbollah.

Muslims think that Israel sits on "Muslim land." And any backward step by Muslims is anathema to the whole idea of ever onward Muslim expansion. The "settlements" as just another excuse to get self righteous, in the same way that Muslims went berserk in Sydney over some stupid YouTube skit produced by an Egyptian in California.

Hey, these are characters who kill people over a design on a pair of Nike sneakers which looks a bit like "Allah" in Arabic.

Any excuse will do.

Islam has a very successful formula for expansion. Invade some Christian, Jewish, pagan, Buddhist, or Hindu state and force everybody to become a Muslim. As a vehicle for colonialism, it has much to recommend it.

To hear Muslims crying that they are the victims when one of their former victims returns the complement, should instil in an impartial observer a flush of annoyance, or at least leave them shaking their heads in pitying wonder.

It's always difficult to comment on some of these intractable situations in the absence of all of the facts however, the Jewish people do certainly appear to have done the wrong thing by the Palestinians, including, but not limited to, the theft of that part of the world by military force.

Recently on Al Jazeera, their was the broadcast of vast pits of hundreds if not thousands of dead Palestinian skeletons (allegedly) being unearthed. It appears that ethnic cleansing is not outside Jewish practice when push comes to shove, and the fact that the clowns in the Australian media choose not to broadcast this goes to the endemic corruption in this country and gross lack of a free press and freedom of speech.

Still, given everything that they have been through, I am of the view that the Jews are certainly entitled to their own place, where they may live in peace and happiness. In that regard, any advocate of a so called 2 state solution is no friend of Israel as far as I am concerned.

Had the Jews had the stomach last time round when there was serious military conflict, they would have blown out the back wall of Gaza and pushed all the Palestinians out into the desert and the "luving" arms of the N.G.O.'s and claimed Gaza for their own. The same goes for the rest of Israel/Palestine as far as I am concerned as unfortunately, the depth of hatred simply runs too deep on both sides for a 2 state, side by side solution and it is for the rest of the Islamic world to provide a new place for the Palestinians, instead of using them to terrorise the Jews (regardless of their errors) in the absence of the Islamic Theocracy being able to get all of its own way.

I can not believe my eyes.
Israel accepted the "partition" in 1947/1948,Israel extended a hand of friendship to other countries, Israel never attacked or threatened to attack anyone(except for self defence) ,Israel offered to give back land in exchange for ONE simple thing called PEACE, Israel offered to give Palestinians 94% of West Bank ( Gaza has been evacuated years ago),Israel froze all settlements(new & old), Israel treats their people( Jews & Arabs) alike. Israel is still waiting for us ( The Arabs ) to mature enough and stop killing "ourselves" (in Syria, Lebanon, Egypt, Yemen ,Iraq ...etc..to name a few) so we can sit down and negotiate with Israel like civilised human beings.......
And now Israel is supposed to apologise for all the missed opportunities we ( the Arabs) wasted in the name of Allah, Islam, Arab Nationalism.
Please, Arabs, wake up to reality.

It is about time that those who insist that the Palestinian Israeli conflict is all about settlements took some time to learn some political history and look further for their information than the usual anti-Israel propaganda that bolsters their prejudices.