Obama against Israel’s construction of West Bank settlements

The Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, was expected to focus on the
issue of settlement expansion in his meeting with President Obama in
their meeting scheduled for Thursday in Washington. President Obama and
other senior American officials have called on the government of
Benjamin Netanyahu, the leader of the right-wing Likud Party who came
into office almost two months ago, to halt all settlement activity.
Almost 300,000 Israelis now live in settlements in the West Bank,
excluding East Jerusalem, among a Palestinian population of some 2.5
million. Much of the world considers the 120 or so settlements a
violation of international law.
Many religious Jewish nationalists say it is their right to settle in
the biblical heartland of the West Bank, which they refer to as Judea
and Samaria. Other Israelis cite security reasons for holding on to the
areas captured in the 1967 war. Another point of contention between the
Israeli government and the Obama administration is Mr. Netanyahu’s
refusal to publicly endorse a two-state solution for the
Israeli-Palestinian conflict, a cornerstone of American policy.
I believe the Israeli government’s domestic security agenda is and will
always be to contain and regulate/ control the lives of the
Palestinians.