Below is a map showing Israel, the West Bank, and the locations of Israeli settlements in the West Bank, as well as effective areas of Palestianian Authority control.
The Palestinians will need access to the Jordanian border in order to receive the kind of non-military aid that their economy and people need, but the sheer number of Israeli settlements effectively control Palestinian access to Jordan.
And some of those settlements have been there for decades. They cannot be removed without starting an Israeli civil war.
Israel has known for decades that these settlements, which have been in dispute under international law as long as they’ve been in existence, will make it very difficult to return Palestinian lands to the Palestinians. That’s what they’ve had in mind all along.
The Palestinians want their area of control (in green) to expand to include the entire West Bank. The Israelis want the map above to stand.
Those stands doom any chance at a land-for-peace deal, unless one side or the other makes extraordinary concessions. I don’t see it happening without major fallout.
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