Starboard Broadside

The New York Times examined two ultra-orthodox Jewish settlements straddling the 1967 line in Israel and the West Bank. These settlements, especially with their extraordinarily high growth rate, pose a problem for a final agreement on a two-state solution. All settlements are problematic and most will have to be torn down over great protest to find peace, but the two featured are different than most of the others.

Fortunately, most of these particular settlers are living there for cost and space reasons, rather than hyper-nationalist reasons (unlike most of the other settlements), and so many of these settlers are less automatically opposed to compromise and many are friends with neighboring Palestinians and have cooperated with them on border issues. Compromises could include land swaps and redirecting new construction back west into Israel and away from the West Bank.

Unfortunately, some of the ultra-Orthodox settlers have started to shift their views against such compromises, which means the window of opportunity may be closing.