Penny Wong unlikely to sway Netanyahu government

Israel wants to replace Hamas in Gaza with the Palestinian Authority because it is easier for Israel and the US to control.

The Palestinian Authority is a governing body that has overseen parts of the Israeli-occupied West Bank since the mid-1990s. Its creation was supposed to pave the way to an independent Palestinian state, but today it is considered to have little real power and operates under the control of the Israeli military.

Unfortunately for Israel, most Palestinians still support Hamas and not the Palestinian Authority. To complicate matters further, there are the surviving Israeli hostages to consider in any future negotiations.

Looking at the West Bank problem, Netanyahu's government has continued to encourage illegal settlement expansion in the West Bank to maintain support of the right-wing members of his coalition government. There are now 670,000 Israeli settlers in the West Bank, including Jerusalem, compared to nearly three million Palestinians.

Who then are the extremist settlers?

They are Israeli settlers who hold radical views and engage in aggressive, often illegal, activities to expand Jewish settlements in the region. The West Bank is a contentious territory, and the Israeli settlement enterprise has been a major source of tension in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

It's important to note that not all Israeli settlers share extremist views or engage in illegal activities. Many Israelis living in settlements see themselves as contributing to the security and prosperity of Israel and believe in a negotiated solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Extremist settlers are often associated with the ideological movement of religious Zionism, which asserts a divine right to the land based on biblical interpretations. These settlers view the West Bank as an integral part of historic Israel and are driven by a deep-seated conviction that settling the land is not only a political act but also a religious duty.

Many of these settlers live in isolated locations, strategically placed to assert Israeli control over key areas in the West Bank. Their actions often involve constructing outposts or expanding existing settlements, often in violation of international law. The international community, including the UN, considers these settlements illegal under the Fourth Geneva Convention, which prohibits the transfer of an occupying power's civilian population into the territory it occupies.

The Israeli government, led by a range of political parties over the years, has faced challenges in dealing with extremist settlers. While there are policies in place to curb illegal settlement activity, enforcement has been inconsistent, and political dynamics often lead to a reluctance to take decisive action against the settlers.

Under the Netanyahu government, there has been an increase in violent acts against Palestinians, including harassment, vandalism, and lethal physical attacks. The Department of Foreign Affairs noted on December 15 that since the start of October, settlers had committed more than 343 violent attacks against Palestinians, killing eight Palestinian civilians, injuring more than 83, and forcing 1,026 Palestinians from their homes.

These actions exacerbate the already tense relationship between Israeli settlers and the Palestinian population, contributing to a cycle of hostility and conflict. The police and Israeli military tend to side with the settlers, and the legal system discriminates against Palestinians who try to take legal action against the settlers.

When I visited the West Bank, I was surprised by how many of the settlers I spoke to were apparently American-Israeli dual nationals. There are now estimated to be around 60,000 American West Bank settlers, many of them with a frontier mentality. That may be part of the reason for American reluctance to press Israel to stop the settlement building.

Penny Wong's visit priorities are reasonable, but she is unlikely to have much influence on the Netanyahu government, which seems more concerned about its short-term survival than Israel's longer-term security. Israel's invasion of Gaza still has no clear exit strategy beyond destroying Hamas.