Israeli Settlements

President Obama is pushing intensely for a settlement moratorium in Israel. This is a good thing; many of these new settlements are focal points for militant Jewish settlers who, with nothing more than some trailers and the odd structure, claim land for Israel. It's counterproductive and it gives all settlers a bad name. Many settlers live in large, established Jewish communities that an eventual two-state solution will be encompassed by the Israeli border line, while a corresponding bit of land from Israel proper today will be ceded to the Palestinians. But these tiny settlements won't go away, indeed they mushroom because there are plenty of hardcore settlers and it always looks awful in the news when the IDF has to forcible drag Jewish civilians from their "homes", so the government reacts or does nothing when instead it could act by establishing policies preventing certain types of settlement which would serve the two-pronged goal of appeasing the United States government and helping to usher in a Palestinian state next to Israel.