There is a simpler solution: Nobody moves. Draw the borders and everyone on the Palestinian side is a Palestinian Moslem, Christian or Jew, and everyone on the Israeli side is an Israeli Jew or Moslem or Christian. Israel isn’t insisting that Arabs move out of Israel so I don’t get the frankly racist insistence that Jews have to leave the Palestinian territories.

the US is not a Christian country, it is a secular country. Its’ constitution guarantees freedom of religion and freedom from religion, still the best formulation for a secular government that I have heard.

Personally, as an atheist, I couldn’t care less what any religious fanatic says about the afterlife. It’s when the threats start in the here and now that I become concerned. Here’s hoping our religious brothers and sisters visiting Nazareth can keep a similar perspective.

“I do not overestimate the importance of the religious settlers for instance but do believe they can’t be brushed under the carpet that easily.”

Who’s trying to brush them under the carpet?

Regards your first point I’m not sure how it relates to mine.

Regards your second point, see e.g. Wiki on the settlements, immediately following the 1967 conquest:

“Original Israeli policy at that time was to deny any Jewish settlement of these areas or even Jewish resettlement of specific locations where Jews had resided up until the 1948 Arab-Israeli War[citation needed] (see: List of villages depopulated during the 1948 Arab-Israeli war). Many attempts were made by Gush Emunim to establish outposts or resettle former Jewish areas, and initially the Israeli government forcibly disbanded these settlements. However, in the absence of peace talks to determine the future of these and other occupied territories, Israel ceased the enforcement of the original ban on settlement.”

And Wiki on Gush Emunim:

“The movement sprang out of the conquests of the Six-Day War in 1967, though it was not formally established as an organization until 1974, in the wake of the Yom Kippur War. It encouraged Jewish settlement of the land they believe God allotted to the Jews in the book of Deuteronomy.[1] “

Regards the Straw Men: you claim I ‘imply’ a lot. Yet the implications seem mostly to exist in your mind. I do not overestimate the importance of the religious settlers for instance but do believe they can’t be brushed under the carpet that easily.

“In Gaza they sure caused quite a bit of trouble”

How aware are you of the ‘relationship’ between Settlers and Palestinians pre ‘87 (intifada 1)?

“It also diminishes the fact that these people were among the first to create these facts on the ground”

Uuuh, can you please delve into this a bit further. What settlements? What ‘people’?

“It’s no surprise you feel the need to vehemently disagree with me, as you create straw man upon straw man, then attack these arguments I’ve never made.”

If you say so dude – you imply things deliberately in your writing and don’t expect people to pull you up on them.

“What makes their settlements more or less valid? Why should they consent to being uprooted anymore than those in Tel Aviv or Jerusalem?”

That’s remarkably clear, thanks…

What makes their settlements more or less valid? Why should they consent to being uprooted anymore than those in Tel Aviv or Jerusalem?

Alex:”I don’t know where you get the idea that I have no problem with the implementation of religious privilige.”
Me: The fact that you utilise it? I find actions speak louder than words.

Alex:”PS Sam – what is the verse before it?”
Me: [3:84] Say, “We believe in G-d, and in what was sent down to us, and in what was sent down to Abraham, Ismail, Isaac, Jacob, and the Patriarchs, and in what was given to Moses, Jesus, and the prophets from their Lord. We make no distinction among any of them. To Him alone we are submitters.

It’s no surprise you feel the need to vehemently disagree with me, as you create straw man upon straw man, then attack these arguments I’ve never made.
I’ve never said the religious settlers are representative of all settlers or the mouthpiece of the settler movement.

I note however that they exist (as so Palestinian extremists) and that they are the ones who will most likely put up resistance to being uprooted.
How many are there? I don’t know (and in all likelihood neither do you), perhaps 10 % is not an unreasonable estimate.

In Gaza they sure caused quite a bit of trouble, as witnessed in the excellent documentary ‘The Last Stance’ where a group of religious zealots erected a ’settlement-for-the-day’ (in Gaza – days before the ultimatum) and threatened to defend it by means of arms (they were lightly armed). A few competent IDFers managed to avoid the worst and it ended ‘peacefully’.

To claim I attach too much importance to them (which I don’t do) is akin to underestimating their powers of mischief. It also diminishes the fact that these people were among the first to create these facts on the ground, at a time when it was still unclear what Israel had in mind with the OTs. Many prominent Israelis, among them Moshe Dayan and Yitzak Rabin, were opposed to colonising the OTs. Presumably they had some prophetic foresight as to what it would lead to…

In another doc, Rabin, back then still an ordinary Colonel in the IDF, complained about having to remove these very early settlers, only to find that a fortnight later they had simply moved back in!