As To Prove The Point

As if to prove the first point in John Mersheimer's thesis (see previous blog entry), that Israel has no intention of allowing the creation of a viable Palestinian State, Israel's Minister of Transportation today announced two major construction projects in the West Bank: the construction of a rail line from Afullah to Jerusalem and the extension of Highway 505 to the Jordan valley.

On the map above the Rail line is shown in red and the highway in blue. Together they effectively cut the northern West Bank into four parts. And lest you think Israel is planning to spend 10s of billions on new transportation infrastructure just to hand it over to a Palestinian State, the minister made his long term intentions re the West Bank clear: "the [construction] freeze is not a solution, Jews will live here for ever."