Israel Cancels Plans to Withdraw from West Bank

A few years ago a series of events made it look like peace was inevitable in Israel and Palestine. The fact that demography and birthrates predicts that Arabs will out number Jews in the territories, and ultimately in all of Israel if the territories are annexed by Israel. Israelis call the captured lands from past Arab Israeli wars the "Territories".
Many a right-wing Israelis have fought for annexing all of the lands that correspond to the Israel of the Torah, the Jewish version of the Old Testament, which includes all of the West Bank and Gaza. Short of the chilling methods of "ethnic cleansing" and even "genocide", Israel has no way of ensuring the country will remain a predominantly Jewish state. This is the only reason Sharon led the political movement to unilaterally give back Gaza and eventually, much of the West Bank.
Therefore, it is inevitable that Israel will revisit this issue eventually. But not now with the major distraction of Lebanon and Gaza in disarray. However, as demonstrated in the unilateral withdrawl of Gaza, Israel must make sure there is an effective government in place before they withdraw to ensure cross border attacks can be contained by the established Palestinian government. Therefore, negotiation with that government, rather than a unilateral withdrawl will be necessary before a West Bank settlement is reached. Many Israelis fear the Palestinians will be much less generous than Olmert could have accompllished unilaterally.
WaPo

The Israeli government's plan to dismantle some Jewish settlements in the West Bank and redraw the country's borders is being shelved at least temporarily, a casualty of the war in Lebanon, government officials said.


The plan, which propelled Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to victory in March elections and was warmly endorsed by President Bush as a way of solving Israel's conflict with the Palestinians, is no longer a top priority, Olmert told his ministers last weekend, according to one of his advisers.


Instead, the government must spend its money and efforts in northern Israel to repair the damage from the war and strengthen the area in case fighting breaks out again, Olmert said.


[...]Even without the financial considerations, the plan for unilateral withdrawal from some settlements is dead, other political figures and analysts said. The seizure of Israeli soldiers and the renewed fighting in the Gaza Strip -- from which Israel withdrew last year -- and in southern Lebanon -- from which Israel withdrew in 2000 -- have left the Israeli public with little appetite for additional pullouts.


[...]Olmert's plan could have required the removal of about 70,000 of the estimated 250,000 West Bank settlers. The exact lines of the proposal were never made public, however, and some in his government talked of evacuating fewer settlers.


[...]Critics said the attacks from southern Lebanon and Gaza showed it was folly to have abandoned those areas without a deal to ensure some authority remained there to curb attacks.