The painful cost to Israel of its settler adventure

As friction between the Obama administration and Israel mounts over Washington's repeated calls for a freeze on settlement construction, anxious supporters of Israel's West Bank settlement enterprise ask one question with ever greater urgency and frequency: Why should settlers have to pay the price for peace between Israel and the Palestinians? The question is intended to be rhetorical, meant to dismiss and deflect pressure to curb expansion of West Bank enclaves. But in a real sense, it is precisely the question of the moment. Why, in fact, should settlers be made to pay the price for peace? The answer, in short: Because of what the settlement movement has cost us, cost Israel. And because of what it is costing Israel now.