Israel annexing the Jordan Valley

Israel is apparently up to its usual tricks, stealing more land from the Palestinians.

Israel has in effect "annexed" the Jordan Valley, or eastern strip of the West Bank, by severely restricting the movements of Palestinians inside it, it was claimed yesterday.

The accusation was made by B'tselem, a leading Israeli human rights organisation, following investigations by B'tselem and the newspaper Ha'aretz which showed that some 200,000 Palestinian West Bank residents are systematically prevented from entering the Jordan Valley area, including farmers seeking to cultivate their own land and seasonal farm workers who used to work there regularly.

The Jordan Valley is politically highly sensitive because by remaining under Israeli control it would further substantially restrict the scale of any Palestinian state.

Unfortunately, I'm afraid the dream of a Palestinian state is now dead. No one with any clout is going to support them, particularly not the US. Israel will probably leave them a few waterless reservations in the midst of the desert. They are going to have to go into the diaspora for a thousand years or so before they will be able to regroup and retake their land. It's been done before.