Settlement fever is raging throughout the Palestinian territories while Barak is engaged in an intricate political ritualistic dance designed to skirt the real issues.

Having entrusted the Ministry of Housing to Mifdal hardliner Yitzhak Levi, Barak has essentially given a green light to the most dangerous policies of unbridled settlement expansion.

According to Israeli sources, Levi has issued tenders and granted contracts to a total of 1,517 units in settlements throughout the Palestinian territories.

Peace Now has calculated this expansion to mean a total rate of 16,000 units per year, or a four-fold increase on the Netanyahu era of settlement frenzy.

Describing Levi as conducting his own “independent” settlement policy, more extremist than that of the previous government, Peace Now has called upon Barak to dismiss Levi in order to put an end to this insanity.

The Ministry of Housing responded by flatly stating that it will continue building throughout the “land” and that it has no intention to stop building in any settlement. Mifdal stated that it had joined the present government coalition on condition that it continue building in the [Palestinian] territories.

In addition, the Israeli finance committee has increased the budget of the Ministry of Housing by NIS 8,364 million specifically for settlement infrastructure.

It is expected that the Israeli Cabinet today will approve the formation of the ministerial settlement committee that is supposed to look into each individual appeal dealing with the previous government’s decisions on settlements.

Headed by Barak, this committee is expected to include among its membership Minister of Education Yossi Sarid, Minister of Interior Natan Sharansky, Minister of Housing Yitzhak Levi, and another member from Meretz or One Israel.

Yossi Sarid had already requested that the committee look into the evacuation of sites illegally established next to existing settlements.

The Israeli army, on the other hand, had recommended the removal of only two out of forty two sites established by the settlers during Netanyahu’s term of office and following the signing of the Wye Memorandum.

The debate in legal circles is being tainted by political considerations and flimsy technicalities attempting to grant “retroactive legality” on the basis of widening settlement zoning or of the so-called “natural expansion” theory.

Regardless of any justification, the real issue is the essential and unequivocal illegality of all settlements. Not only do they contravene the Fourth Geneva and the Hague Conventions, they also flout all UN resolutions and the consensus of the international community on the issue.

Settlements are creating a racist apartheid system with Israeli extraterritoriality extending into Palestinian land, while preempting and preventing the establishment of a territorially contiguent and viable Palestinian state.

Put simply, however, settlements are nothing short of land theft, and the creation of constant areas of friction and violence. They are visible and concrete expressions of a basic injustice and a source of constant grievance and provocation to the Palestinians.

One basic reason for Palestinian participation in the peace process has been to put an end to land confiscation and the building of settlements. The “land for peace” equation meant precisely that—Israel’s return of the territories it occupied in 1967 to their rightful owners in exchange for peace.

Thus settlements are the precise antithesis to peace and the negation of its most basic imperatives.

It is therefore inexplicable and inexcusable of this Israeli government to persist in such a dangerous policy while engaging in a public campaign of rhetorical commitment to peace.

Barak is attempting to redefine the process to accommodate extremist settlers and to incorporate within it the elements of its own self-destruction.

One reason for his refusal to implement the Wye Memorandum is his “concern” that in the third phase of the (miniscule) redeployments some Israeli settlements will feel “isolated” in the Palestinian-controlled areas!

If Barak is unwilling to face the settlers now on such an issue, it is extremely unlikely that he will face them when the time comes for the evacuation of these settlements.

While, by force of arms, Palestinian towns and villages have been isolated, fragmented, besieged, and oppressed for the sake of illegal settlements, Israeli settlers are illegally claiming the rights that were denied the real owners of the land by the Israeli occupation.

If the sensibilities of the settlers are so fragile as to be offended by their presence in the midst of Palestinians, or if their insecurities are so great as to require the perpetuation of an illegal military occupation, then they should not have settled on Palestinian land in the first place.

The emerging choice for Barak is clear—either settlements or peace.

For Barak to attempt to reinvent the peace process to appease the settlers or to maintain their presence is, at best, an exercise in futility or, at worst, a fool-proof conflict mechanism.

Settlements are not just time bombs; they are the monsters that will turn against their own creators or patrons.

So far, Barak has failed the test of determination in his commitment to peace and his will to confront the settlers.

He must recognize the fact that he can never create a “settler friendly” or a “settler proof” peace process. The settlers will oppose him regardless, unless he caves in entirely to their costly demands or fatal priorities.

Nor can Barak reinvent the Palestinian people to find among them one person who will sign an agreement that is so grievously unjust and so blatantly unstable as to accommodate settlements.

However, while he is dallying and trying to sell the Palestinians his version of distorted peace as being “good for us,” something vile is brewing that is “bad” for all concerned.

It is time to lift the lid, recognize the concoction for what it is, and get rid of the suffocating stench before it drives out any remaining oxygen that is vital for sustaining peace.