To meet the "security needs" of the settlers, more "Jewish-only" bypass roads will be constructed, more walls erected, more gates to keep Palestinians away from their land, schools and livelihood will be put up, more checkpoints, more suffering, more pain, more anger and more violence.
That is Israel's vision. Even Trump is growing frustrated by Israel's shamelessness and audacity. He called on Israel in an interview with Israel Hayom newspaper to "be reasonable with respect to peace."
"There is so much land left. And every time you take land for settlements, there is less land left," Trump said. He is backtracking on promises he made with regard to moving the US embassy and the unchecked expansion of the settlements and more, as he is realizing that Netanyahu and his US supporters have led him to a cliff and are now asking him to jump.
But it matters little, anyway. Whether Trump holds on to his extremely pro-Israel position or reverts to a wishy-washy stance similar to that of his predecessor, Barack Obama, reality is unlikely to change -- for only Israel is ultimately allowed to influence outcomes.
Israeli lawmakers' approval of the bill is, indeed, an end of an era. We have reached the point where we can openly declare that the so-called "peace process" was an illusion from the start, for Israel had no intentions of ever conceding the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem to the Palestinians.
The Palestinian leadership is hardly blameless in all of this.
The greatest mistake that the Palestinian leadership committed (aside from its disgraceful disunity) was entrusting the US, Israel's main enabler, with managing a "peace process" that has allowed Israel time and resources to finish its colonial projects, while devastating Palestinian rights and political aspirations.
Returning to the same old channels, using the same language, seeking salvation at the altar of the same old "two-state solution" will achieve nothing but waste further time and energy.
But Israel's humiliating options to the Palestinians can also be read in a different way. Indeed, it is Israel's obstinacy that is now leaving Palestinians (and Israelis) with one option, and only one option: equal citizenship in one single state or a horrific apartheid and more ethnic cleansing.
In the words of former President Jimmy Carter: "Israel will never find peace until it permit(s) the Palestinians to exercise their basic human and political rights."
That Israeli "permission" is yet to arrive, leaving the international community with the moral responsibility to exact it.
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