At the risk of repeating myself (unavoidable on a blog, I guess), it will be risky for Israel to pull out its settlements from the West Bank, but it will be fatal for Israel to remain in the settlements, for moral and demographic reasons.
That was Jeffrey Goldberg in his The Atlantic blog.
There are three elements there.
One, security.
Israel cannot leave Judea and Samaria in the hands of any Arab group and expect to protect its citizens. As with the disengagement, any territory Israeli security forces leave will become a base for terror.
The slogan is not "territory for peace" but "terror for territory".
Second, demography.
As I have explained here at this blog many times, the so-called demographic threat, or the demonology of demography, is not as it is portrayed. Yaakov Faitelson (here's one) and Yoram Ettinger (one of his) have produced studies that you must read.
The balance of majority-minority status is still in the favor of the Jews.
Third, morality.
What morality? That, as has been suggested, Israel will have to go the path of extreme democratic restriction, even to the extent of apartheid. This is a straw man.
Today, Arabs have full civil, personal and political rights in Israel. We don't promote racism. Arabs loyal to the idea of the Jewish state of Israel with Zionism as its fundamental idea will also have the same rights when Judea and Samaria become full sovereign section of Israel.
If there is a question of morality it is this: after 90 years of conflict, why should the attacked side, the Jews, who have proven a willingness in the past for territorial compromise, also be the one to further yield and surrender? Do not we have principles of morality? Of our rights of history, law and religion to this country? Isn't that the most moral thing to do?
Jeffrey, think harder.
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