The Palestinians will not be satisfied until the state of Palestine supplants the State of Israel and every last Jew is gone.

If only Israel. 

I cannot tell you how many times I have heard a sentence begin with these three words over the years, especially where it concerns Jewish settlements.

If only Israel dismantled the settlements then peace would reign in the Middle East. 

President Obama not only buys into this line of reasoning lock, stock and barrel, he believes the settlements themselves are illegitimate. As he told an audience in Cairo last week:

Israelis must acknowledge that just as Israel's right to exist cannot be denied, neither can Palestine's. The United States does not accept the legitimacy of continued Israeli settlements. This construction violates previous agreements and undermines efforts to achieve peace. It is time for these settlements to stop.

So while the aspirations of Palestinian terrorists are legitimate the aspirations of law-abiding Jewish settlers are not. 

But what Obama wants Obama gets. In Obama's world the settlements are a nuisance.  Once they are dismantled then flowers will bloom from the desert, the Mediterranean Sea will rise and the Egyptian pyramids will gaze upon him with wonder. But if President Obama honestly believes the dismantling of Jewish settlements will suddenly bring about peace then he is a bigger fool then even I could have imagined. Should this come to pass President Obama will find out the dismantling of settlements won't dismantle the hatred of Israel.

Western liberal apologists for the Palestinians tell us they are suffering. Insufferable would be a more apt description. Their grievances are never-ending and it will certainly not stop with the dismantling of Jewish settlements.

There is the matter of the security fence. When the settlements are gone we will hear Palestinians compare the security fence to the Berlin Wall. Never mind the Berlin Wall kept people in East Germany while the security fence keeps suicide bombers out of Israel.  But to liberals in the West, the security fence is an "apartheid wall."  If only Israel tore it down then all would be well. Or would it?

There is also the matter of Jerusalem. Not merely East Jerusalem but all of Jerusalem including the Old City. The Palestinians have this notion that Jews have no claim to Jerusalem. Dr. Tayseer Al-Tamimi, Chief Justice of the Shari'a courts in the Palestinian Authority, said, "Jerusalem is the religious, political and spiritual capital of Palestine – the Jews have no right to it." This is the same Tayseer Al-Tamimi who accused Jews of murdering women, children and the elderly in the presence of Pope Benedict XVI during his visit to Israel last month. If Palestinians aren't prepared to include Israel on their maps what makes anyone think they would want to actually live next to Israel? But to liberals in the West, by not permitting the Palestinians to have Jerusalem as their capital Israel is practicing intolerance. If only Israel gave up Jerusalem all would be well. Or would it?

It's not like Israel hasn't dismantled settlements before. Maybe President Obama has a short memory or perhaps just a selective one. For the record, Israel evacuated all of its settlements in the Gaza Strip during their unilateral withdrawal in August 2005. Gaza is Judenrein. One would think that might have brought Israel some good will amongst the Palestinians. Instead, Israel was rewarded with rocket attacks and the kidnapping of Corporal Gilad Shalit. Can Israel expect more of the same when it is compelled to evacuate its settlements in the West Bank? It's funny how President Obama demands the end of Jewish settlements but doesn't demand the release of Corporal Shalit by the Palestinians. But pressuring the Palestinians doesn't buy Obama goodwill in the Muslim world. Besides it's so much easier to blame Israel. 

So what will happen to the land once settled by Jews? It will become unsettled, of course. When settlers were forced to evacuate Gaza, greenhouses that had fed families and provided a viable economy were turned to rubble by Palestinian looters while depriving other Palestinians of work.

The truth is that Israel could dismantle every last outpost, tear down the security fence and give up Jerusalem and for Palestinians it would be as if nothing happened. As long as there is an Israel that exists in any form there will still be Palestinian grievances of one kind or another.  They would find something to be angry about. Meanwhile, liberals in the West would say, "If only Israel wasn't Jewish."  As far as the Palestinians are concerned all of Israel is a Jewish settlement.  The Palestinians will not be satisfied until the state of Palestine supplants the State of Israel and every last Jew is gone.