I’m a Zionist and a supporter of the two or two-and-a-half state solution for Israel and Palestine (the half state being Gaza if Fatah and Hamas don’t bury the hatchet). Lately, I’ve become increasingly appalled by the actions of the current Israeli government. Every time I turn around they’re doing something else to reduce the possibility of Palestine ever becoming a state. These days, it’s settlement building and more settlement building in the West Bank. The rationale is, to accommodate natural population growth. Hmmmm… I guess those people have to live somewhere. Right? Well, yes and no.

The people we’re talking about are Jewish West Bank settlers. They originally moved into the West Bank after the 1967 war for two reasons: manifest destiny and cheap real estate. The manifest destiny concept is called Greater Israel over there. The idea being, the Jews have a biblical deed to the whole place, latecomers like Arabs be damned. The low cost of West Bank land encouraged development. Now, 43 years later, there are over 400,000 Jews living in hermetically contained communities in the West Bank.

Assuming for a not-to-probable minute that Israel were to halt settlers from leaving pre-1967 Israel, the “natural growth” of settlements in the West Bank would be limited to population increase as births outpace deaths. Unfortunately for the Palestinians, the Jewish settlers favor large families; their birthrate is at least 3.5 percent. West Bank Palestinians have a slightly lower birthrate of 3.2 percent. (The numbers are based on 2001 statistics, which I admit are questionable either way.) Further reducing the Palestinian half of the equation is emigration. If it were not for restrictions, the West Bank could lose over ten thousand people per year, based on the reported demand for travel applications.

Both the Jewish settlers and the West Bank Palestinians understand the dynamics of population growth. The settlers know that if they can boost their birthrate to 4.8 percent, their population would double in less than 15 years.  In any case, time is on their side. Evacuating 400,000 settlers from the West Bank tomorrow is difficult to imagine. Evacuating 800,000 in the not very distant future will be impossible. The population squeeze is on. Looks like Greater Israel is being born.