Israelis divided over settlements?

In recent weeks, the relationship between Israel and the US has grown tense as the White House continues to demand a freeze on illegal settlement growth in the West Bank despite adamant refusal from Binyamin Netanyahu, the prime minister, to do so. For Israelis the row was embarrassing, but hardly a surprise. To a people already sharply divided over settlements and their place in the peace process, the feud was seen to mirror Israeli society's inner conflicts. Noga Martin, a former Israeli journalist, says that she hopes to see Palestinians form an independent state. But for this to happen, she says, "illegal outposts have to go". "They [illegal outposts] strike me as a completely unnecessary provocation that only throws fuel on the fire," Martin says. "I have no personal hatred toward the settlers," she adds, "except for the ones who act violently." During the annual olive harvest, settlers sometimes attack Palestinian farmers and set fire to their groves. In Hebron, a Muslim-majority city in the West Bank with a small Jewish presence, tensions flare on a regular basis - with settlers throwing stones, garbage, wine, and bottles of urine at Palestinians. Many observers also point to the presence of the Israeli military in the settlements as a measure which emboldens settlers.