Ben Rhodes

And he sees West Bank as part of Israel.

And we are burying the idea of a Palestinian state.

So this is not subtle.

I want to go through these moves and then ask you about them.

And they may sound a little bureaucratic and the press are often described as administrative, even though they're really about annexation of other people's land.

And cumulatively, they're just destroying what is ever left of the idea of the Palestinian state.

So first, to give people some context.

The Oslo Accords divided the West Bank into three areas.

Area A, which is 18% of the West Bank, that's under the control of the PA, the Palestinian Authority.

Area B, that's 22% of the West Bank, that's joint control of the PA and Israel.

Area C, that's 60% of the West Bank, that's under Israeli control.

So first of all, a lot of people don't know this.

Israel controls most of the West Bank.

People like to talk about the weak, feckless Palestinian Authority.

Well, one of the reasons they're weak and feckless is they don't even control the territory that they're supposed to.

But now the changes.

In the last couple of weeks, the Israeli government has made a series of announcements to make it easier for Israelis to purchase land from Palestinians, to expand Israeli enforcement, including the power to demolish Palestinian buildings, which they regularly do, into areas A and B, so the Palestinian-controlled areas, for violations involving, to quote the Wall Street Journal,

water-related offenses, damaged archaeological sites, and environmental hazards.

So basically, pretext for them to just go in and demolish Palestinian structures.

Made Israel the sole authority for planning permission near important religious sites, of which there are many.