DC think tank launches site exploring where settlers fit into peace plans

Marking the 70th anniversary of the United Nations vote to partition the British Mandate of Palestine into two states — one Jewish, one Arab — a Washington policy institute launched an interactive website Wednesday that assesses the myriad proposals to make the two-state vision into a reality.

 

Settlements and Solutions, which was developed by David Makovsky, a former US peace negotiator in the Obama administration who heads the Program on Middle East Peace at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, aims to answer the question of whether a two-state solution is still possible.

“I think it’s still solvable if people want to solve it,” Makovsky told the Times of Israel.

 

The site is essentially an interactive map, made with civilian satellite imagery, to provide a better understanding of building trends in East Jerusalem and the West Bank.

 

“This is more focusing on where the settlers lived – on where does demography meet geography in the West Bank,” Makovsky said. “It is more to look at overlay between where the settlers live and the various peace plans that have been out there.”

 

Source: DC think tank launches site exploring where settlers fit into peace plans