The bill’s author, Knesset member Orit Struck, herself a settler in the West Bank city of Hebron, explained to settler news outlet Arutz Sheva a few weeks ago how she and MK Yariv Levin have prepared 10 draft laws that would annex the West Bank in stages: first individual settlements, then Area C, and eventually, everything West of the Jordan River.

But Israel is not ready to stomach full annexation, Struck explained, “[w]e must aim towards something that the Israeli public, with its present situation, would be able to digest.”

“As of now, it is impossible to create such a basis of support for the idea of annexing the entire area including Ramallah, Nablus and more cities,” she added. “That’s why we must continue in what has been the Zionist way, which has always been a gradual path.”

It’s not really newsworthy that someone like MK Struck is attempting to advance plans to annex the West Bank, or even that she has a plan to do it subversively. After all, she was chosen to become a Knesset member by none other than settlement champion Naftali Bennett (he even ran for office on an annexation platform).

Struck it seems, like many other far-more-palatable Israeli politicians, views the current situation — sky rocketing nationalist and racist sentiments combined with the fear accompanying what many believe could be a looming, dark period of violence and repression — as a political opportunity.

In periods like this, stained by ongoing violence, societal polarization and political desperation, one of the most dangerous things that can happen is for responsible leadership to be shoved aside by populism and political opportunism.

What we are seeing today is the true face of Israel’s government and its ministers: one that unabashedly supports — in practice as well as in rhetoric — the expansion and annexation of illegal settlements. It is a government that opposes Palestinian statehood, and has no intention of ending the occupation of its own accord.

The European Union’s new foreign policy chief, Federica Mogherini, made her first official visit to Israel a couple of days ago. In Jerusalem she expressed hopes for “a new start,” ostensibly referring to the growing animosity between the EU and Israel over the latter’s unrepentant and unrelenting settlement expansion.

There may be a new start in the cards, but not the one Mogherini is hoping for.

http://972mag.com/israeli-government-votes-to-support-annexing-west-bank-settlements/98604/

Change happens gradually until the system is sufficiently destablilized and then change happens fast. Sometimes the fast change goes in the direction of the slow change, but usually not, the usual thing is reversion to the "norm". But sometimes your arrangements will fall catastrophically and fall into some new stable configuration, a new "norm", or fall into chaos for a while.

Edit: and I don't believe that Bibi is leading Israel to a new stable "norm".

instability that seems to be coming to Russia with their currency? You seem to have
followed that pretty closely and I wondered what has occurred in just the
last two weeks with the rouble...seems like it could be real bad, quicker than
one might have predicted a month ago? Life could become quite painful for
most Russians.

I think the only comments I have at this point are that the sanctions appear unlikely to work, in the sense of compelling anybody to do anything. and it appears likely that Ukraine is permanently fractured now, it is becoming a "frozen conflict".

I thought maybe there was a chance he would have to give in a bit if their
economy collapses..even with the oligarchs there on his side.

Thanks, bemildred.

On edit, As I understand it, Russians are being led to believe they're not tanking, it's
just that our currency is going up...too sad the propaganda he gets away with.