http://www.huffingtonpost.com/amb-marc-ginsberg/its-really-the-settlement_b_5993010.html

Amb. Marc Ginsberg Fmr. U.S. Ambassador to Morocco; White House Middle East Adviser

It's Really The Settlements, Stupid!

Posted: 10/15/2014

Benjamin Netanyahu is in desperate need of a top-of-the-line hearing aid, because evidently he is growing tone deaf. He can no longer hear the voices warning him of Israel's destructively deteriorating international isolation. He can't (or doesn't want) to hear how he is single-handedly decaying Israel's essential relationship with the United States. It does not seem to reverberate inside him one iota that cries against his government's provocative settlement enterprise is not fooling anyone but himself and his settler supporters. International approbation is rapidly descending on Israel from many new and unexpected quarters. Sweden soon to recognize a Palestinian state. France perhaps following suit. The British House of Commons symbolically reflecting a growing popular UK view. Waiting in the wings: a United Nations Security Council resolution baking in the diplomatic oven "mandating" Israel to negotiate an end to the conflict by 2016, or else.
Apparently, Netanyahu is only willing to hear Alfred E Neuman's adage "What? Me Worry?"
If Netanyahu isn't worried, Israelis should be. With its international standing rapidly eroding, and calls for more punishing economic boycotts against Israel's incendiary occupation, younger Israelis -- the future foundation of the state -- are increasingly calling it quits. In 2013 alone, more than double the Israelis quite Israel than in 2012.