Every Israeli government since 1967 has expanded the settlements and these settlements are like a cancer for Palestine. I think this is the basic reason the settlers now feel this government is not their government (“Palestinians find new unity against Israel,” Gulf Today, June 15).

Israel’s first Orthodox Jewish prime minister Naftali Bennett has started meetings of his government with a traditional blessing for a new beginning as citizens of Israel are all looking towards him now. Bennett, whose parents immigrated to Israel from the United States, is expected to emphasise the need for close relations with the US. But Bennett, who shares Netanyahu’s hardline ideology, is also expected to echo the outgoing prime minister’s opposition to restoring the international nuclear deal with Iran.

An expert on settlements with the Israeli rights group “Peace Now,” says the settlers have always used illegal outposts to challenge Israeli authorities, a trend she expects to accelerate under the new government. Palestinians have been subject to geographical and political divisions that have created vast differences between those living under the Palestinian Authority’s aegis in the occupied West Bank, under Hamas’ control in Gaza or under Israeli government rule as citizens of Israel, not to mention the Palestinian diaspora spread across the Middle East and beyond.

Hamas and Israel fought an 11-day war last month. They have fought a total of four wars since Hamas, which seeks Israel’s destruction, seized control of Gaza in 2007 from the rival Palestinian Authority.

Despite their enmity, the sides have been conducting indirect talks aimed at shoring up a ceasefire. Barhoum said “the behaviour of this government on the ground will determine the way and nature of dealing with it on the ground.”

Taha Bin Saeed
By email