Settlements – including settlement expansion and the proliferation of proto-settlements known as “illegal outposts” – are a political, security, and economic liability for Israel, and an existential threat to Israel as a Jewish, democratic state.

Politically, they extinguish hope among Palestinians that Israel is serious about making peace. They destroy the credibility of Palestinian moderates who reject violence and tell their people that negotiations with Israel are the correct path to statehood. They create facts on the ground that make any viable arrangements for a two-state solution difficult, and eventually, impossible.

In terms of security, Israel’s “separation barrier” has been distorted to accommodate settlements, lengthening and contorting Israel’s lines of defense, trapping large numbers of Palestinians inside it and leaving a large number of Israelis outside of it. Settler extremists are increasingly brazen in their willingness to use violence to promote their agenda – including unprovoked attacks on Palestinians and their property, as well as on Israeli soldiers, police, and peace activists. As a result of the need to focus so much energy on protecting settlers and, increasingly, trying to curb settler violence, the IDF has been transformed increasingly into a police force; it ability to adequately organize and train for its primary mission – to fight wars – has been eroded.

Economically, settlements drain Israel’s beleaguered budget, with the government continuing to fund settlement-related construction, as well as providing substantial indirect funding that affords settlers a wide range of income, education, housing, tax, and transportation benefits.

Finally, settlements are an existential threat to Israel as a Jewish, democratic state. If Israel does not end the settlement enterprise and achieve a peace agreement that enables it to get out of most of the West Bank, Jews will soon become a minority in the area under Israel’s control. Israel will be then forced to choose between being a Jewish state or a democratic state.

Most Israeli politicians today, from across the political spectrum, acknowledge that most settlements will have to be removed as part of any final peace agreement. Polls have shown wide support among Israelis for a settlement freeze, removal of outposts, and further settlement evacuations.

Past Israeli-Palestinian negotiations suggest that many West Bank settlers may be able to remain where they are under a future peace agreement, as part of a land-swap deal. However, such a solution is predicated on an end to settlement expansion. Existing settlements already make such arrangements complicated; if settlements continue to expand and proliferate, they will further complicate negotiations and may destroy any chance for peace.