Yesterday, Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich announced their commitment to “foil what they said was the Palestinian Authority’s scheme to seize land across Judea and Samaria.” Most of this vast, lawless land-grab, it turns out, has been energized and financed by the European Union (EU).
For decades, members of the media, activist groups, academics, international organizations, NGOs, and countless politicians have insisted that Jewish settlements in the West Bank are the primary obstacle to peace between Israelis and Palestinians. These settlements, the assumption goes, represent an illegal and inhumane “occupation,” and until they are dismantled and the territory handed over to a Palestinian state, there can be no resolution to the conflict.
It all sprung from Monday’s Conservative press conference in Saint John, N.B., where leader Pierre Poilievre was asked about his plan to “turn things around,” and whether a change in campaign leadership was on the table. It was a valid question — it’s no secret that the polls, at this point, favour the Liberals, and that some provincial Conservatives have been backseat campaigning to 
