Ugh, what a title to give a post. But now I’m giving a commitment in writing so it will happen within the next couple of days. For about the last 8-9 months I’ve had a series of things I’ve wanted to say and sat down to write them up so many times. But I always found that I either didn’t have enough time to do it properly or the task felt too too …nu, it wasn’t the task but the topic, …too frustrating. Watching the continued progress of events has been far more frustrating, however.
Since none of you have a clue what I’m talking about, here’s a preview. The Settler Movement and Peace Now have made identical mistakes [and these are the classic mistakes long observed in psychology regarding movements and they managed to hit them all] and in doing so find themselves in nearly the same boat today albeit on opposite sides of the spectrum: They both went from having majority backing to losing that support of the people and today are considered fringe extremists and come in for ridicule, derision, and so forth from the very people who used to back them.
It was the mistakes they made, more so than the “situation on the ground,” (although that certainly has had incredible influence) that has caused them both to not only be seen as extremist but also to become themselves, as movements, more extremist, which in turn has fueled the process of their isolation from the people who now cluster in the “center” –disengaged from both movements.
I’m going to try to put together a series of posts explaining just what I mean by the above. One post will focus on exactly what mistakes, in the psychological sense, these groups have made and are continuing to make today –the settlers actually come out a bit ahead on this one and there is still a very slim, though incredibly unlikely (because I doubt that they will shift their tactics) chance that they could still regain majority support and achieve at least some of their aims in the end. I think Peace Now has gone too far over the edge to pull people back from the center to support them. One will focus on strategical “on the ground” mistakes made by previous governments and the settlers themselves regarding an achievement of greater Israel which makes such an achievement in toto today impossible. This last, I’ve been shaking my head over for years.
Anyway, I’m working on them and now that I’ve publicly committed to putting them together will get them up this week –if I don’t, c’mon people, nag 
In the meantime, I’m going to point you to a post by Imshin that, I think, lays a nice “person on the ground” example of where average people in this country are today regarding the Settlers and Peace Now movements and highlights the shifts they have made in recent years.
Update: And Treppenwitz’s post here highlights why it is that currently the “settler” position has a bit of an edge over Peace Now–but I’ll wait until the full post to explain why, in the psychological sense, Trepp has just given a bit more credence and support for the settler movement overall, extremists notwithstanding. The position he takes in his post is a good example of why, despite everything, although the “center” has more than one foot out the door on the settler movement, the door hasn’t yet closed behind them.