Le Monde has a very good multimedia mini-site up regarding the wall being built between the Israeli state and the Palestinian territories.
Catch it here.
You don't need to understand French to appreciate this.
Mouse over the funny tab thing to the left for the menu (sort of non-intuitive)and then click Trace du Mur. Click the Continuer button successively to see the planned development of the wall.
A couple of things struck me, viewing this:
1) Emotionally, the idea of the wall hits me as being profoundly negative, with echoes of the Warsaw Ghetto and the wall that separated East and West Berlin.
2) This wall is going to be the permanent boundary between Israel and any Palestinian state that is created in the future. Look at this thing. This is it and there is no way around it. Neither side will gain or lose territory beyond what is being built here.
3) It appears that a very large number of Palestinians are going to find themselves living inside what will be de facto Israeli territory. Israel is going to have to find a way to come to terms with the tens of thousands of its new, permanent Palestinian residents, especially in East Jerusalem.
4) Israel is planning a huge land-grab along the Jordanian border and elsewhere, leaving the Palestinians state with Jenin, Tulkarem, Ramallah, Bethlehem, Hebron and very little else. The new Palestinian territory will be essentially encircled by the security wall and isolated from neighboring Arab states.
4) Some Israeli settlements in the West Bank are going to be outside the wall. Inevitably, the settlers are going to have to pack their bags and go back home to Tel Aviv (or equally likely, New Jersey). In addition, Israel will "lose" Bethlehem and politically-charged Hebron.
5) It is hard to see how the Palestinian territory will be economically viable under the new border configuration. No outlet to the sea, cut off from both Jerusalem and Amman, cut off equally from the rest of Israel. If I were a Palestinian, I would basically see my future options as basically, "emigrate, starve or fight."
I hope that people take a look at this presentation. It certainly was enlightening to me and has some fairly good photos as well. I consider myself to be a supporter of Israel, but this is very troubling to me. It seems unlikely to bring peace or security to either Israelis or Palestinians.