Playing our role again?

Maybe it's just my liberal upbringing blinding me to something obvious, but I can't seem to get my head around recent events going on in my area that seem, at best unfair... and at worst, downright illegal!

First a little background:

During the beginning of the Palestinian uprisings (intifadas) the Israeli government decided that having Israeli (Jewish) motorists driving directly through Arab towns and villages was too much of a temptation/provocation, and quickly set about building a network of bypass roads.  The rationale was that the Arabs would continue using the existing roads that bisected their communities, while the Jews would go around them on these new bypass roads, thus removing what had become too-tempting a target for rocks, fire-bombs and gunfire.

However, as soon as these bypass roads were completed there arose cries of 'Apartheid Road' from the Arabs, from the Israeli left and from useful idiots civil libertarians and human rights-niks throughout Europe.  Having been raised on a steady diet of liberal politics, I have to admit I too was somewhat bothered by the idea of certain roads being 'Jewish only', and was relieved to see these new bypass roads 'integrated', even though it obviously made the security situation significantly more complicated for those who had to patrol them.   

So, that was that. 

But not really.

You see, not far from where I live there was yet another proposed bypass road that was to be constructed from the eastern part of Gush Etzion, connecting it to the Har Homa neighborhood of Jerusalem.  The road was many years in the governmental planning and approval process, but its completion was eagerly anticipated by all as it promised to cut a 40-60 minute drive (sometimes as much as 90 minutes during 'rush hour') to as little as 8 minutes!  And best of all, like the other 'bypass roads' this new road would eliminate the need for cars from the affected Jewish communities to drive directly through the center of Arab communities.

This should have been a win-win for all involved.  With the concept of 'Jewish Only' roads long ago set aside as legally untenable, this new road would end up serving Arab and Jew alike... Arab sensibilities would be protected from 'offensive Jewish traffic' in their midst... and a new, safer road would provide quick access to Jerusalem for all.

It's all good, right?

Yeah right.  Nothing is ever that simple in Israel!

You see, this shiny new road was recently completed and opened... but only to Arab traffic!

Yes, you read that right.  Jews living in communities such as Tekoa and Nokdim are barred from using this new road, and still have to drive almost an hour on winding roads through Arab villages to reach Jerusalem.  Meanwhile, Arabs whose communities are in the same area are given free access.

Look, I'm sensitive to moves that might smack of heavy-handed ethnic discrimination against the Arabs, but what could possibly be the point of excluding Jews from this new road (other than deliberately making their lives more difficult/dangerous)? 

Additionally, these two settlements would seem, at first blush, to be unlikely targets for governmental ire directed at religious settlers since both Nokdim and Tekoa are 'mixed' communities (meaning they are made up of both religious and non-religious residents), a relative rarity in Judea and Samaria.

Over the past few years I have gotten pretty good at figuring out the real reason behind some of the more baffling governmental moves... but I have to admit that this time I'm stumped.  Some of my neighbors have offered the fairly logical conclusion that the decision to exclude Jews from the road is intended to isolate the communities in eastern Gush Etzion in advance of their eventual destruction in some future 'realignment' plan.  But I don't know...

If at some future date a decision is reached to abandon any communities in that area, it would be a simple thing to simply block the road and declare the area a closed military zone. But barring that, I can't help feeling that this is the sort of move that would instantly draw fire from the Israeli left, and even the U.N., if it were directed against the Arabs instead of at settlers.

With no realignment plan even on the table, I honestly can't understand how deliberately inconveniencing/endangering Israeli motorists hasn't drawn even a whisper of protest from anyone outside the settler community. 

Where are the human rights organizations?  Where are the civil libertarians?  Where are the legal scholars.  If this were about excluding Arabs from the roads there would be a pile of Amicus briefs a mile high stacked outside the Israeli supreme court  building!  But since it's 'only' against the interests of the settlers... nobody seems particularly bothered. 

I brought up the concept of 'selective outrage' (meaning taking issue only with legal issues that cut across your political turf) during the disengagement when visibly religious people, as well as those who had orange ribbons on their cars, were routinely subjected to illegal restriction of movement without so much as a peep from the left.  I noted at that time that the pro-disengagement camp's fervor for the 'rule of law' didn't seem to extend quite that far.

Well, once again Jewish settlers are being given the opportunity to play the role of 'The wicked son'... and once again, the civil libertarians all seem to be asleep or on vacation.

Note:  I know that for many of you this post will be the first you have heard on this topic, and I welcome your questions and comments.  But my hope is that those who are more 'in the know' will also weigh in with their insights and opinions.

However, this is not an invitation to flame the government, supreme court, Arabs, settlers, religious people, secular people, rightists, leftists or the police.  If you can't present your point-of-view/opinion without resorting to ad hominem arguments... please sit this one out.