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Last update - 10:59 15/07/2008 The collapse began today By Gershom Gorenberg Tags: kibbutz, Israel, settlements  It was one of the most important and largely forgotten milestones in the history of the state: Forty-one years ago tomorrow, on July 16, 1967, a young kibbutznik got out of his jeep at Aalleiqa, an abandoned Syrian army base on the Golan Heights, and became the first settler in the occupied territories. Only five weeks separated the end of the battles of the Six-Day War and his arrival. In the days that followed he was joined by more young people. They founded the kibbutz now known as Merom Golan, near the separation-of-forces line with Syria, not far from Quneitra. They did not wear skullcaps and they did not speak of the imminent Redemption. Secular kibbutz members from the Upper Galilee were behind the settlement initiative. They believed that the "Syrian Heights" must remain in Israeli hands for reasons of security, and that the best way to guarantee this was by creating facts on the ground in the tradition of Labor Zionism. Their "rabbi" and teacher was Yitzhak Tabenkin, the octagenarian ideologue of the Ahdut Ha'avodah (Unity of Labor) party, who supported the vision of a Greater Israel whose borders extended far beyond those of Mandatory Palestine. Their initiative contravened government policy. On June 19, 1967, in a secret decision, the government of Levi Eshkol offered Syria "full peace on the basis of the international border," with adjustments for Israeli security needs. Nonetheless, labor minister Yigal Allon allocated funds to the settlers from a budget earmarked for work budgets for the unemployed. The head of Israel Defense Forces' Northern Command, Gen. David Elazar, also helped the settlers, as did the Jewish Agency and the Upper Galilee Regional Council. A prologue could be written to the Talia Sasson report on the establishment of the "unauthorized" West Bank outposts that describes the settlement initiative in the Golan Heights in the summer of 1967. At the end of that summer, the cabinet approved the settlers' presence. Advertisement Thus the settlement enterprise did not begin with the confrontation between Gush Emunim and the government of Yitzhak Rabin at Sebastia in 1975, at the Park Hotel in Hebron on Passover in 1968, or even at Kfar Etzion in September 1967. It did, however, begin with the belief that settlement would determine the state's future borders, following the example of Zionist pioneers before the establishment of the state. Contrary to what settlers and their supporters believe, this continuity does not legitimize the settlements. Just the opposite: Sometimes continuity is a fatal error. In his book "Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed," the American scholar Jared Diamond explains the processes that have led to the collapse of civilizations throughout history. The fatal error common to cultures that faded away can be summed up in one sentence from Diamond's book: "The values to which people cling most stubbornly under inappropriate conditions are those values that were previously the source of their greatest triumphs over adversity." In other words, success turns a means into a sacred value; but conditions change, and it is this very value that leads to disaster. By clinging to the value of settlement, Israeli society runs the risk of providing additional proof for Diamond's rule. In another age, as every school child learns, settlement was one of the fundamental reasons for Zionism's success. It brought Jews back to working the land. After the 1937 Peel Commission partition proposal, settlement was aimed at expanding the territory that would be apportioned to the Jewish state. Settlement became the military foundation for the state in the making. And if it was necessary to deceive the mandatory authorities to carry out these tasks, then putting the cause above the law also became a value. Starting with the creation of the first kibbutz on the Golan in 1967, however, the new settlement enterprise acted as a boomerang. It did not determine borders, but blurred them. Politicians and other government officials undermined the rule of law. Anonymous activists aspired to set policy in the government's stead, and they succeeded. De facto, a binational entity with an ethnic regime was created, instead of a democratic, Jewish state. The accepted political debate around the question of which communities are to remain in our hands and which we must concede is futile - until we recognize that the value of settlement is obsolete. Giving up the value is more difficult than conceding territory, but it is necessary. If we continue to cling to it, July 16 is liable to become a milestone on the road to collapse. Gershom Gorenberg is the author of "The Accidental Empire: Israel and the Birth of the Settlements, 1967-1977." He blogs at southjerusalem.com. Bookmark to del.icio.us   Hezbollah's pleasure For Israelis, the release of Kuntar is a form of self-inflicted torture. Exchange timeline How the prisoner exchange with Hezbollah will be carried out.   1.   Syrians and Palestinians talking to Israel despite settlements 12:29  |  Sam 15/07/08   2.   As Always, Goremberg Has It Backwards 13:17  |  Yishai Kohen 15/07/08   3.   societies inevitably fail 13:38  |  tsipora 15/07/08   4.   But making the `48 lines sacred is OK? 14:30  |  Ilan 15/07/08   5.   Time for a Change of Settlement Policy 15:05  |  Straight Talk 15/07/08   6.   Gorenberg`s article is a complete reversal of the obvious truth. 15:23  |  Chaim 15/07/08   7.   Settlers, pack your bags 16:31  |  Natallie Durson 15/07/08   8.   Durson: Jews Are COMING To Judea And Samaria 17:01  |  Yishai Kohen 15/07/08   9.   arabs have enough land! 17:01  |  Dr eric 15/07/08   10.   We tried this retarded concept - Oslo Failed 17:04  |  Dr Eric 15/07/08   11.   Oslo = land for terror!! 17:04  |  Dr Eric 15/07/08   12.   Peace for peace is the correct formula!! 17:06  |  Dr eric 15/07/08   13.   The arab leadership has no interest in peace !!! 17:09  |  Dr Eric 15/07/08   14.   In Israel`s greed to get it all, it lost it all 17:11  |  Avarice Watcher 15/07/08   15.   Eretz yisrael belongs to am yisrael!!! 17:19  |  Dr Eric 15/07/08   16.   Durson - did u see the first rashi of the torah?? 17:20  |  Dr Eric 15/07/08   17.   Avraham the first jewish settler in Hebron!! 17:25  |  Dr eric 15/07/08   18.   Avraham was a settler and also a peacenik 17:28  |  Dr Eric 15/07/08   19.   America may want 2 states. Pals may not. 17:44  |  Sam 15/07/08   20.   Israel should hold onto every settlement and defend them 18:06  |  Shepherd 15/07/08   21.   #17 Dr eric 18:14  |  Boycott 15/07/08   22.   Gershom Gorenberg 19:03  |  Dror 15/07/08   23.   To Natalie Durson 19:37  |  Israeli`s Packing ? 15/07/08   24.   Why do most people support Iran? 20:29  |  Andreas 15/07/08   25.   MAIN OBSTACLE FOR PEACE 20:35  |  Iskander 15/07/08   26.   Yes, times have changed .... 10:16  |  Dutch 16/07/08   27.   Chaim, It`s your logic that`s off... 10:39  |  Duitch 16/07/08   28.   Dror, The problem is your trite... 11:30  |  Dutch 16/07/08

Read & React PRISONER SWAP: Coffins of Goldwasser and Regev at Israel-Lebanon border Responses: 65 Lebanon declares state holiday marking return of prisoners Responses: 44 Bradley Burston: The pleasure that Hezbollah takes in torture Responses: 110 Another Olmert probe, another American businessman, another unpaid loan Responses: 7 More Headlines 11:44 Israel receives coffins said to hold bodies of Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev 11:35 Family and friends of abducted soldier: Nasrallah will pay 09:40 ANALYSIS / In Lebanon, prisoner swap is Hezbollah victory 11:41 In Lebanon, red carpet laid out for convicted terrorist Samir Kuntar 09:33 Gerhard Conrad - the 'fair' middleman overseeing swap 08:50 Another Olmert probe, another American businessman, another unpaid loan 01:24 Holocaust survivors in need of long-term hospital care strapped for funds 09:10 Report: Iran to hold large air force exercise to strengthen deterrence 05:33 Hamas representatives delay talks on swap for Shalit 09:08 Israeli start-up company may have a cure for dyslexic typos 08:35 TB's secret, hidden in ancient bones Previous Editions Select Day 15 jul 14 jul 13 jul 11 jul 10 jul 09 jul 08 jul 07 jul 06 jul 04 jul 03 jul 02 jul

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