Aside from the publication date, it is hard to find any differences between the weekend reports of an emerging agreement on settlement outposts between Defense Minister Ehud Barak and settler representatives and those on the outposts agreement Barak reached with the Yesha Council in 1999 when he was prime minister and defense minister. Once again, talks are reportedly being held on how many outposts the settlers will evacuate voluntarily, in exchange for the state "laundering" other outposts. Judging by the previous round, the outposts slated for laundering will indeed be legalized, the settlers will vacate a few rusty shacks, and most of the outposts will remain in place. The defense minister's office is not embarrassed to say that Barak "is studying the issue and has not yet formulated a position."

The incentive for these talks is not a governmental commitment to enforcing the law in the West Bank, sparing the Israel Defense Forces from having to devote troops to defending land thieves and saving the public treasury tens of millions of shekels a year in expenses. Nor does the urgency stem from the previous government's promise, under the road map peace plan, to evacuate all outposts established after March 2001. The talks also have no connection to the report on the outposts that attorney Talia Sasson submitted to Ariel Sharon's government two and a half years ago. Just as with the nine houses that were evacuated in the Amona outpost in early 2006, here too, were it not for fear of a Peace Now petition to the High Court of Justice, it is very doubtful the authorities would have roused from their lengthy slumber.

According to the Makor Rishon newspaper, the motive for the emerging agreement is the defense minister's need to respond to Peace Now's petition, which demands that the state evacuate the Migron outpost - the largest illegal outpost in the territories. The Yesha Council was kind enough to "agree" to relocate the outpost after it became clear that there was no legal way to regularize the status of a community built almost entirely on private Palestinian land. But law-abiding nations do not wait until non-governmental organizations and the legal system force the authorities to enforce the law and abide by international agreements.