What makes this settlement freeze different from any other?
The consequence of the freeze will be a potentially violent conflict between settlers and police.
By Amos Harel Tags: Israel news settlement building Israel settlers"One thing, at least, is emphatically different this time from all the previous rounds," said an Israel Defense Forces officer intimately who has been involved with the situation in the West Bank for over a decade.
"The political echelon has finally stopped winking. This is the first time we're receiving clear, detailed instructions on how to deal with building in the settlements," he said. "No one is trying to cut corners - instructions were given and we're operating according to them."
If he is right, the inevitable consequence will be a more heated, potentially violent conflict between security services and settlers. Opponents of the freeze have an interest in inflaming tempers to move a large number of protesters to join a demonstration planned for two days from now. They also need media noise - the more students of religious girls' seminaries dragged on the ground by masked police officers the better.
The distribution of freeze orders in the Gav-Havar outposts, which draw large numbers of ideologically heated settlers, is likely to meet violent resistance. There is also the potential "price tag" policy - of bringing violence and destruction upon nearby Palestinian villages.
Yesterday a house and vehicle went up in flames near Nablus. The army fears such acts will only grow more serious in the days to come. Shin Bet security service estimates point to a large segment of the so-called hilltop youth supporting this kind of violence.
Maj. Gen. (Res.) Amos Gilad, who yesterday handed the position of coordinator of government activities in the territories to Maj. Gen. Eitan Dangot, told participants at a conference marking the handover that the Civil Administration now stands before "an unprecedented [law] enforcement challenge."
Even the operational headquarters of the army's combat brigades are preparing an operation to implement the freeze; the Civil Administration is likely to lead the confrontation, while under police security. The army will soon have to increase its involvement, too. A broader distribution of orders - particularly the confiscation of goods and demolition of homes built in violation of the freeze - will meet rising opposition, demanding more bodies on the ground and troops potentially refusing to obey orders.
Meanwhile, the army and police are keeping a low profile. IDF Chief of Staff Gabi Ashkenazi left this morning for the Far East, and other top brass are not talking to the media about the goings-on in the West Bank.
Four phenomena
The past week's events represented some interesting phenomena:
1. The army is taking a tougher tone. Last week new GOC Central Command Avi Mizrahi visited the pre-army preparatory program in the settlement of Eli. Eli is the mother of prep programs, not a hotbed of insubordination. Many a battalion and company commander are graduates, of whom the religious Zionist community is justly proud. While there, officers took a tough line against rabbis exhorting students to insubordination - no small thing in a place like Eli.
2. U.S. President Barack Obama has united the settlers. At the moment, the struggle against the freeze is being waged on both sides of the separation fence. Beit Aryeh, minutes from the Green Line, is taking a lead among the hardliners. America's demand for a comprehensive freeze has created, for the first time in a while, common ground between Beit Aryeh, Yitzhar and Migron. Settlers of all stripes have signed the High Court petition against the freeze.
3. Foundations have been laid. The past few months, in which the government delayed responding to pressure from Washington, gave the settlers time to organize. Because the date for the freeze was set in late November, great efforts were made to lay hundreds of housing units as facts on the ground. The missions seem to have worked - building continues in many such settlements, viewed as legitimate by the government and exempted from the freeze.
4. How long will the drought last? The recurring complaint last week, heard among regional council heads across the West Bank, was that the freeze was halting plans about to be carried out, plans supposedly already authorized. It's a surprising claim, as for years the settlers have complained of being "dried out" by the government, which they claimed wouldn't allow them to so much as enclose their balconies. If indeed all of the recent administrations, from Sharon to Olmert, "dried them out," then when exactly did these construction projects Netanyahu is trying to undermine actually spring up?
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The trouble with being a big frog in a very small pond is that one can forget that there is a real world out there. It will be very uncomfortable for you when you are forced to realize that.
but what WILL, is bibi's hesitation to deal with it decisively. if he backs down from it, or fails to confront it head on to firmly subdue it; THAT'S what will bring him down. by mistake or not, he's exposed the poisonous core of the settlement enterprise; so NOW he's got to show the world, and israelis, WHO is in control of israel.
It's imaginary, for one thing. As the piece notes, many, many projects have been started -- and may be completed. So many in fact, that even if the 'freeze' is enforced, 2010 will be a record year for settlement growth. But there will still be a fight over the 'freeze' -- not that one will be occurring in any meaningful sense. That way Israel can pretend it's giving up something, and a wearying Obama can go along. 'Look, Israel is making sacrifices -- now would you Palestinians give up something.' I wish I could say too bad no one will be fooled. However, people will be 'fooled' -- because they prefer to be. It's just like the Germans used to attach carloads of farm implements to the trains of Jews being sent to be 'resettled.' No one actually BELIEVED this was what was happening -- but they could pretend to themselves that they believed. The same thing will happen here.
Do you fools not realize: 1) That to virtually all Palestinians Tel Aviv, Rehovot and Holon are every bit as much 'settlements' as are Ariel and Maale Adumim? 2) that only when Jews maintain a resolute posture does the world acquiesce, and that when Jews do not, the world just pressures more and more and more? 3) that Oslo and Gaza only resulted in more rockets and terrorism, and that Gaza and Oslo thus proved that freezes and withdrawals only embolden those who wuld disrupt and terrorize the lives of Israelis? That we have, in effect, been there and done this -- time and time again, and each time with disastrous results? Do you have a brain? Do you take note of recent history? Do you take note of scientific cause and effect? Of measurable statistics? Are you rational? Or do you simply, in the classic definition of one who is crazy, simply keep doing the same thing again and again but yet somehow, against all canons of logic and experience, expect a different result?
just ask the usa and the others to take over and maybe they,ll run things better ?? it will save alot of money on elections and mks and the ministers!!!!!!!!!!
The 500,000 settlers who get cheap land, free roads and subsidies, or the 6.5 million in Israel who pay for them, Josiah Ben David? They might arguably have rather different ideas about what the Government should do. Before anyone argues that the right won the election, they did not on the issue of a Greater Israel. Lieberman excused Yisrael Beitenu when he said in February "I also advocate the creation of a viable Palestinian state'. There cannot be both an Eretz Israel and a viable Palestinian state, it's either one or the other. The remaining 5 coalition partners who are committed to an Eretz Israel polled 40.7% of the vote. 40.7% is not a majority and the Government would be right to represent the majority view.
A nation adrift since Oslo has lost it's way and it's soul.Israel is always the only one required to prove it wants peace while the Islamic terrorists are always rewarded and the 'settlers punished. Tired of defeating it's enemies Israel has hung it's neck on to the failed land for nothing agenda of the replacement god they serve in Washington. Appeasement and capitulation are the only remaining strengths the nation maintains to gain the love of the worthless nations.
"One thing, at least, is emphatically different this time from all the previous rounds," said an Israel Defense Forces officer intimately who has been involved with the situation in the West Bank for over a decade." - Amos Harel At least he is admitting that all other Freezes were frauds. Now about all that construction approved after the Freeze was ordered. . . Sounds like this one is a fraud too.
The settler movement in the West Bank has been bad policy from the beginning. It ha encouraged a rightousness that defies conventional wisdom in it's implementation. Neglect and overt abuse of the Palestians has created a heritage of violence. Can and would the settlers ever become viable citizens of a Palestinian state? Can they be effectively relocated into Israel? Can a land trade occur with any equity that would assure a contiguous, independent, viable Palestinian state? Unfortunately the settlers are a barrier to peace, but only because te Israeli government has historically encouraged them. Ben Gurion and Dayan both foresaw this dilemma after the 1967 war. Israel needs to now face reality. What sacrifices is it prepared to make for a rational and just peace with it's neighbors? Lasting peace will not come easy but is critical for Israel'survival. If Israel does not act wisely, demographics will ultimately will ultimately address the issue of a Jewish state.
If the cost of living becomes higher to living in settlements than in Israel proper, that would force many settlers to leave. Many of the settlers are in a since being pay to living in the settlements by way of Gov. and NGO subsidizes. It is cheaper to living in a house in the settlement than an apartment in Israel, even though they are less than 3miles apart. Many foreign Jews rent apartments in Israel but don't live there, over 9000 in Jerusalem alone, this keeps rent high. Due to this high rent many Israelis are force to live in settlements to make ends mean.
worth fighting for in the face of any and all odds or is it not? Will the freeze be resisted in every possible way and can this resistance break the back of the Bibi government. The side that is willing to go on fighting will prevail. This resistance must be thought of , not in terms of weeks or months, but years and decades or until this government is replaced by one not intent on inflicting injustice and tyranny on its own people. This is clearly a lose-lose for Bibi ! Government exists to benefit and serve the people not the other way around !
The status quo before the freeze was that approval for new development was difficult to obtain but building permit authority rested with the local councils. If there were problems with balcony building, it was due to bureaucratic delay rather than political considerations. The problem now is less the ten month moratorium and more the fear of long term or permanent freeze on construction, as a first step in the dismanting of the settlements. The real shock is that the moratorium includes areas inside the security fence that have never been marked for transfer to the Palestinians.
is for inspectors to arrive with bulldozers in tow... in order to navigate any obstructions encountered to the fulfillment of their duties, and to deal with building infractions "on the spot".
Care about the state of Israel and want to save the country? Arrest immediately those settlers using violence to further their aims. Make no mistake...these are not friends of the people. They are nothing but enemies of the people. Human life takes a back seat in their mind to dogma, ritual, and myth. They hate the Jewish people, and do not accept their evolution. They are like the minions of Bar Kochbar and the esteemed Akiva, a "righteous" man who erred on the side of violence and extremism and caused the ultimate catastrophe of the people. Did you think it was Jesus?
see how long they will block roads. The police's attempt to enforce the freeze is nothing but a farce.
All previous 'settlement freezes' were shams and that is all this one is. Bibi is trying to run the clock out on Obama by pretending to go along until next years congressional elections castrate Obama. In reality, Obama castrated himself by submitting to Netanyahu earlier this year, but Netanyahu has dumped such humiliation upon Obama since that he is wise to cover his six by pretending to pursue peace.