Settlers are addicted to government money
After Netanyahu bribed settlers with a few shekels, protests against the settlement freeze dissipated.
By Aluf Benn Tags: Israel news Israel settlersBenjamin Netanyahu succeeded. His decision to include dozens of isolated settlements in the national priority map, immediately after announcing the construction freeze in areas beyond the Green Line, has achieved its aim: The settler protest against the freeze dissipated.
Instead of demonstrating against "Bibi's White Paper," instead of shouting and ripping up orders in front of television cameras, the settlers are busy with more funding that they will receive from the "evil" government.
The prime minister kicked his ideology out of concern for a clash with the U.S. administration, and his move showed that the settlers are no different from him. They have once more proved to be government-support addicts. And like those addicted to drugs or cigarettes, the settlers are happy to set aside their beliefs and principles to get their fix.
The settlers love to describe themselves as pioneers, heroes who are mounting the hills of Samaria and Judea to settle ancient parts of the homeland and fight the Arabs surrounding them.
Their narrative links religious salvation, the Biblical story and Zionist history. The settlements are presented as the heritage of the ancient Kingdom of Judea and the tower and stockade settlements from the British Mandate period.
The government in Jerusalem, like the heroes from the Book of Kings, once did what the settlers consider right, but they sinned and now must be fought.
It is a nice myth, good for some festival, but in reality the settlements were not established by divine decree but merely by the hand of ministers and officials. They are not kept in place by divine power, but with state support.
This is the same state that gave them the legal basis, the land, the security and the funding. There is nothing holy in the decisions of ministerial committees which authorized the establishment of settlements, nor anything of the sort in the activities of various ministries and local authorities in developing the outposts.
The comparison to the pioneers of old is not an exaggeration. Since the days of the first immigrations, Jewish settlement in this country was planned, organized and supported from above.
Baron Rothschild backed the first settlements, and the Zionist movement followed him. The settlers of Tel Amal, Hanita and Migdal were not entrepreneurs, but rather emissaries of the movement following orders from its institutions.
Following the establishment of the state, the government initiated, planned and subsidized the settlement activity, and the same model was copied onto the territories conquered in 1967. Even during the first years of their activities, when the settlements supposedly forced themselves onto the government, like in Hebron or Sebastia, they were immediately granted recognition and benefits from the authorities.
The tragedy of the settlers stems from their sense that the deal they have made with the state is one-sided. That from the minute they climbed atop those hills, they cannot be made to return. But the state thinks differently; when it wills it, it will settle and coddle, and when it wishes, it will evacuate and destroy.
That is what it did in Sinai, in the Gaza Strip and in northern Samaria. The state granted the settlements the status of "national priority," until it turned its back on most of them and concentrated on the development of Jewish settlement in East Jerusalem and the large settlement blocks. The result was that only a few are willing to live in the settlements beyond the separation fence, or even to visit there.
There is a minority among the settlers which opposes the life of dependency, rejects the authority of the state that destroyed Gush Katif, and threatens to refuse orders.
The extremists say that they would prefer to live in a Palestinian state if Israel pulls back from the hills. The Land of Israel is more important to them than a Zionist state.
But the majority is not like them. The elders of the settler tribe still hope that the wind will change its direction, and the state will resume granting "national priority" status to its emissaries outside the fence, directing hundreds of thousands of Jews who will bring an end to the idea of division, and will push the Arabs out.
At this time it does not look like it is going to happen. The isolated settlements will continue to suckle government support and exist on its handouts until they are evacuated.
The silence of the settlers, after Netanyahu bribed them with a few shekels, reflects the depth of their dependence on the state. And after they are evacuated, they will continue asking for help from the authorities: a permit for housing, assistance in finding a job, hooking up to the Internet. Just as happened to the settlers from Gush Katif. That is how it is when you are addicted.
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Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. |
| Photo by: (Archive) |
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This article gets to the heart of the problem with the entire settlement policy and with the settlement leadership. To compare this with the Kibbutz movement Chaim is ridiculous - they have strengthened Israel in so many ways - not weakened it
And any attempt by Netanyahu to placate them is feeding into their deception and sickness and it will surely bring ruin to Israel as the American people and the international community move away from Israel & abandons it as a symbol of human injustice & lawlessness. Dutch
"As to the Arabs, it must be a "coincidence" that their standard of living has skyrocketed since 1967." As a Palestinian that really made me laugh out loud. Our standard of living has been rocketed alright but not the way you imply. Maybe next time you are driving down your Jewish only apartheid roads you should take a detour into an Palestinian town or village and you might even see for yourself.
Your mountains of sand are washed out long time ago ! You keep build them will help no one. This will only makes the sea more out raged and will not stop the storm ! Sanity is better than illusions.
As always, Mr Lincoln turned the old carpet and find only the same thing ! "... and prevent the nation from pursuing any sane national security" ML National security depends on those who made their life duty to protect the country from its enemies within & the enemies outside. Israel spend the lion share on its security, the IDF. The settlers; besides being part of Israel natural growth, they are also an insurance for its 'national security'. With 2 insurance policies, the country is best insured.
the successive governments of Israel over the decades since 1967 began the policy of constructing settlements in disputed territory which occupied the Palestinians in return, whether for security or for ideological reasons is not the issue, but the settlers' continued their hopefulness as a result of the government's failed policy. However, any habitual action takes a lengthy time to change direction even if one is aware of the healthy benefits. Living in peace for the region's inhabitants is a health benefit which transcends all other factors.
I admit it, and eventually Esther will have to admit it as well. Your are more employed in pointless attacks on innocent Palestinian civilians. You are better educated in the ways and means of turning Zionism on its head. You may perhaps be physically healthier, but that leaves open questions regarding your mental health. You may pay more taxes,(thought I beg to doubt it), but that is only moving my taxes from one of your pockets to the other. Finally, if you believe that all that makes you a huge benefit to Israel, you are hugely mistaken.
Posted: "So it is the devine right of the rest of israel to support the settlers by paying income tax etc, receiving a smaller piece of the pie, and guard them from the dangers of the occupied." Receiving a smaller piece of the pie? Are you kidding me. We receive no piece of any pie whatsoever. The settlers receive all of the pie and more, while we are the onse who fight, die, sweat and work hard to keep those racist bigoted people alive. But don't worry my friend and I hope the settlers read this post, that the day is coming when those who receive will be the onse who will be forced to leave. We Israelis will make sure of that, you can count on it.
Instead of having opinions on events in Iran,Israelis should LEARN from them and go out to the street and demand a real democracy.......
"Settlers are addicted to government money" Ed. Who is better worth help than those who are building for the future children ! Note: They call it 'their land' ! ? And they left it for generations & generation, neglected & desolated. Only Jews pray for their land eery day & night & year after year & doing that for century after century ! A love unmatched by any other nation ! May G-d bless this land & all who live in it !
The dangerous addiction is not that the settlers could not exist without massive government subsidies; it is the government addicted to financing people who hate it and prevent the nation from pursuing any sane national security policy.
So it is the devine right of the rest of israel to support the settlers by paying income tax etc, receiving a smaller piece of the pie, and guard them from the dangers of the occupied.
No israel, No Palestine. One State Solution is the best for all. One Man, One Vote, Equality for all inhabitants. Equal Pay for Equal Work, Equal Water Rights. No Apartheid, No Segregation...A Very True Secular Democrac Let us call it :?State of Holy Land?.
Who is sponsoring Beilin ?How come that he doesn`t declare It? Who is sponsoring Peace Now and all other dear pro-Palestinian jewish organizations? Why transparency is not an obligation for the Left ?
...for the settlements when there is a huge lack of money for many purposes -the health care, the education, the industry, the third of Israeli children live under the poverty level? Hard to believe that it is only to give homes for those "homeless persons" coming from all over the world. There are still enough areas elsewhere in Israel so the goals are surely something else.
I realize that quantifiable facts get in the way of your ideology, but one of these days you'll just have to accept them: We are more employed, better educated, healthier, pay more taxes, and serve more in the most elite units of the IDF. That alone makes us a huge benefit to Israel, and it also means that those less-fortunate can have more resources that we help provide. As to the Arabs, it must be a "coincidence" that their standard of living has skyrocketed since 1967. But since you seem to be SO concerned about settling the Galilee and the Negev and helping the less-fortunate (sarcasm to the max), why don't you leave comfy Tel Aviv and move to Netivot or Sderot or Beit Shean? Stop pontificating and start doing something- for once. Like we do.
Which government doesn't spend money on its communities? Is each community an island which is supposed to be completely self-sufficient?
... having heard them from you so many times previously... ... the point is that your achievements are so blatantly at the expense of less fortunate Israeli citizens, and even more so at the expense of our neighbor's, the Pals...
....and well funded terrorism. Israel has made every possible effort to sabotage any possible hope of peace in the region.
... for a long time now... ... yet he is impervious to what it really implies, beyond the extreme health, vitality and self-satisfaction of his fellow settlers... ... apparently for Yishai and his cohorts all is kosher for the sake of the settlement-industry... floundering border towns, impoverished slums in the cities and suchlike are inconsequential...
Are they also "biased"? And if the College of Judea and Samaria is incorrect, can you show any studies that actually prove it? I didn't think so. Cold hard facts can be so troublesome sometimes, eh? Oh well. Esther, If you care to actually read, what the study shows is that we CONTRIBUTE MORE, so there's more for others as well. Face it: We're good for the Jews.
just how parasitic the relationship is between the settlers and proper Israelis, they will make the cost so high politically for parties to support these parasites within Israeli society. That the parasites will move back into Israel proper as there is no profit in being in the illegally occupied territories. It is not without irony that when the parasites were removed from Gaza a good number left Israel for South America as it ceased to become profitable to be an ordinary decent Israeli living behind the greenline.
Yishai cites the "College of Judea and Samaria" based in the settlement of Ariel. How surprising then that their 'study' finds that settlers are healthier and better citizens than other Israelis. Really, Yishai, you may choose to turn off your critical capacity but don't assume that the rest of us have done the same.
... sovreign Israel... millions, possibly billions have been invested in the settler industry, overtly and covertly... often at the expense of small Israel towns, that are now whithering... where industries are floundering or closing down, for lack of public funding... yet settlments for the most part lead the delux subsidized life that you describe...
There are roughly two types of settkers.Some of them are ideologically or religiously committed to settle "The Land of Israel".Rather many of them are Israeli jews in search of cheaper housing and higher quality of life( the settlements are heavily subsidized). So how it feels to live on the others'expense? Not only the Palestinians but also Israelis?
after Kadima bribed them with a few shekels, reflects the depth of their dependence on the state. And after they are evacuated, they will continue asking for help from the authorities: a permit for housing, assistance in finding a job, hooking up to the Internet. Just as happened to the border police , police and IDF illegal collaboration in the crime against humanity to expell jews from Gush Katif. That is how it is when you are addicted to left propaganda , choice of vocabulary, constructed phraseology , biased terminology , to money , when your career is threatened . That is why Dhimmedias hates Lieberman, for if the masses of lefties listen to him , they would wake up of their Hypnosis and realise that dhimmedias and the left enslaved them to hatred , cheap demagoguery , cheap populism , dhimmitude .
settlers knows what illegal orders are and "threatens to refuse orders". -But the state "national priority," will evacuate and destroy . Except that the IDF is a army made of and for the people-citizens and certainly not for the gov't of the State . Moreover when such Israel citizenry refusal to obey orders comes in light of "There is nothing 'legal' nor holy in the 'illegetime' , arbitrary, dictator like decisions of State-gov't , ministerial committees which authorized the expulsion of jews from Gaza, Homesh etc... nor anything 'ethical-morale' of the sort in the crime against humanity from activities of various ministries and local authorities that collaborated in the expulsion of the Jews from Gaza and their heartland and in terming as 'illegal' the outposts .
from the start we have had it in israel, the votes of the religious block for example shutting some of the noice by finnancing everything haredi, exemptions from national service, or just pure bribery. we got to admit, our system is built on political prostitution, so why not the settlers? they are just as jewish as the rest of us.
"Life in Yesha is Good for You" (Sep 22, '03) A just released statistical study carried out by the College of Judea and Samaria shows that the Jewish population of Judea, Samaria and Gaza is healthier, more educated and better employed than the Jewish population on the other side of the 1967 ?Green Line?. According to the study, Yesha residents participate more in the civilian work force and earn more per person than residents of other parts of the country. At the same time, they also receive fewer social welfare benefits. The Yesha population has a higher percentage of high-school graduates than the rest of the country. Furthermore, Yesha residents are hospitalized less than their countrymen in other areas of the state. http://www.israelnationalnews.com/news.php3?id=50127 Nothing has changed since then.
Well spoken Aluf Benn. The settlers are draining Israel of well needed tax money, risking the sequrity of all Isarel and not least has ruined Israels reputation in all world. Let's offer everyone east of the green line to move home to Israel and stay Isareli citizens. Or make a dela with the PA to give the one that refuses palestinian citizenship. It would be in the instrest of Isarel.
... you've joined the fray as the (un)official settler spokesman...
What a strange attitude from a Settler to the Kibbutzim! Actually the Kibbutz presented a human, caring face of Israel which attracted many young people in my youth (non-Jews) to come and help them. They didn't stray beyond the accepted boundaries of Israel and did much to help with agrigulture etc. True, the experiment failed - we look forward to a similar faiure of the Settlements.
Their average income is higher, their average educational levels are higher, they average far less sickness than the general population, their contribution to society through volunteerism and army service is higher. So yes, they are "pioneers, heroes who are mounting the hills of Samaria and Judea to settle ancient parts of the homeland and fight the Arabs surrounding them." And a majority of Israelis, including secular Israelis, view them as the modern-day Maccabees- in a positive way. Aluf Benn is just bitter that we all realize that.
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Funny how the very people who accused Yeshivas and Settlers of taking government money were the very ones that bank rolled their failed experiment called the Kibbutz movement aka welfare movement where the state had to pay for these left wing extremist loafers to play commie while we all built the nation. Now we handed the states land to these bon vivants so they can gossip freely in their cheder ohchels (dining rooms). Kibbutzim now squat on Israeli land that was handed over to them for free while they try to give our homes to Arabs who are our enemies. Our homes are no less valid then your welfare homes on the Kibbutz.
If the 'settlers' act violently against this absurd policy, then they are disloyal citizens who are trying to ignore the law and disaffect the army.If they act quietly, then they are loathsome money grubbers who will sell their heritage for a bowl of lentil soup. No matter what, the 'settlers' are wrong. At least the author is consistent in his illogic.
Aluf Benn ignores the ?old Yishuv? of the original religious, pre-Political Zionist aliyah which created Petach Tikva, Kfar Saba, the expansion of Jewish neighbourhoods in Jerusalem beyond the walls, and many other new Jewish settlements including Tel-Aviv itself. None of these were planned ?from above? and certainly not either by Baron Rothschild or the Political Zionists. After 1920, the Political Zionists were put in control by Britain and only allowed immigration and settlement that suited their purposes.