“We have made a historic decision for the development of settlements: 22 new communities in Judea and Samaria, renewing development in the north of Samaria, and reinforcing the eastern axis of the State of Israel,” tweeted Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich.
Defense Minister Israel Katz echoed Smotrich’s tweet, writing that the initiative “changes the face of the region and shapes the future of development for years to come.”
While this announcement caused great excitement among Israeli and Diaspora advocates of Jewish expansion in Judea and Samaria, it caused distress, even despondency, among those opposing the development of Jewish towns in Israel’s heartland.
In a statement, the left-wing Peace Now movement said, “The Israeli government no longer pretends otherwise: the annexation of the Occupied Territories and expansion of settlements is its central goal. The cabinet’s decision to establish 22 new settlements – the most extensive move of its kind since the Oslo Accords, under which Israel committed not to establish new settlements – will dramatically reshape the West Bank and entrench the occupation even further.
Observers of this region have remarked on the restrained response of international organizations and other nations, which usually race to loudly condemn announcements of Israeli growth in Judea and Samaria.
In the past, when it was announced that new apartments in Jerusalem were to be constructed, then-vice president Joe Biden canceled his dinner with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and former secretary of state Hillary Clinton lambasted Netanyahu for 45 minutes over the phone. Now, there was no response by the US State Department to the announcement of 22 new communities in Judea and Samaria.
Although the European Union, the United Nations, and a few European nations issued standard criticism of the announcement of new communities, their condemnations were relatively muted and included no serious threats of sanctions or other diplomatic consequences.
The loudest condemnations came from Hamas, which accused Israel of “Accelerating steps to Judaize Palestinian land within a clear annexation project. This is a blatant defiance of the international will and a grave violation of international law and United Nations resolutions.”
Unprecedented silence over West Bank settlement expansion
THIS RELATIVE silence over the announcement is unprecedented, especially when the size and scope of the community expansion are considered. The muted reaction might be ascribed to the world’s focus on Israel’s war against Palestinian terrorists in Gaza, the kidnapped hostages that the Palestinians are holding in Gaza, and the new aid program Israel and America instituted this past week to feed Gazans.
The relative silence can also be attributed to world acquiescence to the reality that Israeli communities in Judea and Samaria have been growing for 58 years and are only going to expand as Israel’s Jewish population outgrows the Palestinians in Judea and Samaria.
The development of communities, which the world derisively characterizes as “settlements,” began in the late 1960s, following Israel’s stunning victory over Arab forces in the 1967 Six Day War. Israel began building communities in the lands it captured and recaptured during the war, including the Sinai desert, the Gaza Strip, the Golan Heights, and Judea and Samaria.
The global community, and even some Israelis, opposed some of these communities, claiming they violated international law, were an occupation of land set for a Palestinian state, and were an impediment to peace with the Palestinians and the wider Arab community.
The Oslo Accords of the 1990s offered Palestinians self-rule over their major population areas in the Gaza Strip, and Judea and Samaria. This would’ve allowed Palestinians autonomy over their towns, allowing independence, liberty, and self-determination, while allowing Israel to govern and secure Gaza and Judea and Samaria.
As the Oslo peace process faltered, it transformed into the two-state solution movement. Over the next two decades, the two-state solution movement itself failed. Instead of peace, Israel faced the Second Intifada, countless wars, operations, and rocket fire from Palestinians.
The two-state solution was doomed to fail because the Palestinians were more interested in annihilating the Jewish state than establishing their own state. The Palestinian Authority, an organization established to be a moderate force in the region, ended up a corrupt tyranny that incentivized Palestinians to commit terrorism and became the ultimate impediment to peace.
Even the strongest advocates for the two-state solution agreed that over 80% of Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria would remain under Israeli control, with full rights to expand and develop.
As these advocates began to articulate their positions, the ludicrousness of denying Jews their right to live, develop, and govern the heartland of their homeland, while giving them half of their land outside of their heartland, became apparent. Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria became normalized in all but the most extreme corners of the Israeli-Palestinian space.
The October 7, 2023, Hamas invasion of Israel and massacre has made it clear that Palestinian violence and terrorism aren’t driven by Israeli “settlements.” It is now obvious to all that the massacre and Palestinian terrorism are an outgrowth of an inherent Palestinian culture that prioritizes attacking Israel over improving its own circumstances.
The next logical step the world must take is to recognize that it is absurd to fight for archaic solutions like two states, deny Jews the rights to their homeland, and pretend that Jewish towns are the impediments to peace, when the biggest impediment to peace is Palestinian terrorism.
In an ideal world, a two-state solution with a Palestinian Western-style democracy that shares values with America and Israel, like equality, human rights, and freedom, would be wonderful. However, Palestinian actions and policies have made it obvious that Palestinians have no interest in such a state.
It’s time to set aside archaic, failed ideas and look for ideas that can improve the lives of the people in the region. First is to return to the parts of the Oslo Accords that make sense. Palestinians should have political autonomy over their towns. They should enjoy independence, liberty, and self-determination.
Israel should be allowed to annex, govern, and secure Judea and Samaria. The forces opposing Israeli settlements have failed; they couldn’t “beat the settlers.” Now it’s time for them to join the Jews of Judea and Samaria and their allies to improve Israeli and Palestinian lives.
The writer is a certified interfaith hospice chaplain in Jerusalem and the mayor of Mitzpe Yeriho, where she lives with her husband and six children.