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Haaretz On Settlements

Today's Haaretz includes three interesting columns on the Jewish settlement of Judea, Samaria and Gaza.

Writing from a right-wing perspective and lamenting government opposition to settlement outposts, Nadav Shargai asserts that:

"'Unauthorized settlement outposts' have existed here for many years, ever since Jewish settlement in the Land of Israel resumed in the early 20th century."

Shargai argues, in part, that: "Morally, there is no difference between the settlement of parts of the Land of Israel inhabited by Arabs in the early 20th century and settlements and outposts in parts of the Land of Israel inhabited by Arabs in the early 21st century. Either both are moral, or both are immoral...

"Both settlement movements were the product of normative political Zionism. Settlements in the Negev and the Galilee were political, just as settlements in Judea, Samaria and Gaza are political... That is how Israel was built. Even some of the 'major settlement blocs' that Sharon (still?) wants to keep began their lives as unauthorized outposts. Even Ma'aleh Adumim, a large city, the largest settlement in the territories, began as an outpost with temporary housing."

Former Foreign Minister and Defense Minister Moshe Arens strongly criticizes the failure of a long-term strategy by those who have planned settlement of Yesha. Arens, an opponent of Sharon's unilateral withdrawal plan, writes:

"In encouraging at first the establishment of scattered small settlements without any clear direction, and then launching a plan for the unilateral uprooting of small settlements and the Gush Katif settlement block, there seems to have been an abundance of tactical moves but certainly no evidence of a long-term strategy. The basic variables of the problems facing Israel - the Palestinians, demographics and national security - have not sufficiently changed in past years to warrant this kind of a turnaround. It is unlikely to lead Israel in the right direction."

Finally, left-wing columnist Yoel Marcus reminds readers that "the truth of the matter is that after 1967, it was the left that laid the foundations for settlement in the territories."

Indeed, Marcus writes: "After the Six-Day War, the Labor governments began settling the occupied territories. Beit El, Elkana, Kiryat Arba, Kedumim - these settlements, and others, were the handiwork of the Labor party."

(Marcus is actually wrong about Beit El, which was established months after Menachem Begin was elected in 1977. Ofra, down the road from Beit El, was established in 1975, when Yitzhak Rabin was Prime Minister and indirectly paved the way for Beit El's foundation.)

Marcus is right that Gush Emunim got its start under Rabin's first government, in the mid-1970's. In this regard, the other day, I was going through some of my father's old Jewish Press columns from the 1970's, some of which criticized Rabin's ambivalent approach to Gush Emunim, which resulted in Israel's failure to have a coherent policy vis a vis Judea and Samaria. When Begin was elected, Gush Emunim and Sharon pushed for a number of new settlements to be established.
posted on 3/15/2005