By John Reed, FT
Just off Highway 60, the Israeli road that slices through the West Bank, ferrying Jewish settlers from jobs in Jerusalem to their hillside homes on occupied Palestinian lands, hang banners reading, “Preserve the country – don’t surrender to Kerry”.
The Yesha Council, the administrative body that represents Israel ‘s large and growing settler community in the occupied West Bank and Arab East Jerusalem, unveiled the message during protests at roadside junctions this month, along with an advertising campaign warning of what it says are the dangers posed by the peace talks led by John Kerry.
Another banner, not sponsored by Yesha, warns motorists that
- “the third Oslo agreement” is nigh, with an image of a torch. “When it flares up, it will be too late,” it warns. “We must extinguish now.”
The campaign reflects the power of the settler lobby in Israel, which is bigger and better organised than at any time in the country’s past. More than 500,000 Israelis live on land Israel seized during the 1967 Six day war in settlements that are illegal under international law.
“The most vital interests and the most vital rights of Israel are on the table, and I suggest every citizen of Israel be involved,” Dani Dayan, Yesha’s chief foreign envoy, says in an interview at the Psagot winery, located in a Jewish settlement near the de facto Palestinian capital, Ramallah. “Even if the chances of an agreement are slim, we want to be involved, and we have to influence the discussion.”
Rightwing politicians and lobbyists have been railing against the talks since Mr Kerry launched them last July, in parallel with Israel’s release of the first of four groups of Palestinian prisoners.
With the Americans now squeezing both sides to make commitments on core issues, such as borders and security, the backlash is gathering force.
The urbane and amiable Mr Dayan, an Argentine-born former Tel Aviv businessman who moved to a northern West Bank settlement in 1988, calls the talks, under which the Americans are pushing both sides towards a framework of agreed principles leading to a final-status agreement, an “exercise in futility”.
“The problem is, it can cause collateral damage on the way: it can bring violence, cause frustration,” he says. “It can also make Israel make unnecessary concessions, like the abhorrent release of terrorists.”
Naftali Bennett, the economy minister and head of the pro-settler Jewish Home party, reacted angrily on Sunday to remarks attributed to an official in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office, who said that some settlements might in future fall under Palestinian sovereignty. “We did not return to the land of Israel, after 2,000 years of longing, to live under the government of [President] Mahmoud Abbas,” he said.
Israeli moderates and leftwingers are also rallying, writing and speaking up in favour of a peace deal, but their numbers have been small and they have struggled to be heard amid the widespread scepticism on the peace talks.
Yair Lapid, the finance minister, recently rallied hundreds of members of his middle-of-the-road Yesh Atid party’s supporters at road intersections around Israel, bearing signs saying “Parting in Peace”.
“We must not leave the streets to those who object to the peace process,” Mr Lapid told party activists gathered in the coastal cities of Tel Aviv and Netanya.
Analysts say the battle for public opinion for or against a peace deal will be hardest fought in Israel’s political centre.
The first of Yesha’s adverts focused on security in the Jordan valley, where Israel wants to maintain troops after an independent Palestine is created, a demand the Palestinians reject as an affront to their sovereignty. The advert quotes past prime ministers Yitzhak Rabin, Ariel Sharon and Menachem Begin on the need to “safeguard the Jordan valley”. Mr Dayan describes the campaign as “moderate” and “not aggressive”.
“When you talk about the general Israeli public, the centre does not support settlers but the centre believes that for security reasons the Jordan valley is important,” says Shlomo Avineri, professor of politics at Hebrew University in Jerusalem. “Dayan has realised that getting people to defend the settlements is difficult but getting them to defend the Jordan valley will give [the settlers] a larger constituency.”
Future adverts in the campaign will focus on a “united Jerusalem”, Mr Dayan says – reflecting many Israelis’ refusal to brook a Palestinian capital in the occupied Arab east of the city – and “the impossibility of defending the 1967 borders”.
Yesha’s campaign “doesn’t attack Mr Netanyahu”, says Mr Dayan, who endorsed him in last year’s election, but since then it, like many rightwing members of the prime minister’s Likud party, has criticised him for not taking a tougher stance in the talks. The prime minister’s adoption of a two-state solution is “a departure from Likud policies [and] we regret it,” he says.
@ nfarbstein:
Just listen to yourself!
The West wants to sell the Jews at any price to the Muslims. The Muslims refuse the pay the price. They want the Jews dead or in the sea. The NGOs are working hard to it!
Who is this John Reed and why is his crap printed here? He is obviously an idiot parroting the left’s anti Israel garbage of occupied Palestinian lands, Arab East Jerusalem, etc or an anti-Semite demonizing Israel. Send him back where he came from. Don’t bother arguing with the likes of him.
yamit82 Said:
Link fixed. We’re like two
peespeas in a pod!But you have to admit, it’s as if Fartstein has something up his arse.
yamit82 Said:
Bahtehl b’shishim. 🙂
Sharp increase in terrorist attacks in Judea and Samaria
There were 1,271 terrorist attacks in Judea and Samaria in 2013, compared to 578 in 2012, according to figures provided by Shin Bet • Five Israelis were killed and 44 were wounded in the attacks • Stark decline in attacks emanating from Gaza Strip.
There was a sharp increase in terrorist attacks in Judea and Samaria, especially in the southern Judea region, in 2013 compared to the previous year, according to figures provided by the Shin Bet security agency on Monday.
The Shin Bet said that 1,271 terrorist attacks took place in Judea and Samaria in 2013, compared to 578 in 2012. Five Israelis were killed and 44 were wounded in those attacks. In 2012, no Israelis were killed and 40 were wounded.
According to the Shin Bet, the increase in terrorist attacks is a general phenomenon but was highlighted by the number of times “hot” weapons such as firearms, grenades and other explosives were used. In 2013, there were 201 such “hot” attacks, compared to 37 in 2012.
The bulk of the terrorist attacks in 2013 were perpetrated during the final few months of the year, characterized in most cases by one or two attackers operating alone, as opposed to being sent by a terrorist organization.
In the Gaza Strip, meanwhile, there has actually been a stark decline in the number of attacks. There were 55 attacks in 2013 (in which one Israeli was killed), compared to 1,130 in 2012. The decrease was attributed to the understandings reached between Israel and Hamas following Operation Pillar of Defense in November 2012.
NEVER BELIEVE ANYTHING BB SAYS!!! (Yamit82) Sorry Shy Guy for my shitty “NETIQUETTE”
@ nfarbstein:
@ Shy Guy:
Can’t we all be friends???
@ nfarbstein:
Netiquette
THIS ARTICLE IS GARBAGE!
Laura Said:
THE HISTORICAL CONNECTION OF THE JEWISH PEOPLE TO THE LAND OF ISRAEL (FORMERLY ‘PALESTINE’) LEGALLY WAS RECOGNIZED BY THE ‘MANDATE FOR PALESTINE,’ AS PER ARTICLE 22 OF THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS COVENANT OF THE TREATY OF VERSAILLES. THIS LEGAL RIGHT INITIALLY WAS ENSHRINED INTO INTERNATIONAL LAW AT THE SAN REMO CONFERENCE. IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE BALFOUR DECLARATION AS ADOPTED BY THE ALLIED POWERS AT THE SAN REMO CONFERENCE, IT PROVIDED FOR NATIONAL INDEPENDENCE AND/OR SELF-DETERMINATION OF THE JEWISH PEOPLE THROUGH “THE ESTABLISHMENT IN PALESTINE OF A NATIONAL HOME FOR THE JEWISH PEOPLE” AND “THE RECONSTITUTION THERE OF THEIR STATE OF OLD.”
Laura Said:
AS A “GENERAL PRINCIPAL OF INTERNATIONAL LAW, NO LEGAL RIGHT MAY SPRING FROM A WRONG” AND “THERE SHALL BE NO WEIGHT TO CONQUEST.” THEREFORE, ISRAEL, WHICH INHERETED THE SOVEREIGN RIGHTS (SEE ABOVE) OF THE JEWISH PEOPLE OVER PALESTINE, HAS THE LEGAL RIGHT TO KEEP ALL THE LANDS IT LIBERATED OR RECLAIMED DEFENSIVELY IN THE SIX DAY WAR AND WHICH ORIGINALLY WERE INCLUDED IN THE JEWISH NATIONAL HOME AT THE TIME OF THE MANDATE. THIS FURTHER IS CONFIRMED BY UNITED NATIONS SECURITY COUNCIL RESOLUTION 242 OF NOVEMBER 1967, WHICH BOTH UPHOLDS THE CHARTER’S PRINCIPAL THAT “ALL MEMBERS SHALL REFRAIN FROM THE THREAT OR USE OF FORCE AGAINST THE TERRITORIAL INTEGRITY OR POLITICAL INDEPENDENCE OF ANY STATE” AND REITERATES THE ABOVE PRINCIPALS THAT “THE ACQUISITION OF TERRITORY BY WAR IS INADMISSIBLE.”
Aside from Reed’s asserting as fact that Israel is in illegal occupation when that statement is mere opinion and highly debatable at that, his piece does fairly identify some key issues between the right and Jews living beyond the green line and the left.
Back home in the real world of Israel:
Outrage on Temple Mount: Strip Searches and Arrests
Three Jews arrested for having Israeli flag, another expelled from holiest site in brutal police operation. Others hit by Waqf.
Again: Hamas Cell Nabbed on Temple Mount
16 arrested as police nab terror cell that attacked Jews, worked to strengthen Hamas presence in Jerusalem.
Such loaded language.
Who’s land is being occupied since it never belonged to a sovereign, and what makes it Arab east Jerusalem? The fact that Jordan conquered and illegally occupied those areas of Jerusalem for 19 years and kicked out Jews, therefore making the area “Arab”? There is no such thing as east and west Jerusalem or Arab east Jerusalem. There is only Jerusalem.
Israel seized land? Israel was attacked by multiple Arab states and won the territory in a war of self-defense. And what international law has declared settlements illegal?
I’m so sick of these fallacies and them going unchallenged.