“Not one single brick” was Netanyahu’s slogan for whenever settler leaders urged him to approve new construction, a reference to a phrase he heard from Obama in one of their first meetings.
Tucked among rows of luscious vineyards and olive trees, a new settlement has come to life in the West Bank. It is called Amihai and it is the first Jewish community to be built and approved by Israel in Judea and Samaria in the last 25 years.
For now, Amihai is still under construction. Built after the evacuation last year of the illegal outpost of Amona, the residents live in 36 temporary trailer homes as they await construction of the permanent structures the government promised to build for them just below the settlement of Shiloh, once upon a time the home of the Mishkan, the Israelites’ ancient tabernacle.
The vineyards are owned by Meshek Achiya, a winery and olive press that manufactures award-winning olive oil and has established a name for its high-quality products not just in Israel, but also throughout Europe and the Far East. What about boycotts, I asked the CEO during a recent tour of the area. Boycotts don’t affect us, he replied. The olive oil is simply too good for consumers to pass on.
Three weeks ago, in June, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was supposed to come to Amihai for an inauguration ceremony. A few days before the event though, he canceled and his office has yet to schedule a new date. Why? No one I spoke to really knows.
This is interesting because last year at a cornerstone-laying ceremony for a new neighborhood in the ultra-Orthodox settlement of Beitar Illit, Netanyahu boasted that “no government has done more for the settlement movement than the one under my leadership.”
But that is not exactly accurate. While the decision to build Amihai was the first in 25 years, it came under duress and extreme political pressure. Netanyahu had little flexibility when forced to evacuate Amona and he needed a way to balance the images of a forcible evacuation. Establishing a new settlement was the perfect way to do that. But to say that no one has built like Netanyahu seems to many residents of Judea and Samaria as an exaggeration.
They refer to statistics. In the first quarter of 2018, for example, construction in Judea and Samaria dropped to a six-year low with only 250 housing starts, the lowest number since 2012. In all of 2017, there were 1,643 starts, almost half of the number in 2016.
This seems to not make sense. In 2012 and 2016 Barack Obama was the president of the United States and Netanyahu faced tremendous pressure to cut back on settlement construction. “Not one single brick” was Netanyahu’s slogan for whenever settler leaders urged him to approve new construction, a reference to a phrase he heard from Obama in one of their first meetings.
But with Donald Trump in office since 2017, why is the construction declining and not increasing? The Trump administration is perceived by many on the Right to be the most pro-Israel White House in years, demonstrated by the transfer of the embassy to Jerusalem as well as the pullout from the Iran nuclear deal. Israel, these settlement proponents claim, needs to take advantage of this unique window of opportunity.
These people might be right, but I think the real reason Israel is not launching a massive construction campaign is because Netanyahu prefers not to take irreversible steps. It is a trait that has characterized his premiership since the day he returned to office in 2009.
If, for example, Netanyahu decided to annex all of the so-called settlement blocs – Ma’aleh Adumim, Gush Etzion, Ariel and more – it would easily pass in the Knesset. Such legislation would receive the support of the entire coalition as well as Yair Lapid’s Yesh Atid party and even some part of Avi Gabbay’s Zionist Union. Its likely that the White House would even stay quiet and hold back from condemning such a move.
SO WHY doesn’t he do it? Why doesn’t he take steps that would lead Israel in a clear direction? When Obama was president, Netanyahu explained that he needed to comply with US demands on settlements since he had his eye locked on a more strategic challenge – Iran. If he failed to work with Obama on settlements, he explained then, he wouldn’t get the US president to work with him on stopping the ayatollahs’ quest for a nuclear bomb.
But with Trump, that is not the case. He has not shown the same kind of opposition to settlements like Obama, and with Iran he is actually working with Netanyahu, pulling out of the deal Obama had reached and the Israeli prime minister had passionately fought.
So now, we hear different excuses – the situation in Syria and ensuring that Iran leaves there; the situation in Gaza and the ongoing negotiations with Hamas for a cease-fire; and the peace plan that the White House has been working on for the last 18 months and is expected to unveil sometime soon. Netanyahu doesn’t want to interfere with any of these and therefore prefers not to take decisions that would appear like he is.
According to this thinking, if Gaza stabilizes and the US plan is unveiled, everything should suddenly change. Imagine, for example, if the US plan states that in a future deal, E1 – the corridor between Ma’aleh Adumim and Jerusalem – will remain in Israeli hands. If that happens, Netanyahu should have no problem immediately authorizing construction there. Nevertheless, I’m skeptical that he will.
This indecisiveness is popular. Israel seems to not want to make decisions about the future of the West Bank, just like it doesn’t want to make decisions about the Negev, where it lacks a clear plan for how to deal with illegal Bedouin construction; and in Jerusalem where it lacks a vision for a city divided between east and west.
Some on the Right will tell you that it’s not the fault of the government and that it’s impossible to get laws passed in Israel due to the “left-wing” media, the liberal legal advisers and the activist judges.
But this is nonsense. The Right has been in power almost consecutively since the mahapach, Menachem Begin’s victory over Labor in 1977. Yes, there was a short stint by Yitzhak Rabin and an even shorter one by Ehud Barak in between. But besides them, the Right has ruled. The question supporters of the settlement enterprise need to ask themselves is a simple one – if Netanyahu hasn’t done what he promised he would do until now, why will he suddenly change?
The future of the so-called settlements is a decision for Israel to make, and Israel to make alone. After 2,000 years in exile, the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948 was supposed to be the manifestation of Jewish self-determination where authority was given to Jews to finally make decisions for themselves and on their own.
The Israeli people have to decide what they want and what it is in their long-term strategic interest. The question of whether or not to build in settlements shouldn’t depend on who is in the White House or Iran’s nuclear program. It should be a decision based on what is right for Israel.
It is easy to blame the US but that is not always going to be true. Israel has a unique opportunity with Trump in the White House. The question is whether it is fully making use of it.
@ Uzitiger:
It’s only a matter of time before the Hamas terrorists shoot missiles containing groups of small bombs in the shape of children’s toys, and that kids will be victimized by them. I don’t know why they haven’t done it already. You still see news of kids playing over long ago bombed areas, not knowing about them, and picking up or stepping on, some unexploded bomb with bad results.
There is great wisdom in these two comments by Edgar and Uzitiger and I can add little that would be useful. But how a person goes down in history is conditional on something else, and that is the party in existence which can expose the real situation and state of affairs. In that sense Netanyahu remains because of the absence of a party.
I think it is clear that Netanyahu is clearing the decks for a replacement to OSLO. While I called for his election to keep out Labour this does not imply that I do not see Netanyahu as a major danger to the future lives of many Jews. I have learned that these abstract political position always always work out into the killing of Jews. Perhaps one, perhaps a family, or 6 millions.
What I wish you would write more about is the architecture that keeps a Netanyahu in place. That may get us closer to the truth.
@ Edgar G.:
Netanyahu used Obammzer as an excuse not to build and now he needs to find another excuse. He is the main obstacle to Jewish construction and he is the second biggest destroyer of Jewish towns in Yehuda and Shomron after Sharon who committed the Gush Katif atrocity. He promises more construction but never delivers. It doesn’t matter which tip of his forked tongue he uses because whatever tip he uses, he outright lies to the Israeli people.
He only knows how to get tough against the Jews of Yehuda and Shomron while allowing thousands of rockets to fall on Sderot and it’s surrounding towns without any real response. He goes to watch Semi Final Soccer matches instead of dealing with the kite arson and the rioters in Gaza and his inaction emboldens them .
@ Edgar G.:
Typo….”OM” should be “PM”…
Netanyahu in this case…amongst many…he is a prevaricator, if not a downright liar. Why should he be using lack of building in YESHA because he needed to keep in with Obama over the Iranian threat. Israel is small potatoes as far as Iran is concerned, the threats are mainly because the rest of the world yawns when Israel is in danger of annihilation. It’s a mantra without much meaning, and they know that Israel’s second strike would annihilate them all. . Iran wouldn’t waste a precious bomb on Israel, which it thinks it could handle through Hezbollah and the Iranian Revolutionary Guard. The bombs would be kept for the Great Satan………
WHAT ABOUT THE MASSIVE THREAT TO THE WHOLE WORLD, particularly America. The world would be held in perpetual bondage, with the bomb of Damocles hanging over it’s head, whilst Islam was being propagated far and wide.
The record speaks and Netanyahu is lying. To have not built a single development in YESHA for 25 years is a High Crime of unparalleled injustice to the unwinding Zionist journey.
As an article yesterday said, Israel’s Right Wing today, is about par with Israel’s Left Wing just before Oslo. That the OM foolishly declared in favour of the 2 States, took all bets off the table. Why he did it, I don’t know, and why he has’t explained and recanted, I also don’t know. Does he ever say “I was wrong” …?? I haven’t seen that yet, so far anywhere, or at anytime. Does he want to go down in history as Israel’s Talleyrand, Metternich, maybe Machiavelli……… “.Le Eminence Grise..”….or Richelieu himself
It certainly won’t be D’Israeli…..!!!