Prime Minister Naftali Bennett used to be a critic of his predecessor’s policy on settlement building, but is now following in Netanyahu’s footsteps. Settler leaders are content to see the status quo being maintained
By Anshel Pfeffer, HAARETZ Dec. 8, 2021
The prime minister of the Israeli government has various additional titles and roles, some of which are barely known to the public. For instance, they are also chairperson of the Israel Atomic Energy Commission. And by law, they also hold any government ministry that for whatever reason does not have a minister in situ. Which means the present incumbent, Naftali Bennett, is also minister for settlement affairs. (The post was supposed to go to Nir Orbach, a member of Bennett’s Yamina party, but for now he prefers the influential job of Knesset House Committee chairman.)
This is intriguing, because six months have passed since Bennett became both prime minister and settlements minister, and so far he doesn’t seem to have much of a policy on settlements beyond continuing that of his predecessor, Benjamin Netanyahu.
Last Thursday, a tense phone call with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, which ostensibly was meant as an update on the stalled talks with the Iranians in Vienna, also served to bring Bennett back down to earth on the settlements issue. The State Department’s readout of the call mentioned that Blinken “strongly emphasized” that Israel (and the Palestinian Authority) “refrain from unilateral steps that exacerbate tensions and undercut efforts to advance a negotiated two-state solution, including advancing settlement activity.”
In the call itself, Blinken emphasized one settlement in particular: the planned new neighborhood in Atarot, northeast Jerusalem, which is across the Green Line (the armistice demarcation line before the 1967 Six-Day War that separates Israel and the West Bank).
This is one of the mega-settlement projects that has been at the planning stage for years now, but is also indefinitely delayed. Blinken wanted to know from Bennett why, if Netanyahu could have dragged the Atarot project out for so many years without ever actually breaking ground, was it going ahead now under the new government?
The phone call must have had some effect, because when the Jerusalem District Planning Commission met on Monday to green light Atarot, it instead decided to wait first for a report from the Environmental Protection Ministry. And since the environmental protection minister is Meretz’s Tamar Zandberg, that will take a while.
Bennett doesn’t seem to mind having to back down right now. He’s focused on Iran and would prefer that any disagreements with the Biden administration be over that. And in the context of the current governing coalition, with its centrist, left-wing and Islamic components, he doesn’t want to rock the boat anyway.
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However, it still flies in the face of everything Bennett said in the decade leading up to his surprise elevation to the premiership. The archives are packed with Bennett’s criticisms of Netanyahu’s settlement policy, from the time he was appointed head of the Yesha Council of settlements back in 2010. Netanyahu was never doing enough, as far as he was concerned, and one of his main demands as leader of Habayit Hayehudi was “Sovereignty Now!”
As recently as last year, when the Trump Middle East peace plan was unveiled, promising Israel control of a third of the West Bank, Bennett’s response was: “Why only part of it? We need to annex it all.”
Is Bennett just being pragmatic now? Or perhaps he was never as gung ho on annexation as his statements suggested.
Some of his former aides certainly believe so. “Bennett needed to stake out a political position, and while Netanyahu was there it had to be on the far right,” one of them says. Bennett himself admitted in private conversations that “whatever Netanyahu says or does, I have to be to the right of him.”
Bennett’s willingness to backpedal on the settlements shouldn’t be surprising. He was always much more opportunistic than ideological. The Netanyahu status quo – no withdrawals, but no major settlement building on his watch either – is the perfect formula for him as well. He said as much in an interview with The New York Times in August, noting that “this government will neither annex [land in the territories] nor form a Palestinian state, everyone gets that.” Within the settlements themselves, “Israel will continue the standard policy of natural growth,” he added.
Some readers may be surprised that Netanyahu wasn’t a master builder of settlements. But since he gave the go-ahead for the large neighborhood of Har Homa in southeast Jerusalem back in 1997, during his first term as prime minister, he didn’t pushed through any major settlements.
Hagit Ofran, who heads the Settlement Watch unit at Peace Now, confirms that in the final years under Netanyahu, building in the settlements continued at an annual pace of about 2,000 homes – which is the scale of building right now under Bennett. “But what has been more significant is the investment in infrastructure, especially roads,” she says. And of course, there is also the fact that while the Israeli government didn’t approve new settlements, it didn’t try very hard to stop the settlers establishing new ones without official approval.
So far, that doesn’t seem to have changed under Bennett. The transportation minister in his government, Labor leader Merav Michaeli, may have announced that she will be investing more on roads within Israel’s borders. But the projects already authorized under the previous government, such as broadening the Jerusalem-Hebron highway, which serves mainly the settlement alongside it, are all going ahead.
This could also explain why we’re not seeing any major protests against Bennett from the settlers. One senior settler leader said privately that “Netanyahu didn’t build as much as we’d have liked him to, but at least it was clear under him that he wouldn’t dismantle any settlements either – unlike his Likud predecessors Menachem Begin and Ariel Sharon. Bennett so far seems to be going down the same route.”
Another settler leader said recently that “infrastructure is much more important to us right now than building new settlements. My own residents are more interested in better roads, community centers and swimming pools than in us fighting the government to build a new neighborhood.”
The Biden administration and the left-wing elements in Israel’s coalition seem to agree. They can live with low-profile “natural growth” settlement building. If the government doesn’t proceed with major building projects, such as Atarot or the E1 development of Ma’aleh Adumim, they won’t give a Bennett a hard time.
As long as he sticks to the Netanyahu guidelines, he’s fine.
1. We are the Israelites, the indigenous people of the land of Israel.
2. The so called “Palestinians” are the foreign occupiers and colonists.
3. We are never going to accept the occupation of any parts of our land.
4. We are seeking the decolonization of Israel by voluntary relocation of the colonists to other countries.
#5 is not necessary…
The problem is because of our cowardliness, our ghetto mentality, our willingness to lick the boots of our oppressors.
If we stand proud US will not pressure us.
The proposed “Palestinian State” or the “Two State Solution” does not serve the national interests of the United States.
The reason why the US pressures Israel seems to be the optics.
The US wants to be seen as evenhanded by the Arabs and Muslims.
Also, the US gov is under the pressure of the anti-Israeli left.
However if Israel states clearly and unequivocally that
1. We are the Israelites, the indigenous people of the land of Israel.
2. The so called “Palestinians” are the foreign occupiers and colonists.
3. We are never going to accept the occupation of any parts of our land.
4. We are seeking the decolonization of Israel by voluntary relocation of the colonists to other countries.
5. If the US is so deeply interested in solving the “Palestinian problem”, we suggest that the US gives a piece of their own country to the so called “Palestinians” and the necessary incentives for them to move there.
When the pressure is applied by other countries, give them the same answer, except for the point 5. where the suggestion should be to relocate the “Palestinians” to their country.
The relocation to their countries is much more just.
First of all they have much more space.
Secondly it is voluntary. Given the choice most Palestinians would much rather live in Australia, Canada or Sweden, then in “Palestine”.
Thirdly Israel has already suffered enough from their presence, it is only fair that other countries take their turn.
A position like this, states clearly and unequivocally will rapidly remove the pressure from Israel.
Nobody even dreams about pressuring Arabs to give half of Mecca to other nations.
Nobody would even dream of pressuring any normal country to give half of their capitol and their historical core land to the enemy.
We the Israelites should stop being so cowardly
And we should stop calling our selves “Jews”.
We are Israelites, not “Jews”.
A “Jew” is a dirty word in virtually all languages.
It should be considered racist and insulting, just like the word “Nigger”.
It stands for hated, cowardly, greedy, cunning, selfish, heartless, money changer and accused of murderers of Mr. Christ the God.
It is time for us to stop using the hated cowardly word “Jew” and start using the proud word “Israelite”.
How can Israel be held in check behind the “green line” as the armistice line was dissolved in 1967, when the Arabs initiated the war?
@Arthur
Good to hear it.
The Jerusalem – Hebron Road (Route 60) is not in the new budget. Work on the road has stopped. The Transportation Minister admits budget doesn’t include work on Judea and Samaria roads. So the conclusion of the Author about Israeli Citizens who live in Judea and Samaria is not correct. We are Not Happy. We are being discriminated against and we will take action.