Despite Olmert and Rice, the State Is Still Holding onto Judea, Samaria, and the Golan

According to some reports from Israel, residents of Judea and Samaria and their supporters throughout the world had reason to believe Israel’s 60th anniversary might be the last Yom Ha’atzmaut for communities in the Biblical Jewish homeland.

Throughout April, there were reports of continuing Israeli concessions to the Palestinian Authority, which the Arabs and US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice continued to describe as insufficient. But, according to people on the ground in Judea and Samaria, that was by no means the entire story. They pointed out that when Ms. Rice left the country in early May, she did so virtually empty-handed.

Further, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, who seemed almost eager to implement Ms. Rice’s demands, found himself suddenly immersed in a police investigation concerning the alleged acceptance of bribes from Long Island-based millionaire Morris Talensky.

Picked up on Pesach The former executive director of American Friends of Shaarei Zedek Hospital, Mr. Talensky, 75, is now CEO of the Global Resources Group, a self-described financial investment firm.

Spending Passover in his Jerusalem apartment, Mr. Talensky was picked up by Israeli police and, according to reports, is acting as a state witness against Mr. Olmert. According to press reports, Mr. Talensky is referred to as “the laundry man” in the logs of financial dealings kept by Mr. Olmert’s long-time chief-of-staff, Shulah Zakan, who has already been placed under house arrest. According to reports from Israel, this current scandal is expected to lead either to Mr. Olmert’s forced resignation, the fall of his government, or both.

“Depressed”

PA President Mahmoud Abbas expressed no certainty that the Jewish communities of Judea and Samaria would soon be history. After meeting with President George Bush and Ms. Rice in Washington at the end of April, he reportedly emerged from the talks “angry and depressed.”

Speaking to the Jerusalem Post, a senior PA official in Ramallah accused the Bush administration of having “adopted the Israeli policy.”

The PA, he said, was no longer pinning any hopes on the Bush administration to help reach an agreement between Israel and the PA and certainly not before the end of Mr. Bush’s term in January. “The Bush administration has lost its credibility as an honest broker. We will now have to wait for the next US administration,” the official said. According to Nimer Hammad, a political adviser to Mr. Abbas, US policy in the region “has failed because Washington was only encouraging the parties to negotiate without real intervention.” “Real intervention” is usually a code word for “pressure on Israel.”

Enjoying Popularity

Given the support Israel enjoys in the US, it would be hard for any President to apply that kind of pressure. According to a poll commissioned by The Israel Project in March, 60 percent of Americans who say they will vote in the Presidential election, support Israel. A full 84 percent of Americans agree that Israel should remain a Jewish state and a homeland for the Jewish people. Sixtythree percent support an “Israeli Jerusalem,” while only 20 percent believe that Jerusalem should be divided. Asked if Israeli checkpoints in Judea and Samaria are justified to protect Israeli citizens, 77 percent said yes; 15 percent said no.

Militating against the President’s investing heavily in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict is the showing that very few Americans, even in the Jewish community, think that conflict is a priority. Only seven percent of the general community and 23 percent of the Jews listed it as a top issue. It ranked lower than the economy, jobs, Iraq, affordable health care, terrorism, and national security.

Visiting Jerusalem

Most Americans may support a united Jerusalem under Israeli auspices, but, according to reports, Mr. Bush is now refusing to visit the Kotel when he comes to Israel to participate in the 60th Independence Day celebrations. He is presumably being sensitive to the fact that Muslims have staked a claim not only to the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, but also to the Western Wall, which they say is where the Prophet Mohammed, tied his horse, Buraq, while he took a midnight journey to “the farthest mosque.” According to Muslim tradition, this is a reference to the mosque on the Temple Mount even though it did not exist in Mohammed’s time and was not given that name until years later.

During the 60 hours the President is expected to spend in Israel, he is now rumored to be favoring a visit to Masada. Media analyst Dr. Aaron Lerner of the IMRA news agency said Mr. Bush’s refusal to pose for a photo-op at the Kotel does not bode well for the future of Jerusalem as the capital of the Jewish state and shows that, despite Israel’s concessions to the PA, the President is still unwilling to tie himself to Biblical Jewish history. Dr. Lerner said it was ironic that, instead of visiting sites associated with Israel’s ancient life or rebirth, the President has chosen a place remembered for the group of Jews who committed suicide rather than fall captive to Rome. “How appropriate. Olmert, whom critics warn is following a suicidal path with the Palestinians, will visit Masada with Bush,” said Dr. Lerner. Building Judea and Samaria Despite Ms. Rice’s original ambition for Israel and the PA to formulate peace before the end of the Bush administration, she has recently made it clear it would suffice if the two sides could come to an agreement about the eventual borders the two states—Israel and Palestine—would accept.

According to Mr. Hammad, even that more modest goal will probably not be realized. He told the Palestinian Maan news agency the PA was opposed to any map that permits any settlements to remain in Judea and Samaria.

According to Mr. Hammad, Mr. Abbas made clear to Mr. Bush that, from the PA’s perspective, the chief obstacle threatening the current “peace process” is construction in the Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria.

Contradictions

In general, the Israelis seem eager to put a positive spin on meetings between Messrs Olmert and Abbas; the Palestinians have been much more reserved. This has resulted in contradictory reports. On May 6th, Mr. Olmert’s office called his recent discussions with Mr. Abbas “the most serious talks the sides have ever conducted.” Aides to Mr. Abbas, however, reported that the negotiations had left the PA leader “depressed.” Mr. Olmert’s spokesmen said the Israeli and Palestinians had made significant progress in their negotiations over borders, but very little towards an agreement over the status of Jerusalem. Mr. Abbas claims the eastern part of the city as the capital of a future Palestinian state.

No Right of Return

Nor has there been any agreement regarding the PA’s demand for the so-called “right of return,” which would allow millions of Arabs who fled during the War of Independence—and their descendants— to “return” to pre-1967 Israel. Mr. Abbas’s aides explained his depression to the AP. “When he goes to visit other Arab countries, he tells them that we negotiate with the Israelis on a daily basis, but we have nothing to show for it,” they said.

Leaders of the communities in Judea and Samaria who sit on the Yesha Council responded with derision to Mr. Olmert’s claims of “significant progress” in negotiations with the PA.

“From now on, progress in negotiations with the PA will correspond to progress in the criminal investigations in which Olmert is involved, and the willingness for Olmert to make concessions will parallel the witnesses’ willingness to testify,” said one of the leaders.

Growth

Despite Israeli government policies that work against them, the Jewish population of Judea and Samaria continued to grow at a rate of almost eight percent last year. Building for that increased population is referred to in Israel as accommodating “natural growth,” a concept flatly opposed by Ms. Rice.

The left-wing Peace Now organization complained last month that more than 100 Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria are growing, with thousands of housing units under construction. According to Peace Now, 20 of the building projects are being conducted east of the separation fence’s route, meaning they will be outside the border the Olmert government is planning to establish for Israel. Peace Now said, in the past three months, expansion has continued in 58 so-called “illegal outposts,” including 36 new caravans (mobile homes without wheels) and 16 permanent structures, with eight more currently planned. Beitar Illit and Pisgat Ze’ev Pressured by the Sephardic hareidi party, Shas, without whom the current government would fall, Mr. Olmert recently agreed to allow construction in Beitar Illit, a hareidi city in Judea, west of Gush Etzion. The Olmert government had earlier decided to stop the marketing of 800 apartments in the town, causing a severe housing crunch for the young hareidi couples who regularly come to Beitar Illit from the Jerusalem area, looking for affordable housing.

To secure the new apartments, Shas merely had to threaten Mr. Olmert with abstaining on a no-confidence measure. The Olmert government also approved construction of 600 new homes in the Pisgat Ze’ev neighborhood of Jerusalem. Located in the eastern part of the capital that the Palestinians have claimed for themselves, Pisgat Ze’ev has been deemed a “settlement” by the PA. PA claims to the contrary, Israel generally assumes that eastern Jerusalem, which has been annexed as part of the capital, and the major settlement blocs, including Beitar Illit, which Israel intends to retain in any final settlement, are exempt from the US demand forbidding settlement growth. 2004 Letter Israelis base that claim on a 2004 letter personally delivered by Mr. Bush to then-Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, which they say gives the Jewish state permission to expand the communities in Judea and Samaria it intends to keep in a final peace deal. In the letter, the President wrote: “In light of new realities on the ground, including already existing major Israeli population centers, it is unrealistic to expect that the outcome of final status negotiations will be a full and complete return to the armistice lines of 1949.” In a companion letter sent to “reconfirm” US-Israeli understandings just before Israel withdrew from all of Gaza in 2005, Mr. Sharon’s chief-of-staff, Dov Weissglas, wrote to Ms. Rice that restrictions on the growth of settlements would be made “within the agreed principles of settlement activities,” which would include “a better definition of the construction line of settlements” in Judea and Samaria. A joint US-Israeli team would work together to “define the construction line of each of the settlements,” his letter said. Prior Understanding Mr. Weissglas said his letter built on a prior understanding between then-Foreign Minister Shimon Peres and then- Secretary of State Colin Powell, which would allow Israel to build up settlements within existing construction lines. Although Mr. Powell now denies that he ever agreed to this understanding, Daniel Kurtzer, then the US ambassador to Israel, acknowledged its existence, saying he argued at the time against accepting Mr. Weissglas’s letter. “I thought it was a really bad idea,” Mr. Kurtzer told the Washington Post. “It would legitimize the settlements, and it gave them a blank check.” According to Mr. Kurtzer, the White House never followed up with the plan to define construction lines. “Washington lost interest in it when it became clear it would not be easy to do,” he said. Political Context National security adviser Stephen Hadley said Mr. Bush’s 2004 letter was aimed at helping Mr. Sharon win domestic approval for the Gaza withdrawal. “The President obviously still stands by that letter,” he said, “but you need to look at it, obviously, in the context of which it was issued.” Mr. Weissglas said that, in 2005, when Mr. Sharon was poised to remove Jews from Gaza, the Bush administration made a secret agreement—not disclosed to the PA—that Israel could add homes in settlements it expected to keep, as long as the construction was dictated by market demands, not Israeligovernment subsidies. Mr. Weissglas said the agreement was necessary because Mr. Sharon needed the support of leaders in the major communities of Judea and Samaria, who, he said, focused on the “inner contradiction” of Mr. Bush’s letter, namely that it made no sense to enforce a settlement freeze in places that the President said would become part of Israel. Another Deal Mr. Weissglas said he then negotiated a “verbal understanding” with deputy national security adviser Elliott Abrams that would permit new construction in those key communities. Mr. Weissglas said Ms. Rice and Mr. Sharon approved the Weissglas- Abrams deal, but there was nothing committed to writing. Ms. Rice and White House National Security Council spokesman Gordon Johndroe, flatly denied that any such “understanding” exists. Mr. Powell, however, said that in 2004, he did not anticipate that Mr. Bush’s letter would be perceived as a green light by Israel for adding to the communities in Judea and Samaria. “I consistently spoke against settlement growth, but, as you know, all I could do is talk against it. There would be no consequences, and there still aren’t,” he said. Reversible Growth In all, Israel is currently building more than 2,000 apartments in Judea and Samaria, half of them inside the municipal boundaries of Jerusalem. When Ms. Rice told Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni that even “natural growth” in Judea and Samaria was unacceptable to the US, the foreign minister told the secretary of state not to be too concerned, because, she said, Israel had permitted growth in the Jewish communities of Gush Katif, Gaza, before the Sharon government destroyed the entire Jewish enterprise there. “We did it before, and we can do it again,” Ms. Livni said. Checkpoints April began with the announcement that the Olmert government would remove ten manned checkpoints in Judea and Samaria. According to reports, even as the checkpoints were being removed, it was recognized that hardly a day goes by that the IDF does not discover weapons and explosives at security checkpoints throughout Judea and Samaria. The Israeli press made clear that the roadblocks were being removed because of US pressure to make travel easier for local Arabs. In return, Israel was once again promised that the PA would make attempts to crack down on terrorism. Ms. Rice announced that Israel’s goodwill gesture was insufficient and she called for the immediate removal of 50 more roadblocks plus a slew of other concessions, including allowing 700 UStrained PA security personnel to operate in Judea and Samaria, and giving the PA armored vehicles and night-vision goggles. After noting these demands, Barry Rubin commented in the Jerusalem Post, “One wonders if we’ll ever see the headline: ‘Rice Wins Concessions from Palestinians.’ I doubt it.” Disregarding the IDF Prompted by Ms. Rice, on May 5, Defense Minister Ehud Barak gave orders to remove three more anti-terror checkpoints: one between Ramallah and the entry road to Beit El (home to nearly 7,000 Jews, including students of all ages in its various schools), another at the northern entrance to Shechem (chosen by the army because it is not on a road leading directly to a Jewish town) and the Yata-Hebron Road, located just south of Hebron at the Kvasim Junction, near the hostile Arab village of Yata. According to a report from Arutz Sheva, the IDF objected to the removal of these checkpoints and reportedly told Mr. Barak that their elimination would allow free and unhindered Arab traffic, resulting, as it has in the past, in shooting attacks against Israeli citizens and soldiers.. Despite their arguments, Mr. Barak ordered the checkpoints removed. Unused Supports Mr. Olmert, presumably also to please Ms. Rice, dispatched army and police forces to destroy a number of unauthorized structures in communities throughout Judea and Samaria. In the community of Bracha the government’s mission was to destroy several meter-high supports on which caravans are placed. The supports for the caravans were erected five years ago in a section of the community in between two builtup neighborhoods. No caravans have ever been placed on the supports. The government’s forces were met by hundreds of young people who took as their mission keeping the unused supports in place. A few hours later, the IDF’s plans to destroy the last remaining unapproved tent on a hilltop outside the community of Tapuach were thwarted when Palestinian arsonists threw gas firebombs on the tent, setting it on fire before the Israeli army arrived. The tent had previously housed a Torah study-hall, dormitory, and dining hall for a unique yeshiva in which the students also trained dogs for security purposes. The students had emptied the tent of its contents several days before the army was slated to destroy it. Swimming Pool According to residents of Judea and Samaria, the most expensive structure destroyed by the government last month was an unauthorized swimming pool in the small Jewish community of Havot Yair, located in Samaria, not far from the town of Ariel. Built on state-owned land in 1999, Havot Yair is an “illegal outpost.” It was destroyed by the government in 2001, and quickly rebuilt. It now has 22 families and six permanent structures. It boasts an ancient winepress, which is located near the synagogue. It was not clear why the police targeted only the swimming pool and not the other structures in Havot Yair, but the pool’s owner, attorney Doron Nir-Tzvi, hazarded a guess: He has been representing right-wing anti-government causes for more than a decade. “An even worse reason might be simple narrow-minded envy, deciding that we Jewish residents of Judea and Samaria are not allowed to live comfortably,” he said. Destroying a Shul Less serious from a monetary standpoint, but much more symbolically fraught, was the government’s decision, one day after Yom Hashoah, to raze an unauthorized synagogue, described by an observer as little more than “an elaborate sukkah,” in Hebron. Even more strange was the fact that the Arab who owned the land on which the Hazon-David synagogue had been built, Sheikh Abu Khader Jabri, did not want it demolished. Several months ago, Mr. Jabri denied a request by left-wing activists to sign an order allowing them to destroy the Hazon-David synagogue, located near the entrance to Kiryat Arba. The shul was named for David Cohen and Hezi Mualem, who were murdered seven years ago. 31 Times Because it was unauthorized, the shul, whose name, in English, means “David’s vision,” became a target for the government. According to Hebron-Jewish community spokesman, David Wilder, since its inception, the synagogue has been knocked down by government forces 31 times. Each time, members of the Hebron-Kiryat Arba community have rebuilt it. “Had it been a mosque, Israeli security forces wouldn’t have dared to implement such a solution, but synagogues are less important than mosques, at least in the view of Israeli decision-makers,” said Mr. Wilder. Just before Passover, the government announced that forces would be sent to destroy the synagogue, but a strong of show of support for the shul, in the form of hundreds of men, women, and children, prompted them to change their plans. On May 1, government forces returned without any advance notice, and, for the 31st time, destroyed the synagogue. But it wasn’t gone for long. According to Mr. Wilder, as soon as the government forces left, “the kids already started laying the foundation for the renovated synagogue.” By May 5, the shul had been rebuilt for the 31st time. Homesh The cycle of rebuilding after government destruction is not uncommon in Judea and Samaria. Homesh, in northern Samaria, is a prime example. The government destroyed the community in August 2005 at the same time that the Jews of Gaza, were expelled. Last year, despite government efforts to stop them, 30,000 people marched to Homesh, determined to maintain a Jewish presence on the ashes of the destroyed community. There is now a “Homesh lobby” consisting of 20 MKs who are working to allow Jews to return legally to live at the site. “Even several ministers in Olmert’s government have admitted that leaving Homesh was mistake because of its strategic importance,” said Gershon Mesika, mayor of the Samaria Regional Council. Telling Rice This year, the IDF approved an Israeli Independence Day march to Homesh which, after the 2007 experience, was expected to draw tens of thousands of people. Yossi Dagan, a member of the Homesh Resettlement Committee, said the march was “the proper answer to Condoleezza Rice. “We will go up to Homesh and tell her and her friends in the Israeli government that they will not only not succeed in chasing us out of the outposts and towns, but that we will return to the places from which we have already been removed,” he said. Security Towards the end of April, there were reports that made services such as dogtraining seem more necessary than ever in Judea and Samaria. In Judea and Samaria, the Olmert government cancelled the Mivtzar program in which local emergency teams, trained by the army, were used in cases of terrorist infiltration and other such crises. According to Yesha Council security officer Shlomo Vaknin, Mivtzar had been “the ideal response to the threat on our towns.” “The towns near Gaza and in the north want to copy this program, yet here, the army is cancelling it,” he said. The government has also cancelled subsidies for reinforcing the windows of privately owned cars against rock attacks as well as the budgeted funding for protecting school buses for special-education and handicapped children against shooting attacks.

“We will not be able to open schools next year if a solution is not found,” said Mr. Vaknin. Unofficial Policy National Union MK Dr. Aryeh Eldad accused the Olmert government of conducting an unofficial policy intended to “dry up” communities in Judea and Samaria by letting security deteriorate. “They want to push the settlers out of Judea and Samaria, either by trying to tempt them with compensation or just by making living there very difficult, in terms of education, transportation, development, and lack of permission to build or expand homes and neighborhoods,” he said. Deputy Prime Minister Haim Ramon and his colleague, Minister Ami Ayalon, both members of the Labor party committed to relocating all residents of Judea and Samaria to areas within the security fence, claimed to have conducted a poll last month which shows, they said, that almost 20 percent of those living east of the security fence—outside the presumed final borders—would leave voluntarily if offered proper government support. Many observers maintain that while this may have been true before August 2005, Israel’s failure to relocate satisfactorily the vast majority of the 10,000 Jews it removed from Gaza will cause residents of Judea and Samaria to think twice before accepting any government relocation offers. “Liberated” Evacuating hundreds of thousands of people from Judea and Samaria would not be easy for any Israeli government, and, presumably, next to impossible for one headed by Mr. Olmert. Despite regular government and media attempts to portray the residents of Judea and Samaria negatively, a March 2008 report by Tel Aviv University’s Steinmetz Center for Peace Research, shows that 55 percent of Israeli Jews view Judea and Samaria as “liberated.” Only 32 percent consider it “occupied.” The same report shows that by a margin of 57 percent to 23 percent, Israeli Jews oppose a return to the pre- 1967 borders, and a clear majority, 47 percent versus 40 percent, now agree that the Oslo process was “a mistake.” While a majority of Israelis support in concept the establishment of “two states for two people,” almost 75 percent believe that, even if an agreement is signed with the Palestinians, “it will not, from the Palestinians’ standpoint, end the historic conflict with Israel.” The Golan At the end of April, many Israelis and their supporters had another Olmert-inspired worry. Reports from Israel and Damascus indicated that Mr. Olmert had offered to withdraw fully from the Golan Heights in return for a peace agreement with Syria. According to Western diplomatic officials, Mr. Olmert had passed a message expressing willingness to withdraw from the Golan if, as part of a peace deal, Syria agreed to end its support for Hamas, including exiling Hamas political leader Khaled Mashaal from Damascus, and distanced itself from Iran. “I’m very interested in peace with the Syrians; I’m working on it; and I hope my efforts will ripen into significant progress. I promise that in issues between us and Syria, they know what I want from them, and I know well what they want from us,” said Mr. Olmert.

No Support His remarks sparked fury in the Knesset, where even members of Mr. Olmert’s own Kadima party expressed outrage. “Olmert has been fooling the Israeli public and the international community, making promises he can’t keep. He has no support for this move, neither in the Knesset nor in Kadima,” said Kadima MK Zeev Elkin. Another Kadima MK, David Tal, said he would push for quick passage of a bill requiring a national referendum for any withdrawal from the Golan. Similar notes of discontent came from other political parties. In the US, Mort Klein, national president of the Zionist Organization of America, said it was “a serious mistake for Israel to speak of any concessions, let alone massive territorial concessions, to the Syrians while that country is an unreconstructed aggressive, terroristsponsoring dictatorship.” Biblical Homeland Mr. Klein pointed out that while the Golan is part of the Biblical Jewish homeland, Syria has “no legal or moral claim for their demand upon Israel for what is called ‘full withdrawal,’” which has come to mean to the pre-June 5, 1967 lines. The pre-1967 border between Israel and Syria was the 1949 armistice lines, formalizing the position of Israeli and Syrian forces at the end of the Israeli War of Independence. Syria not only held onto the Golan, it also seized sovereign Israeli territory in the Galilee, which it wants returned in any peace agreement. This means Israel would lose the strategically vital Golan plateau, from which Syria constantly shelled and sniped at Jewish farms before 1967. Like Judea and Samaria and eastern Jerusalem, the Golan was won by Israel in the 1967 Six-Day War. Unrealistic Dreams Some observers say Mr. Olmert may be dreaming about a Jerusalem-Damascus summit, because, in light of the diminishing possibilities of peace between Israel and the PA, it could offer him a means to distract the Israeli liberal media and judiciary from the very real scandals which could drive him from office and into prison. The Bush administration seems more intent on exposing Syrian duplicity than it is in helping Syrian President Bashir Assad wrangle Reform continued from page 35 concessions from Israel. The US just exposed its advanced knowledge that Israel conducted an airstrike last September which destroyed a clandestine Syrian nuclear facility that may have been equipped by North Korea. Certainly Ms Rice has been less than enthusiastic about possible relations between Syria and Jerusalem. Warning that “time was running out” on a two-state solution between Israel and the PA, she cautioned Mr. Olmert not to let budding negotiations with Syria overtake the Palestinian track, in part, she said, because Syria has yet to meet its obligations to relinquish its influence in Lebanon. “The Palestinian track is the most mature; it is the one that must be pushed forward, whatever else is pursed,” she ordered. S.L.R.

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