Tag: Judea and Samaria

MK Uri Ariel of the National Union and Knesset hopeful Naftali Bennett offer their alternatives to the "Land for Peace" formula.

It is impossible not to notice the similarity between the Ulpana situation and the Sharon-led Expulsion from Gush Katif. In both cases a prime minister elected by the Right, whose ideology certainly does not endorse destruction in Israel’s heartland, veers sharply left and compels his ministers and coalition to support a Peace Now move – a move completely against their will.

Judea and Samaria are not under occupation rule. This is the central finding of the "Outposts Committee" which was appointed to examine the legal status of Israel in Judea and Samaria.

Abe Foxman, Director of the Anti-Defamation League: "My love and support for Israel is unconditional, it does not depend on the Israeli acceptance of my ideas. My Zionism is not in crisis because my Zionism is not conditioned on an idealized view of what I'd like Israel to be."

The simple conclusion from the Right’s recent failure to pass the Regulation Law, intended to protect Jewish homes from being uprooted in Judea and Samaria, is that the fateful, strategic decisions are determined by one man: the prime minister.

The government on Sunday voted to put a ministerial committee headed by the Prime Minister in charge of Jewish development in Judea and Samaria , the first time in 16 years that the establishment and expansion of Jewish communities in the biblical heartland will not come under the purview of the full government.

Vardina Biton, resident of the Ulpana: "The fact that I live in Beit El doesn't make me a second rate citizen. We serve the country and pay taxes. My husband fought in the IDF during The Second Lebanon War, just weeks after his wedding. It seems that there was not a real desire to save the homes, and therefore they did not work hard enough to find a solution."

A recent poll found that 73% of Israelis believe that the two-state solution will not resolve the conflict with the Palestinians, while 64% support expansion of the Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria.

Though leaders in Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria decried the failure of Wednesday’s Knesset vote to overturn the destruction of five apartment buildings in Beit El, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu approved a major new construction plan to erect 300 new homes in the town, with 551 additional homes approved in four other locations.

The Rabbinical Congress for Peace cited the words of Nobel laureate Professor Israel Aumann who said that that evicting the families “would endanger not only the Jewish presence in Judea and Samaria but also all of Israel."

Anyone suggesting that Jews are doomed to become a minority west of the Jordan River, that there is a demographic machete at the throat of the Jewish State and that the Jewish State must concede Jewish Geography in order to secure Jewish Demography, is either grossly mistaken or outrageously misleading!

The "warnings" coming these days from Netanyahu and Barak do not threaten Israel's Palestinian partners that—should they fail to negotiate in good faith—they would lose their chance for a state. Both leaders seem to have embraced the two-state option as the only possible course of action.

A force of at least 120 Border Guard police in more than 15 vehicles arrived on Monday night at the outpost of Ramat Migron, near the village of Migron in Judea and Samaria, barging into an area where a wedding of two local residents was to being prepared, and presented local residents with an order declaring the place a closed military zone.

Today's' revelation by Israel's security forces, about a Palestinian terrorist cell comprised of nine Arabs from the Ramallah area who were recently indicted on several failed abduction attempts of Israeli civilians in the Benjamin region of Judea and Samaria last March, is reminiscent of Jimmy Breslin's comic novel "The Gang That Couldn't Shoot Straight."

Israeli children playing in the Ulpana Hill neighborhood of Beit El in Judea and Samaria. The Israeli government is looking for ways to sidestep...

The Palestinian news agency Ma'an reports that around 38,000 people in the Palestinian Authority on Saturday took exams to become public school teachers. The exams...

Boycotts on products from Judea and Samaria harm Palestinian livelihood. The simple truth is that industry in Judea and Samaria are imperative for Palestinian livelihood.

The Supermarket chain Co-Operative Group, Britain's fifth-largest food retailer, is the first major European retailer to stop buying from companies that export produce from Israeli settlements east of the Green Line. The largest Israeli agricultural export companies affected by this move are Agrexco, Arava Export Growers, Adafresh and Mehadrin.

For anyone who is sick of the lies and hypocrisy - be it in Israel or the world - and really wants to work for change, it's not enough to simply stand on the street corner and shout the truth. How something is said or how someone looks while performing an act frequently has more impact than anything else in the eyes and ears of the viewer.

In order to provide a proper response to the extreme left wing and anti-Israel ambushes staged against the security forces in Judea and Samaria, Tazpit News Agency is establishing a team of photographers who will have a presence at all flashpoints in Israel.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has legalized three Jewish outpost communities which were erected in the 1990s.

Knesset Deputy Speaker Danny Danon says if Defense Minister Ehud Barak is not stopped now, there are nine thousand housing units in Judea and Samaria which are being challenged like Ulpana Hill and the Jewish purchased residences in Hebron. "We must stop this erosion and say, enough, we won't let Barak carry out a creeping erosion of the settlements of Judea and Samaria," Danon told JewishPress.com Sunday night.

The Guardian reported that Israel has forced the low-cost airline Jet2.com to revoke the tickets of three women from Manchester who were on their...

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he will submit a plan to legalize several Judea and Samaria outposts and avoid the demolition of another. At...

Deputy Prime Minister Ya'acov Ya'alon accused Defense Minister Ehud Barak of "starting up fires," after Netanyahu and his cabinet had decided that the newly settled Machpela House, at the Cave of the Patriarchs, would be evacuated only if it is proven that it had been purchased illegally. According to Ya'alon, Barak is purposefully "sticking up the process, not only in Hebron, but all across the Jewish communities."

The mountain aquifer situated in the Judea and Samaria area supplies an average of 600 million cubic meters of water. This is the most significant body of water in Israel, supplying Israelis and Arabs alike. In comparison, Lake Kinneret, which is the center of attention when relating to sources of water in Israel, supplies 570 million cubic meters.

Palestinian journalists protested Wednesday in the city of Ramallah, in Judea and Samaria, demanding that the Palestinian Authority release Yousef al-Shayeb, a reporter who was arrested two days earlier, following a complaint of slander and deformation filed by the Palestinian ambassador to France and his deputy and Foreign Minister.

Recently, the court refused to accept the deal and annulled the Benny Begin agreement. In my opinion, this is a blessing that will lead to a better outcome for this community and for the future of other such communities in Judea and Samaria. Historically, the settlement movement in Judea and Samaria has always come out stronger when obstacles are put in its way.

Israel has officially decided to end all contact and cooperation with the UN Human Rights Council and will not permit the entry of the Council's 'fact-finding' observers, after passage of a resolution calling for a probe of Israel's conduct in Judea and Samaria.

I am not particularly interested in writing another post excoriating the UNHRC or the UN itself, which is a vile institution, far less than worthless. Rather, I want to summarize some important issues about ‘West Bank settlements’ — that is, Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria — and why I support them.