Settlement Freeze Not Just a Tactic But Full-Fledged Policy

Hillel Fendel

After two years in office, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert met Tuesday afternoon for the first time with representatives of the Council of Jewish Towns in Judea and Samaria (Yesha) and clarified his intentions to continue a freeze on Jewish construction in the region

. Yesha leaders say the public struggle for the Jewish right to build homes in the ancient biblical region will have to be more intense and start sooner than they thought.

Olmert had received numerous requests, over the nearly two years that he has been in office, to meet with leaders of the Jewish settlement enterprise in Judea and Samaria.

Clear Policy, Not Just a Weapon
"If we originally thought that the policy of total freeze on new construction throughout Judea and Samaria was merely a strategy and a weapon with which to pressure us," Yesha Council head Danny Dayan told Arutz-7 afterwards, "we now know that it is a clear policy of surrender to US and Palestinian demands."

"This, of course, places us in an untenable situation, and forces us to begin a firm and uncompromising public struggle, much stronger and sooner than we had expected."
"We also warned the Prime Minister," Dayan said, "of the severe dangers of his diplomatic plans - not only that it would bring Kassam rockets to central Israel, but that it would break the country's social backbone. We said the country could simply not survive another displacement of thousands of citizens, and certainly not of 100,000 or 120,000 Jews living in Judea and Samaria. He did not even flinch at the mention of these numbers, or show in any way that he was not planning such a move."
The meeting took place in the Prime Minister's Jerusalem office, with the following Yesha representatives: Yesha Council head Danny Dayan, deputy head Sarah Eliash, former Council chief Bentzy Lieberman, Har Hevron Regional Council head Tzviki Bar-Chai, and long-time settlement leader Ze'ev (Zambish) Chever.
Wallerstein's View

Before the meeting, former Council head Pinchas Wallerstein similarly said he did not have high hopes for the meeting.

"Olmert will tell them how much he loves the Land of Israel," Wallerstein said, "and that if he could, he would settle everywhere - even though, of course, we all remember his role in giving away Gush Katif.”

Asked what he thought the Yesha leaders are telling Olmert, Wallerstein said, "They have to warn him that his coalition is in danger of falling apart if he continues along this path. To this end, we have to put pressure on Shas and Yisrael Beiteinu. It is only because of the very fear of those parties leaving the coalition that he has already stopped talking about concessions in Jerusalem at the Annapolis summit. Instead of Jerusalem, it now looks like he has turned to the Syrians and giving up the Golan Heights."

Asked how he views the future of the Jewish hilltop satellite villages in Judea and Samaria, Wallerstein did not express optimism: "He [Olmert] won't tear them down in the near future, unless there is some crisis with the Americans or something like that. Essentially, I believe he plans to destroy them, but only when he can get something in return from the Americans or the Palestinians."
The villages in danger include Migron, with its 43 families, Givat Assaf (16), and some 20 others. Many full-fledged Jewish towns in Judea and Samaria today started out as hilltop villages themselves.