Minister of Government Services Improvement Michael Eitan wrote to hundreds of Likud party activists this week, proposing a policy of settling the land of Israel that is less extensive than the policy at the time of Menachem Begin 30 years ago. He said the policy would be consistent with statements made by Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu in his speech at Bar-Ilan University and in meetings with international leaders.
Eitan's proposal includes resumption of Jewish construction in areas of large Jewish population in Judea and Samaria, including the community in Hevron, as well as the Old City of Jerusalem and other areas of the capital liberated in 1967. Building would remain frozen in areas intended to be given to a new Palestinian Authority state, although the lack of building should not be taken by itself as intent to transfer the land. Residents of unauthorized outpost communities would be given the option of joining larger Judean and Samarian communities or being relocated within the 1949 cease-fire lines.