Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu signaled this week he plans to dismantle the "unauthorized" Jewish homes in Judea and Samaria.
Such a move could mark the largest evacuation of settlers since the 2005 Gaza withdrawal: about 4,000 Jews live in hilltop outposts erected without a government decision in the late 1990s and early 2000s.
After 1967, regaining sovereignty over historic heartland was seen by some as a divine gift, while others saw it as a burden.
The problem is that the legal rights of Jews to live in these areas have never been evaluated. With few exceptions, most of the outposts are built on state, purchased, or unclaimed lands. No Arabs were displaced by virtue of the Six Day War and Jews who moved to Judea, Samaria, and Gaza did so voluntarily, in some cases to property which was lost during Israel’s War of Independence in 1948-49, or before, as a result of Arab pogroms.
The most unfortunate aspect of the Talia Sasson Report, a so-called legal basis for the outpost’ removal, is its attempt to turn Jewish settlement into a criminal illegal mafia. But even that report shows that “illegal” outposts have been part of a national, bipartisan effort supported by every Israeli party, excluding Meretz.
No secret deals or corruption were part of the outposts' construction, banks loaned mortgages, citizens paid taxes and services were provided.
But does that make the Jewish presence “legal”? No.
Today sovereignty in Judea and Samaria resides only with the IDF: Jews were allowed to build and the army provided them with security.
But does that make them “legal”? No.
So who gives them that right? Does it make a difference? Gush Katif was “legal” too, but the government destroyed it all, despite the fact that no official had the moral or legal right to tell the settlers what to do with their private splendid homes and flourishing greenhouses they had owned for 30 years.
So will even the large settlement blocs, which Mr. Netanyahu promised to preserve, really survive?
The army and the government have perhaps forgotten that many outposts were necessary for security to protect the core settlements and roads. Some outposts were constructed at dangerous junctions in the West Bank where terror attacks had occurred. Many of them were built with government support to the combined tune of more than NIS 70 million.
The Migron outpost, now threatened for destruction, was built with military assistance because of its strategic location overlooking a main road. Nobody likes to say it, but Migron saved the IDF from having to be deployed there. Settlements and outposts are the forward defense line of the coastal plain and Jerusalem.
Compared to the hell of terror in Sderot, Ashdod, Beersheba, Ashkelon and the other communities located in the area near Gaza, the Jewish communities of Samaria look like a bit of paradise, despite the threat of terror.
It's because those communities continue to develop and contribute significantly to the IDF’s control of the area. In consequence, the Arabs there don’t dare attack as they do daily in Gaza.
Obama’s de-legitimization of Jerusalem’s post-1967 neighborhoods (Neveh Yaakov, Ramot Eshkol, French Hill, Pisgat Ze’ev or East Talpiot) is the American version of the Sasson’s report for the outposts.
Barack Obama made it clear that there is no difference between outposts, settlements and towns inside pre-1967 Israel. Obama claims that even Har Homa and Gilo are “illegal” Jewish enclaves. Obama’s de-legitimization of Jerusalem’s post-1967 neighborhoods (Neveh Yaakov, Ramot Eshkol, French Hill, Pisgat Ze’ev or East Talpiot) is the American version of the Sasson’s report for the outposts.
These neighborhoods, which house about one-third of Jerusalem’s population, protect the city.
The neighborhood of Ramot serves as a buffer to the north; Mount Scopus, French Hill, Ramat Eshkol, and Sanhedria protect Jerusalem’s east.
To decide, as a matter of policy, not to endorse the building of Jewish homes within existing Israeli areas is the abrogation of the right of Jews to live wherever they wish in Israel.
Migron and Gilo are the two laboratories where terrorists and peaceniks sought to discover whether they could force Jews into abandoning their homes. If the Jewish homes are abandoned and/ or handed over to the Palestinians, the latter will see it as confirmation of their belief that terrorism pays off and that they are on the right road in a war that will eventually return them to Jaffa, Haifa, Zichron and Jerusalem.
"Migron: Everyone's struggle", states the placard stretched along the road from Jerusalem to the Binyamin region. Destroy the outposts and you will see the domino effect: all Israel will be in danger.