MK Daniel Ben-Simon (Labor) says he is “bewildered” by the simultaneous reports of a Jewish growth spurt in Judea and Samaria (Yesha) and continued plans for a two-state solution.

"Which is it - a Palestinian state, or Jewish growth?" he asked. "It can't be both - and it looks like the Jewish growth is stronger on the ground than anything else."

"It could be that ‘two states for two people’ is no longer an idea that can be implemented on the ground – because the ground is already full!”





A long-time representative and spokesman for the “peace camp” in the media and now as a freshman MK of the Labor Party, Ben-Simon participated in the Knesset Education Committee session on Monday, and was surprised to hear that the Jewish population in Judea and Samaria continues to grow at a much higher pace than that of the rest of Israel.



Ben-Simon asked a fellow session participant, the Defense Minister’s Advisor on Settlement Affairs Eitan Baroshi, “Are we hallucinatory? How can we continue to discuss ‘two states for two peoples’ when the ‘land of Judea and Samaria’ is growing at such a pace? I’m sitting here in the session and I feel like I’m in a movie. Is there diplomatic coordination with what is going on in the field?”



Baroshi, apparently surprised by the question, responded, “The growth did not begin now under Ehud Barak. There is a reality that has been created in the past 42 years…”



After the session, Ben-Simon elaborated on his question while speaking with Arutz-7’s Chezky Ezra: “Is the two-state plan for the division of the land that Binyamin Netanyahu has proposed real? Or is it the truly amazing and extraordinary Jewish development and growth in almost every area school that is real? If the latter, then it could be that the diplomatic story is over… So I asked [Baroshi] which one of these is the correct one. It could be that the entire diplomatic process is simply detached from reality, in that the reality on the ground is stronger than anything else!” 



Asked what conclusions he has reached, Ben-Simon said, “My conclusion is that I’m confused and mixed-up, because it could be that ‘two states for two people’ is no longer an idea that can be implemented on the ground – because the ground is already full!”  



“And therefore we have to ask Bibi [Netanyahu] if he knows what’s going on, and ask him if really his freeze [on Jewish construction in Judea and Samaria] doesn’t really change anything, because the area is possibly already like a state in and of itself. We shouldn’t think that this entity [the Jewish presence in Yesha – ed.] will be neutralized and ended just by making declarations about ‘two states for two nations.” It could very well be that such declarations are essentially not serious.”



The Civil Administration reported this week that the Jewish population in Judea and Samaria grew in the past half-year by 2.75%, and by 5.1% in the past year, and now stands at 312,940. A large part of the growth is due to the hareidi-religious cities of Beitar Illit (6.3%) and Modiin Illit (9.8%) - but even without those cities, Yesha’s growth rate of 3.8% more than doubles that of the rest of Israel, which stands at 1.7%.