"The left wing of the coalition has been sounding rising and falling sirens in recent days after its radar identified suspicious movements in the justice and security system ahead of the authorization of the Eviatar settlement," Makor Rishon editor Hagai Segal wrote in his weekly column.
"Deputy Prime Minister Yair Lapid warned that promoting the published outline, that is, honoring the agreement signed by the Israeli government, would provoke American anger. Indeed, they have always been angry, even since the return of Jews to Kfar Etzion about 55 years ago. But the convoy came in general, and this summer the half-millionth Jew to be born or absorbed in Judea and Samaria is expected."
Segal presented the findings of former MK Yaakov Katz (Katzaleh), co-founder of Bet El and Israel National News, who this week published his annual monitoring report on the demographics of the settlements.
According to his findings, based on data from the Ministry of the Interior, 490,493 Jews lived in Judea and Samaria on February 1. "The rate of growth has indeed been small in recent years, and it does not matter who is to blame at the moment, but the trend of growth remains. By the end of the civil year, the Jewish population of Judea and Samaria will climb to 510,000. When you add the 325,000 residents of the Jewish neighborhoods in eastern Jerusalem and the 25,000 Jews of the Golan, it turns out that 12 percent of Israel's Jewish residents are settlers - 850,000, almost one in eight. "
According to the Katzaleh report, two more localities beyond the Green Line crossed the ten thousand line last year - Oranit in western Samaria and Kokhav Yaakov near Al Bireh. In 1991, I remember, only two families lived in Kochav Yaakov. For a while this locality was considered a symbol of the failure of the settlement enterprise, like Har Bracha near Shechem, where only four families remained at the end of the 1980s, to the delight of the Leftists and Americans.
More than three thousand people now live in Har Bracha; in nearby Ariel - 20 thousand. Eviatar is another vital cell of settlement in that area in the heart of Samaria, on the main road to the Jordan Valley. "The senior command of the IDF wants it to be there, so that its very presence will prevent a Palestinian takeover of the all-important axis between Gush Dan and the Jordan Valley. As far as is known, Benny Gantz is also interested. If Prime Minister Bennett gives the green light, and he pledged to give it, the Americans will be angry but will make do with protest. By 2026, Katzaleh estimates, they are expected to have a million reasons to be angry," Segal wrote.
Sign up for the monthly emails from Ketzaleh's WestBankJewishPopulationStats.com site to receive the report and the monthly emails which show an erosion of support for the Two-State Solution paradigm. The yearly report which will soon be published has a breakdown of the population of every single Jewish village in the West Bank for the current year, last year and five years ago. The report can only be received by signing up to the WestBankJewishPopulationStats.com email list.