Israel Matzav

Forward disappointed: Army not breaking Jewish heads in Migron

The government has reached an agreement with the residents of Migron, an 'unauthorized outpost' that has benefited from government support in the past. Under the terms of the agreement, the residents will stay there until 2015 by which time the government will build them a new town in a new location. The purported reason for expelling the residents from their current location is that Migron is built on 'private Palestinian land' except that no 'private Palestinian' has ever come forward and proven ownership.

The Forward finds all this distressing. They were looking forward to the IDF or the Yassamnikim (the special police SWAT unit which includes a lot of Bedouin soldiers) coming in and knocking some 'settlers' on the head. Now, that's not going to happen (Hat Tip: John K).

To almost every country in the world, all of Israel’s settlements on the occupied West Bank are officially illegal. Israel rejects this view but does consider one group of settlements illegal under its own laws. Yet, less than a handful of these unauthorized outposts have been evacuated since June 2004, when then-Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon promised President George W. Bush to remove them. Of those that were evacuated, most were repopulated within days.

Now, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s cabinet has decided to ignore Sharon’s promise for at least another three years. On March 11, the cabinet reached an agreement with Migron — the oldest of the unauthorized settlements, located near Ramallah — to allow residents to stay put until 2015. In the meantime, an authorized settlement will be built nearby, and that is where they will move in three years.

To Dov Weissglass, a senior aide to Sharon who was deeply involved in the commitments his boss made to Bush, the reason is simple: “My impression is that the present government does not feel it is bound by previous obligations,” he told the Forward. “They simply leave it as it is while all sorts of initiatives to legalize [the illegal outposts] pop up.”

Given that President Obama and Secretary of State Clinton decided immediately upon taking office that they were not bound by commitments made by President Bush, why should Israel be bound by commitments made to President Bush?

Read the whole thing.

Labels: Judea and Samaria, Migron, outposts, revenants

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 9:40 PM