Report on Israeli Settlement in the Occupied Territories

Ma'ale Adumim stands out as one of the most important achievements of Israel's settlement campaign. In the century-old battle between Arab and Jew, this town has amassed two of the conflict's winning ingredients, land and population.

The traditional foundation of American policy toward Israel has been a commitment to its security and welfare as a Jewish, democratic state. This commitment has been based on Americans' well-founded sense of moral debt for centuries of Christian anti-Semitism and its culmination in the Holocaust. Ironically, Washington's continuing neglect over the years of the threat of settlements has undermined this policy.

The expansion of Israeli settlements in the occupied territories is often misunderstood by its opponents, who are frequently unfamiliar with the extent to which this policy has become routinized throughout Israel's national institutions during the last 28 years. Its proponents, in contrast, have mastered the intricacies of this system to their advantage.