Netanyahu Government Highlights Settlement Program

The settlement policies of the government of Benjamin Netanyahu remain a work in progress, three months after the defeat of the Labor government led by Shimon Peres. While initial government intentions for settlement expansion during the coming four years do not exceed Labor's settlement program, the idea of settlement is enjoying a renaissance and the settlers themselves are being welcomed once again into the Israeli political mainstream.

Minister of Finance Dan Meridor put the Likud's intentions into proper perspective and offered an important insight into how one of the more thoughtful Likud leaders views the settlement issue in the context of relations both domestic and foreign. Meridor responded to a question about the new government's intentions to prevent once and for all the possibility of withdrawal from the occupied territories in a July 19 interview in the Israeli newspaper Yediot Aharanot:

"In this regard we have to praise Yitzhak Rabin, may he rest in peace, and Shimon Peres who during the last four years raised the number of Jews in Judea and Samaria by 40 percent. During their tenure, thousands of homes were built in Judea and Samaria and the number of Jews increased from 100,000 to 140,000.

"But we need not be thankful only to them. We should also praise the Israeli left which didn't utter a word about this for four years; and to the American government which knew but didn't care. And also we should give thanks to the Palestinian Authority which saw that we were building but did not permit this to disrupt the peace process.

"It is clear as can be that we will not do less in this regard [settlement construction] than the Labor Party. I already told the American ambassador that he can rest easy about one thing--that Labor's policy of massive settlement will not change. Maybe we will do it a little differently. . . . But it is clear that if we are serious in our intention not to return to the 1967 lines, words alone will not suffice. Settlement is one of the things that determines the map of the country. Therefore, if we stop settlement in one place or another it means that we have surrendered that place. . . . but it is necessary to continue the settlement enterprise in Judea and Samaria in a sober and controlled manner, and within our economic limitations. There are communities which for sure were dried out in recent years, and that will certainly be rectified."

When Netanyahu met U.S. President Bill Clinton in Washington in June the two leaders reaffirmed the understandings reached between President George Bush and Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin in August 1992.This agreement gave U.S. assent to a policy of settlement expansion according to the ambiguous definition of "natural growth," but not to the construction of new settlements. Where Rabin promised Bush not to construct new settlements, Netanyahu gave no commitments, nor did he commit Israel to any limitation on settlement expansion.

"When we come to things that we have not agreed upon," Netanyahu was reported to have told Clinton, "I will inform you straight away. We will not surprise you. We will not place caravans on hilltops." This last comment was a reference to the "Baker settlements" demonstratively established by the Shamir government on the eve of the U.S. Secretary of State James Baker's many visits to Israel in the aftermath of the Gulf War.

Netanyahu on U.S. Stand

Netanyahu outlined his view of U.S. policy in a July 12 interview on Israeli television:

"The United States understands that there is a natural process of development of the Jewish settlements in Judea, Samaria, and Gaza. I showed President Clinton and Congress the table demonstrating the expansion, the growth of the Jewish population in Judea, Samaria, and Gaza by 50 percent under the Labor government, not the Likud government. It is the outcome of natural growth. . . . Natural growth within the framework of the municipal boundaries of the existing settlements is not something that appears to be in dispute. The other thing on which there is agreement is the bypass roads, which were agreed upon in the Oslo process, which is something I welcome since they reduce the friction between the Jewish and Palestinian populations. . . . Regarding new settlements, we will have to discuss in the cabinet and decide how and when to do it. We have not yet decided. The areas of agreement up to now have in fact permitted a 50 percent natural growth of the Jewish population in Judea and Samaria, which is not unimportant."

Government Decisions

On July 29, the director general of the prime minister's office, Avigdor Liebermann, who himself lives in a West Bank settlement, announced the new government's commitment to the economic vitalization of the settlements, including an intent to restore unspecified benefits and subsidies that were denied by the previous government to some settlements.

On August 2, the government decreed an end to restrictions placed on settlement expansion by the previous Labor governments, including the rental or sale of 1,500 apartments whose disposition was frozen by Labor. The government has empowered the minister of defense to rule on all new residential construction planning and zoning applications in the settlements.

"We are stopping the artificial drying out that was the previous government's policy for the Judea and Samaria settlements," explained Netanyahu in an interview the day the new policy was announced. "The previous government imposed all kinds of decrees, restrictions, chains, and bonds on the natural development of the settlements. It did not impose similar restrictions on the Arab settlement of Judea, Samaria, and Gaza, nor did it impose such restriction on Jewish settlements inside the Green Line. Naturally, we do not accept this policy. Hence, today we lifted the ban. At the same time, every orderly government has its checks and balances and means to control building and settlement policies, which are part of today's resolution. This is what it means:

"Lifting the ban; we have not decided yet what we will do as far as initiated policy is concerned. If [the issue of establishing new settlements] comes up as part of the cabinet policy, we will bring it up for the ministers to decide. We did not decide so today. Today, we created room to maneuver, if you will. We canceled past restrictions, but we left the issue of policy for our future discussions. . . . I cannot tell you now what the scope of our decision will be, the amount of resources we will invest in Judea and Samaria, or whether or not we will set up new settlements. This is for the future. What could be more natural for a government with a commitment to Jewish settlement in Eretz Yisra'el and to full equality between all the citizens of the State of Israel than to lift these bans?"

"I already told the American ambassador that he can rest easy about one thing--that Labor's policy of massive settlement will not change."