Observation: After Northern Jordan Valley Murder Will PM Netanyahu Truly Give Zionist
Response To Terror - Settlements?

Dr. Aaron Lerner Date: 11 October 2013

Historically, settlements were considered the "Zionist response to terror."

A look at the map of modern Israel finds it sprinkled with the names of
settlements named in memory of the victims of various Arab attacks.

Today's terrorists are popular folk heroes in Palestinian society. The cost
to the Palestinians of terror, in the form of restrictions on movement and
commerce, may be painful, but the pain is temporary in nature. Large
terrorist attacks may postpone what the Palestinians see as the ongoing
capitulation of Israel either at the negotiating table or via unilateral
withdrawals, but, again, these are temporary setbacks.

Terrorist attacks may, in fact, be viewed in the long run by the
Palestinians as serving their interests by softening Israel's resolve.

Less than a month ago Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu responded to the
murder of Sgt. Gabriel Kobi in Hebron by ordering the immediate resettlement
of Beit
Hamachpela, a Jewish owned building near the West Bank city’s Tomb of
Patriarchs which was previously boarded up by order of the Defense Ministry.

PM Netanyahu declared that "Those who attempt to uproot us from the city of
our forefathers will achieve the opposite effect. We will continue on one
hand to fight terror and to harm terrorists and on the other hand to
strengthen settlements."

But shortly after the news cycle winded down on the incident it turned out
that PM Netanyahu's "order" notwithstanding, the actual return of Jews to
the Jewish owned building remains mired in a web of legal processes with no
clear end.

The latest murder of an Israeli in the northern Jordan Valley provides Mr.
Netanyahu the opportunity to truly return to the "Zionist response to
terror."

That means having the Defense Minister sign all the paperwork needed for
something tangible to be built somewhere immediately.

That's "immediately" - not another step in a series of bureaucratic steps
but all the steps.

What pending projects fit this description? There are people only a phone
call away with the answer to that.

It should be made clear that the murder of Israelis leads to new settlement
construction.

Sure, the Palestinians won't be pleased to learn that settlement
construction is taking place in the memory of the man murdered, but will the
murderers
still be the same heroes they expected to be if their action leads to the
building of yet more Jewish homes?

The "Zionist response to terror" has another benefit. Besides deterring Arab
terror, it would serve to bolster the morale of the Israeli public by
offering it a positive emotional outlet through which to respond to Arab
terror. By establishing living memorials, Israel would be effectively
saying: "We are on the map. Terror will not vanquish."

It is said that the Arabs decided to make peace with Israel when they came
to the conclusion that they could not destroy the Jewish State on the
battlefield. By the same token, settlement activity today may very well
convince the Palestinians that they must compromise now or face the
prospects of a considerably worse deal in the future.

Dr. Aaron Lerner, Director IMRA (Independent Media Review & Analysis)
(Mail POB 982 Kfar Sava)
Tel 972-9-7604719/Fax 972-3-7255730
INTERNET ADDRESS: imra@netvision.net.il
Website: http://www.imra.org.il