Israel_p196-271_4p.qxd
11/14/07
11:17 AM
Page 222
93. A settler and his son at Elon Moreh, West Bank, 1979.
where he declared, “I promise to come and live here when I retire.” He was possibly modeling himself on Ben-Gurion, who retired to Sde Boker in the Negev. In the late ’70s and ’80s, I went on many tours to the West Bank with Ariel Sharon when he was a cabinet minister. His attitude towards the settlements was not guided by any religious zeal but rather by a desire to see every hilltop occupied for the purpose of strategic defense and also to prevent the creation of a Palestinian state. I took many pictures of him, and one in particular shows him standing on a hilltop as he was planning the settlements, pointing out the topography to the people with him. “Look,” he said, pointing westward, “you can see the Mediterranean Sea easily from here. This shows you clearly just how slim the ‘waist’ of Israel is. This makes us very vulnerable.” The distance from the sea to the West Bank at Israel’s narrowest point—near Kfar Saba—was only about eight miles. By the early 1990s, the settlers had become very well organized. During the huge wave of immigration from the former U S S R , they were the only people permitted to set up stands at Ben-Gurion Airport, where they tried to persuade families just off the plane to settle in Judea and Samaria. Many of the Russians were tempted to go there, not because they had any religious or political affiliation, but because they were offered incentives and better housing than they could have received elsewhere. From the outset, the two principal political parties, when in government, pursued a policy of building in the West Bank. Israelis were encouraged to live there, some who were political idealists, others who wanted to settle the land as a means of defending the country. There were also many who fell into neither camp but chose to live there purely because of tax incentives and more affordable housing. The settlers, meanwhile, became a law unto themselves, behaving as if they were the lords of the land. I witnessed many an occasion when senior army officers came cap in hand to hear their demands. Some of them obviously did so because they were afraid of the political clout that the settlers carried, others possibly because they identified with their aims. Over the years, I have found it extremely difficult to accept the manner in which some of these settlers, my fellow Jews, have treated the 222