‘It’s So Easy to Live Here.’ Jewish Settlements Go Mainstream in Israel

Wall Street Journal, ^ | November 10, 2019 | Felicia Schwartz

[karpov]

ARIEL, West Bank—When the Jewish settlers who founded this town scouted the land in 1978, they chose a rocky outcrop where Palestinian villagers warned nothing would grow. It was called the Mountain of Death.

“They thought we were crazy,” said Dorith Nachman, 70 years old, recalling the reaction when she, her husband and other Jewish Israelis erected tents on the hillside.

Ariel’s founders used to administer a psychological questionnaire to incoming families to ensure they could tough it out. It wasn’t just the natural environment that was harsh. By establishing Jewish communities on land Palestinians claim as their own, the settlers opened Israel to both domestic and international criticism.

Things have gotten a whole lot easier for Jews living in many of the 132 settlements built on territory Israel captured from Jordan in the 1967 war. A highway now connects Tel Aviv to Ariel, without the military checkpoints dotting much of the West Bank. Real-estate agents pitch it as a Tel Aviv bedroom community for young families. There are parks, malls, a university with 15,000 students and rows of townhouses and apartment blocs priced as much as 30% lower than in Tel Aviv, some 30 miles away.

Israel’s settlements in the West Bank, one of the most emotional issues of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, have gone mainstream among Israelis. Places once viewed with skepticism, if not downright hostility, by other Israelis are now home to 450,000 Israelis, up from 116,300 in 1993. They account for 15% of the total population of the West Bank, which also includes an estimated 2.6 million Palestinians, and 5% of the Israeli population. An August poll by the Israel Democracy Institute found that 48% of Israelis support a plan by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to annex Jewish settlements in the West Bank.

[billyboy15]

Wrong? How can I be wrong? All I said was “as the phrase goes....?

I never mentioned it’s author because I didn’t know who it was.

[SJackson]

Middle East and terrorism, occasional political and Jewish issues Ping List. High Volume If you’d like to be on or off, please FR mail me.

..................

[RinaseaofDs]

I just watched a documentary on the 1967 war. Those idiots lost that land fair and square.

Jordan, Syria, and Egypt was lucky Israel didn’t shove all of them out back in 67 and send them packing.

[Jewbacca]

"How do the residents - Arab and Israeli - distinguish the good guys from the bad guys?"

The ones hiding behind women and children while attacking you are the bad ones.

But to your point, the closest genetic relatives of Jewish people (Ashkenazim or Sephardi) are the Samaritans, followed by the Arabs in Judea/Samaria. It is not possible to tell the difference with the eye.

For illustration, I post a picture of a noted "Palestinian" terrorist:



The "Palestinian" is the ginger. The rest are Israeli police of various kinds.

[Bodega]

I would like you to include me in your Israel list. thank you.

[The Toll]

Diversity is NOT their strength.

[zeestephen]

Thanks.

Your comments are very helpful.

I know a large percentage (majority?) of Israeli Jews come from North Africa and the Middle East.

I assumed the north European Jews most closely resembled Europeans.

And, yes, I always mix up which group is Ashkenazi and which group is Sephardim.

[Jewbacca]

Yeah, I always laugh at the liberal talking point that Israelis are some sort of European colonists. A plurality of Israelis are Sephardic that were ethnically cleansed from the surrounding Muslim countries (e.g. Syria, Lebanon, Egypt).

One, they had no choice but to go there. Two, they are visually the same as any one else in the region.

For the record, I’m very tall mesomorph with black curly hair, darkish skin — and blue eyes. Pretty clearly a mutt.

[zeestephen]

I live in the heart of Microsoft country, east of Seattle.

My town is 40% foreign born, partly because of H-1B work visas, and partly because it is a very prosperous area.

Over the last few years, one thing has really jumped out at me.

Many “south Asian” males - specifically, the eastern Mediterranean to the Persian Gulf - are seriously big guys!

Not just tall, but weight lifter tall.

If these guys ever discover NFL football, it will change the game.

[Jewbacca]

Yeah, I am well over 6 feet and 240lbs (not at all fat).

The weight limit I have at work (aviation) is strict, so I periodically starve myself down to 220. The IAF limit was 211 lbs. That was tough. I’d come in at 210.

On older block aircraft I have to sign a waiver that the ejection seat might fail.

Never played American football. Did like Rugby, though.