Can Netanyahu really control the settlers?
The Israeli settlers in the Palestinian West Bank are a multi dimensional problem. They are, under Judaic tradition, doing nothing more than reclaiming Judea and Samaria, as they term it. For the Palestinians, however, they are creating Swiss cheese holes in any future Palestinian state, rending their traditional homeland fissured with Israeli outposts. There is also a degree of duplicity in Israeli claims that no more settler outposts are being built, while still allowing the settlers to expand their exisiting developments by terming them West or East “extensions” of settlements and not new land grabs. President Obama and his team have been clear about their agenda on the settlers; their development of further locations on the West Bank should cease, and some, if not all, of the 100 or so outposts must be demolished. Bearing in mind that there are an estimated 500,000 settlers now living in the West Bank and annexed East Jerusalem, evicting them is a logistical challenge.
This is problematical for Netanyahu and the new Israeli Knesset for a variety of reasons. Firstly, Netanyahu and Lieberman appear sympathetic to the settlers and their objectives. They may also lack the political clout to curtail the settlers given that they owe much of their election victory to to the Israeli right-wing, and as in all elections, supporting pressure groups need to be paid back. Lastly, there is the growing religiosity of the Israeli army, which some say is purposely and increasingly dominated by settlers and the Israeli right wing members, who may well refuse orders to dismantle any settlements. The settlers will not quit their developments peacefully as has been evidenced many times before, so the Israeli government is reliant on the army to forcibly eject them when they need to appear to do so. If the army refuses, then Netanyahu will have neither the will nor the means to curtail the settlersat all. Such a lack of capability to deal with the settlers will further isolate Tel Aviv from Washington and add fuel to the fire of Palestinian outrage:
But anti-settlement groups, such as Peace Now, warn that the national-religious movement has now become so strong in the military that no future government will dare to use the army in evacuating the increasing number of settler outposts that have sprung up across the West Bank, which they say explains the reluctance of the Ehud Barak, the Labour Defence Minister, to take such a politically explosive task.
One religious paratrooper who fought in Gaza and who asked to be identified only as Ilan, said that leaders of religious and settler communities encouraged their young people to join the army and to work their way up the ranks. The new recruits attend special pre-military seminaries, known as hesder yeshivas, to prepare them for army service - World Agenda: Israel’s war effort gains religious imperative – Times Online.
