There have been some pleasant surprises this week. For instance, the Supreme Court ordered the state to explain why it isn’t removing the outpost of Migron, built on other people’s land. The state – meaning Defense Minister Ehud Barak, for practical purposes – wanted an indefinite delay, based on a supposed agreement with the Council of Settlements to move the outpost to the settlement of Adam. The court finally ran out of patience with such nonsense.
Meanwhile, Barak has yet to move on evicting settlers from the so-called House of Dispute in Hebron. This is no surprise – it fits the pattern of settlement in Hebron for the past 40 years. Then again, there’s a particular ferociousness in the settlers’ statements and actions against eviction. My new piece in the American Prospect explains what’s happening:
…the militancy in Hebron is part of a wider mood among the most ideologically committed settlers. They want Israeli leaders and the public to be too scared to think about evacuating whole settlements as part of a peace agreement with the Palestinians. They seek strategic deterrence that will eliminate the political option of giving up land and of returning to a smaller and more democratic Israel. And they could be succeeding.
Read the full article here, and come back to SoJo to comment.