October 28, 2012

Netanyahu's Settlement Jungle

By Jerold S. Auerbach
The issue of Jewish settlements in Judea and Samaria, the biblical homeland of the Jewish people, continues to roil Israeli politics. According to worldwide conventional wisdom, settlements built since the Six-Day War on land that previously had been known as Jordan's West Bank violate fundamental principles of international law. But conventional wisdom, according to the recent report of an Israeli commission chaired by retired Supreme Court Justice Edmond Levy, is wrong. The report concluded: "according to international law, Israelis have the legal right to settle in Judea and Samaria and the establishment of settlements cannot in and of itself be considered illegal." Prime Minister Netanyahu's announced intention to seek ministerial approval for the Levy Report instantly stirred the wrath of his left-wing political opponents, who dismissed it as "a transparent elections scheme" and accused the government of planning "an infestation of illegal settlements to annex territories."...(Read Full Article)