While nothing is official yet, the settlement framework being developed by U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry is likely to include a mechanism for Israeli retention of the so-called “settlement blocs,” the areas where the large majority of Jewish communities are located in Judea and Samaria....Haaretz reported this last week as well:
In most discussions of the blocs, there are three that are generally mentioned – the Ariel bloc, which includes most of the towns of central Samaria; Maale Adumim bloc, encompassing eastern suburbs of Jerusalem; and the Gush Etzion bloc. But a report on Army Radio Thursday said that Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu was demanding that Israel retain a fourth bloc – the area around Beit El, north of Jerusalem.
According to the report, Netanyahu told Kerry that Israel could not give up these areas, which played a major role in Jewish history. Shilo, for example, was the home of the temporary Sanctuary (mishkan) before the building of the Holy Temple in Jerusalem, Nabi Samuel is the burial place of the Prophet Samuel, and Beit El itself was the site of the famous dream of the Biblical Jacob, in which he saw angels ascending and descending from heaven.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told his Likud Knesset faction on Monday that he opposes evacuating settlements like Hebron and Beit El, which are outside the major settlement blocs but are “important to the Jewish people,” MKs present at the meeting said.Interestingly, two years ago I asked Danny Ayalon whether Bet El would be one of Netanyahu's "painful concessions for peace" that he always spoke about, and Ayalon denied that Israel would ever give it up. (It is hard to hear, starting at around 0:25:)
To be honest, I didn't believe him. It's not like he could answer any other way at a dinner for Bet El!
Arutz-7 continues:
In addition to demanding the fourth bloc, the report said, Netanyahu has nixed the idea of a “centimeter for centimeter” land swap, as the PA has demanded. At least part of the swap would come in the form of cash, or in the value of the land, cities, and industrial base that Israel would be surrendering to make the plan work.Let's hope that Netanyahu's government is as adamant about "red lines" as the PA has been.
The report said that PA negotiators have rejected both demands out of hand.
It would have helped if the governments of Israel would have been saying this since Oslo, rather than first mentioning it, privately, at the eleventh hour.
Abbas hasn't gone a day since he's been in office without saying "Jerusalem, 1967 lines, right of return" to whoever is in earshot. Israeli leaders instead say defensive, nearly useless things like "the settlements aren't the problem." After a decade or two, along with Israeli governments that have offered to give away these sacred areas, who is the world going to side with?