Exclusive Video: The Radical Settlers Behind Israel's Clash With Obama

JERUSALEM--The Israeli government has repeatedly announced plans to forge ahead with plans to expand settlements in the occupied West Bank in direct opposition to President Barack Obama's demand for an absolute settlement freeze. On May 27, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton leveled strong criticism at Israeli policy, telling reporters that President Barack Obama "wants to see a stop to settlements - not some settlements, not outposts, not 'natural growth' exceptions." Israeli government spokesman Mark Regev responded by declaring that "normal life" in the settlements would continue, using a phrase that is code for continued construction.

With neither side exhibiting willingness to back down, the stage is set for a contentious clash between Israel and the U.S. over settlement policy. At the center of the maelstrom is Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, leader of the hawkish Likud Party, who has highlighted his unique understanding of the United States - he is Yale educated and speaks flawless English. Supporters of the settlement movement are an integral part of his governing coalition. How Netanyahu navigates between his far-right constituency and increasingly insistent demands from Obama will not only determine the fate of his government, but also the fate of Israel's "special relationship" with Washington.

A gathering of the settlement movement's leading figures in Jerusalem on May 22, documented in this exclusive Mondoweiss report, revealed the unprecedented influence of the settlers on Israeli policy. The event, a ceremony for the presentation of the Moskowitz Foundation Prize for Zionism, was organized and bankrolled by one of Netanyahu's closest confidants and backers, the American casino tycoon Irving Moskowitz. For over a decade, Moskowitz has funneled millions in profits from his California-based Hawaiian Gardens casino, where he has been sued for exploiting undocumented workers, into settlement construction projects in the West Bank, including Palestinian neighborhoods in East Jerusalem. He has also funded several neoconservative think tanks including a research center named after Netanyahu's brother, Yonatan, who was killed while leading the Entebbe rescue raid in 1976. Moskowitz and Netanyahu have remained close since he established the center.

In 1996, Moskowitz convinced Netanyahu, in his first round as prime minister, to open a tunnel adjacent to the Temple Mount, a controversial act that led to several days of rioting and 70 deaths. Four years later, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's provocative visit to the tunnel set off the so-called Al-Aqsa uprising, the opening salvo of the Second Intifada. Now, Moskowitz's imprint on the West Bank's landscape is most clearly reflected in the expansion of the settlement called Kiryat Arba, a hotbed of Orthodox Jewish radicalism located high above the occupied city of Hebron.

Kiryat Arba founder Noam Arnon is the recipient of the 2009 Moskowitz Prize, an honor that included $50,000 in cash. After receiving his prize before a cheering crowd of two thousand settlers, Arnon complained to me, "We think that somehow the Arabs have taken over the international media and the international mood, and they convinced the world to believe that there is a Palestinian people and these people deserve to have a Palestinian state -- which is totally untrue."

Despite the fanaticism of Arnon and his followers, who routinely rampage through Hebron, vandalizing Palestinian homes and attacking local residents (often under the watch of the Israeli army), they are not isolated as a rogue element in Netanyahu's political world. Indeed, several of notables stood on stage to present Arnon with his prize. They included Professor Moshe Aumann, who won the Nobel Prize in 2005 for his work on understanding conflict through game theory, and Uzi Landau, the Israeli Minister of National Infrastructure. (Landau's party, Yisrael Beiteynu, has introduced bills that would compel Arab citizens of Israel to take loyalty oaths and which would criminalize open discussion of what the Palestinians call "Nakbah," or "catastrophe" of Israel's founding). Also in attendance was Benny Begin, a leading Likud member of Knesset and the son of the late Prime Minister Menachem Begin, the first Likud prime minister.

After the ceremony, Landau mingled easily with settlement leaders, who beseeched him for support. Though Landau's bodyguard attempted to prevent journalists from approaching him, my journalistic colleague Jesse Rosenfeld managed to ask him about Obama's call for freeze on settlement construction. Visibly irritated by the mention of Obama's demand, Landau issued an unequivocal statement. "Those who say, or are trying to suggest that Arabs can build anywhere and everywhere, and Jews can't -it's something that should be totally rejected."

Since arriving in Israel, I have observed the battle over settlement expansion from an on-the-ground perspective. On May 16, I traveled with the Israeli peace group Ta'ayush to Hilltop 26, an illegal hilltop outpost constructed by settlers from Kiryat Arba - not an aspect of "natural growth." Four angry settler youths confronted us upon our arrival; within minutes, a squadron of Israeli border police officers, soldiers and a Kiryat Arba security team were on the scene. The army swiftly issued a "closed military zone order," ordering us to leave within five minutes or be arrested. While the soldiers initially allowed the settler youth to stay, the presence of international media apparently prompted them to briefly remove the teenagers while allowing their outpost to remain - an act that underscored the army's collaboration with settlers to stifle the activities of peace groups. (See the confrontation in my exclusive Daily Beast video report here.)

On May 25, Ta'ayush member Joseph Dana detailed to me the continued development of Hilltop 26. Since I visited the outpost, Kiryat Arba settlers had wired it with electricity and established a security perimeter. Two days before, Dana and two other Ta'ayush activists were arrested by Israeli army officers for returning to the area to document conditions and not leaving rapidly enough. After interrogating the activists in Kiryat Arba police stations - "Why are you always creating chaos here?" Dana said the army commander angrily asked him - the commander ignored two calls from left-wing members of Knesset for the activists' immediate release. In the end, Dana and his colleagues were released under the condition that they not return to the West Bank for 15 days.

Two days after I listened to Dana's story, he called me with unexpected news: the army had dismantled Hilltop 26. Netanyahu had issued a list of 26 illegal outposts he planned to demolish -- an unsuccessful tactic to mollify the Obama administration -- but Hilltop 26 was not among them. Dana attributed the sudden demolition to intense coverage of the controversy, particularly my video for the Daily Beast and an editorial he authored for the Israeli daily Ha'aretz. "It seems like the government was so embarrassed by all the media coverage, and even though they tried to prevent us from even going to Hilltop 26 to document what was happening there, they decided they had to take action," Dana told me.

The demolition, however, has sparked a furious backlash from the fanatics of Kiryat Arba. According to Dana, the settlers have initiated a new round of violence inside Hebron - already, an elderly Palestinian man has been beaten. And while the settlers hatched plans to rebuild the outpost, the following call for retribution appeared on a Kiryat Arba web forum: "The destruction of outposts and their surrender is the first step in the bigger scheme... we will not be silent any longer! We will not silently abided by false declarations, promises and temptations... Bribes blind the eyes of the righteous. We will stop the cleansing at the source." The battle over Hilltop 26 appears to be just beginning. So does the struggle between Obama and Netanyahu.

Comments

[bdaved]

I just heard Liz Cheney say all those poor settlers want to do is add on a nursery when they have a new baby. Everybody loves babies, except Michael Reagan, of course.

[02bmw76]

It's the Hatfields and the McCoys...

[chirps]

These people reek. As for that obnoxious, troublemaking p.o.s. Moskowitz, give that “American” a one-way ticket to Israel.

[David Campbell]

There is an obvious and reasonable solution, however difficult. Isreal takes over Gaza for its expansion and those people are relocated to the settlements in the West Bank. That is a two state solution and a workable compromise. One palestinian state, not two, and no Gaza launching rockets.

[newworldman777]

Totally unacceptable. The Palestinians will not accept anything less than all of the Gaza Strip, all of the West Bank, and East Jerusalem. In the end, they will undoubtedly settle in the current Israeli settlements in the West Bank, but they will never give up the Gaza Strip in order to reach that goal...nor should they.

[longtimegone]

I feel as if I need to wash out my eyes and ears after watching this.

[operaglass]

Excellent reporting, Mr. Blumenthal. Thank you.

[mommamia526]

Netanyahu is by no means entirely reponsible for the composition of the current Israeli government. There were elections, and the public having reactions to the results of giving up Gaza elected Likud. The winner with the most votes ws made to step aside for Netanyahu, but had enough influence to have an input. The outcome of the elections was in spite of the fact that most Israelis are middle of the road or leftwing. The ultra orthodox are a minority. People were tired and weary of being under constant kassam attack after having given in to demands to hand over Gaza. It got them nothing in return. Worse, it also got nothing in return for the Gaza population.

[mommamia526]

Yes, you should see some of those dangerous outpost settlements! A rickety trailer, or a little house erected with some sheetrock and some rocks. A little yard around it, with a *fence* of small rocks. A few children playing, and a baby carriage. Real Scary!! They are scatting. In the U.S. we had scatters' rights, and people did the same thing. If I am correct, this still applies in some way, in the sense that if you set out a fence around your property and it exceeds your propertyline, after a certain period that extra territory belongs to you. THAT is scatters' rights. There is nothing, some rocky or sandy soil, and a young couple starts to fertilize the soil, make some plants grow, and they make something out of what is barren nothing. They are surrounded by the same barren nothingness. Any Arab (Palestinian) could do the same thing, and several do it. But here is the difference. When an Israeli couple does it they are soon bulldozered out, no ifs ands or buts. The Arab scatter is left alone. The only time Palestinians are bulldozered out is when they attack, and continue to attack, are warned, and continue. These settlers do not terrorize their neighbors. Yes, they want to settle the land, improve the soil they love, and make something out of it. Make a place for themselves. In Gaza they started in sandy beach soil and built thriving greenhouses, which provided jobs and produce.

[Garioch]

So the Palestinian olive groves that the settlers were burning down the other day were actually attacking the settlers and someone had warned these dangerous plants and they had ignored this warning?
An interesting take on the situation, myopic, mad and of course without any bearing referencing the actual facts but interesting.

[chirps]

Facts and Zionists seldom align.

[Perry Shapiro]

Olive groves attack school buses and pizza shops? Olive groves snipe at babies in passing cars? You have a sad, naive, and misinformed image of the Palestinian people that does no one any good.

[jwcmass]

I think the word you are looking for is SQUATTING and SQUATTER's rights-- in English the word scatting means something quite different--usually the behavior of an animal (literally-- I'm talking about real animal behavior, not people behaving as animals).

But I do have a couple of questions. What about this bulldozing of Palestinian homes in Silwan for an archeological park?

Or seizing of Palestinian lands to build this wall (the wall is not being built on the 1967 border aka The Green Line, but well within the West Bank and on Palestinian Land. Trees and Homes have ben bulldozed, and Palestinian villages have been split in two.

Palestinians have their homes bulldozed regularly--they also find it next to impossible to get permits to build. Rare is the Israeli that experiences this.

And when these "squatters" DO take land, just WHOSE land do you think it is? It's not been sitting around empty for 2000 years waiting for these settlers to come along.

Every time a settlement expands, or has "natural growth" it comes at the expense of some Palestinian farmer or shepherd, who loses an olive grove, or grazing land.

You have the entire picture of what is occurring upside down.-- Why can't these settlers go acroos the Green Line and build and settle in Israel proper? (It's far bigger than the Occupied Territories) Whay not follow the direction of Ben-Gurion and settle the Negev?

[Ishmael1]

I remember reading stories about Irv Moskowitz 15 years ago also implicating him with paying protection money to the Mexican Mafia over his Socal casinos. I responded to his op-ed in the LATimes entitled "The Myth of Arab East Jerusalem" with the story of two Palestinian brothers I knew who were born in and who's family had owned land in the Mount of Olives neighborhood for over 200 years and the hoops they had to jump through to keep their land. Of course, it was never pubished in the Times. That said, I DO agree with Kiryat Arba that bribes blind the righteous. So I suggest that we, the United States taxpayers, end ALL of our bribery in Israel. We should end all foreign aid to Israel, all commercial ties with Israel, all security arrangements with Israel and all dual-citizenship for American-born Israelis. That way they can live out their happy lives secure in the freedom from any US "bribes" whatsoever.

[Guberman]

...it's my understanding that Israel signed on to the "Roadmap of Peace" (whatever that was) regarding settlements. I have read here, recently, of supposed "secret protocols" (?) in these deals between the US and Israel. How can that be possible? We are Americans and not Israelis. Some of us are Jews and some of us are not. This BS has to stop.

Negotiate out in front, before the glare of the world...an­d things just might work. ...but this "middle-eastern bazaar kind of negotiating is for the birds.." I fear...it will not be birds picking at the detrious.

Cheers

[JasonX]

Interesting piece, but I think it would be beneficial to see video from the last area of settlements where Israel withdrew. It's a place called Gaza and after democratic elections, a terrorist group was voted in to replace Fatah, followed by a bloody civil war. I'd love to hear what Gazan officials would say when posed with the question if Israelis could live in Gaza under Palestinian rule or Israelis can live in Israel proper under Israeli rule. I wonder what they would say.

No doubt the people featured in this video are the extreme, but I would like to see more sides to this for example Israelis who don't live in settlements.

I think this piece fits Mondoweiss and Blumenthal's agenda, but misses out on the whole picture and that's a shame.

[Garioch]

It may well be but you'll find that the I.D.F. severely restrict the reporting and video source material from Gaza so I doubt that we'll see to much of that.

[jwcmass]

No one is suggesting that (until a final peace agreement is in place ) Israel withdraw its MILITARY forces.

There are two kinds of occupation going on here-- military, and settler. Right now, it's the settler occupation that is the problem, because it is the settlers who are taking the Palestinians' land (with settlements and the vast network of "Israeli only roads")


These Settlers are supported by the IDF, but the IDF could occupy the region without the Settlers (the reverse is not true--the Settlers are dependent on the IDF)

[TammyKnowsBest]

Mondoweiss and Max are incredible as usual, keep it coming!

An archeological park? What about the residents of the 88 homes?

[Hitchcockcameo]

Extremists of any stripe are bad...and sadly they exist in all segments of life.

[MotherMiasia]

Thank you Mondoweiss, for keeping it real as always, for everything insane in this state go to philipweiss.org

[MalleusMaleficarum]

Three cheers for Max Blumenthal! Obama is confounding many critics who said he would cave in and acquiesce to the Israel Lobby-AIPAC. Instead, Obama has launched one of the most important US foreign policy initiatives since the Carter administration. Israeli policies from settlements to house demolitions to targeted assassinations have undermined US credibility and moral authority world wide -- most intensively in the Middle East. With only two days to go until Obama's historic Cairo address, Israel should wake up and smell the coffee -- US policy has changed, and Israel will have to change with it. I hope to read Max Blumenthal's interviews of: Avigdor Lieberman, Binyamin Netanyahu, Tzipi Livni and Uri Avnery in the next few days.

[nohamasmas]

to All of you Jew/Israel haters....­so we cut off our only real ally in the Middle East..and the Arabs now known as Palestinians, with the help of all the Arab states-especially the Wealthy oil states like Saudi Arabia..ge­t the weapons they need to wipe out IsraelNOW>>>HOW DOES THAT MAKE AMERICA SAFER from Arab terrorism and fundamentalism?? This ought to be real good...the answers , I mean!

[Guberman]

...um...

...what do you know about it anyway?

[Taxi]

We have other allies that don't cost us so much money and blood.

[zaz33]

nohamasmas -

Are the Palistinians going to drive the Jews into the sea with bottle rockets, slings, and slingshots ?

Or are the going to smuggle tanks and fighter jets through the tunnels ?

[mommamia526]

No, that is NOT their method. Tanks are set up in Lebanon and Gaza. Rockets are shot out of those territories, money is smuggled through the tunnels. Every Palestiniana Arab can have four wives at a time and outbreed any Israeli. Their method is dissembling and playing victim. Hezbullah has acquired better delivery systems for rockets and so has Iran their ally. Iran is also an ally of Hamas. Iran is developing an atomic bomb and already has a delivery system able to shoot 200 kms.