Political headwinds both in the U.S. and Israel are giving Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin (“Bibi”) Netanyahu a significant opportunity to continue building in, and to apply Israeli sovereignty in, Judea and Samaria.
The Trump administration has given additional signals that it would approve of such behavior. Responding to Israel’s plans to build in the E-1 Corridor of Judea, a State Department spokesman said that “A stable West Bank keeps Israel secure and is in line with this administration’s goal to achieve peace in the region.” (RELATED: Israel Should Annex Land in Gaza, Judea and Samaria)
U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee remarked that recent invigorated European support of Palestinian statehood has “essentially [given] a green light or encourage[d] the Israelis to go ahead and take more pieces of Judea and Samaria, either by declaring sovereignty or annexation.”
House Speaker Mike Johnson also recently stated that “Scripture teaches us that the mountains of Judea and Samaria were promised to the Jewish people, and they belong to them by right.”
Ambassador Huckabee’s sentiments are in line with statements by several members of Bibi’s government that European moves towards a Palestinian state could trigger Israel’s annexation of parts of Area C of Judea and Samaria. To that end, Bibi’s government has recently recognized the legality of 17 towns in Judea and Samaria, and the leadership of the major Jewish towns in Judea and Samaria called on Bibi to apply Israeli sovereignty to the entire region. According to a recent poll, around 70 percent of Israelis both oppose any Palestinian state and want Israel to extend full sovereignty over Judea and Samaria.
Construction there would nearly break the Palestinian settlement in Judea and Samaria into two portions, making it easier for Israel to defend itself against any future terrorism.
Approving construction plans for 3,400 homes in the E-1 Corridor, Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich stated that E-1 construction “buries the idea of a Palestinian state.” Given the toxic nature of Palestinian statehood and all things Hamas and Palestinian Authority, why not?
Indeed, the E-1 Corridor is a highly strategic piece of land that, if developed, would link Ma’ale Adumim with Jerusalem as part of a greater “metropolitan Jerusalem.” Called a “doomsday settlement” by several Democrats, construction there would nearly break the Palestinian settlement in Judea and Samaria into two portions, making it easier for Israel to defend itself against any future terrorism and conventional attacks from the East. Construction in E-1 has been supported by every Israeli government since Yitzhak Rabin’s government in the 1990s.
In addition to building in E-1, Israel should build in the following:
Ma’ale Adumim
Located in Judea and a suburb of Jerusalem within “metropolitan Jerusalem,” it has a population of approximately 38,000. It is mentioned in the Book of Joshua (15:7) as part of the borderlands between the ancient Israeli tribes of Judah and Benjamin. Israel has recently approved construction of almost 7,000 new housing units, which in turn is expected to attract 35,000 more people, which would nearly double the city’s population in a few years.
The Gush Etzion Bloc
The bloc includes several towns in Judea between Jerusalem and Hebron, and is also part of “metropolitan Jerusalem.” It is the first Jewish construction in Judea and Samaria after the 1967 Six-Day War. In fact, the bloc is rebuilt in the location of four kibbutzim (Kfar Etzion, Ein Tzurim, Massu’ot Yitzhak, and Revadim) that were destroyed by the Arabs in Israel’s 1948 War of Independence. The most populous towns in the contemporary Gush Etzion Bloc are Beitar Illit (with a population over 70,000) and Efrat, with a population of over 12,000. (RELATED: American Spectator: President Trump’s Mideast Peace Plan: Judean Mayor Weighs In)
Israel plans to increase Beitar Illit by 222 acres and 5,000 housing units. Beitar Illit was named after the Beitar fortress, the last stronghold to fall to the Romans in the Bar Kokhba Revolt of the Roman–Jewish Wars in 135 CE. Beitar Illit is located one kilometer from the ruins of the Beitar fortress.
Modi’in Ilit
This town, with a population of over 87,000, is located in Samaria and strategically situated approximately halfway between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, and a 20-minute drive away from Modi’in-Maccabim-Re’ut, a town of over 97,000 people located within the pre-1967 armistice lines of Israel.
Both Modi’in Illit and Modi’in-Maccabim-Re’ut are close to the ancient town of Modi’in, mentioned in the Book of Maccabees as the home of the Maccabee family/Hasmonean dynasty, and the location of the now-lost Tomb of the Maccabees. The ruins of Khirbet Badd ‘Isa, a Jewish settlement dating back to the third century BCE, are within the modern Modi’in Ilit.
The Ariel Bloc
This bloc is a collection of towns in Samaria and has a population of over 61,000. The most populous towns in the bloc are Ariel, which has a population of over 20,000 residents and 15,000 students, Oranit (over 10,000 people), and Alfei Menashe (over 8,000 people). Speaker Johnson and Ambassador Huckabee visited Ariel earlier this month. With Johnson’s attendance, Ariel hosted the most senior U.S. official ever to visit an Israeli town in Judea and Samaria. (RELATED: Trump’s Mideast Peace Plan: Samarian Mayor Weighs In)
The Jewish population of Judea and Samaria, currently estimated at nearly 530,000, is projected to grow to over 600,000 by 2030, almost 700,000 by 2040, and over 1,000,000 by 2050. Bibi needs to leverage these trends, plus growing headwinds in the United States and Israel, to build in and apply Israeli sovereignty in Judea and Samaria.
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