The struggle over Israel's settlements

President Obama wants the Israelis to freeze settlement construction. Why won’t they?

Israel: Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir.
(Image credit: Corbis)

How did the settlements come about?

They’re the result of Israel’s victory in the Six Day War in 1967. When the Israelis drove back massed troops from Egypt, Syria, and Jordan, they gained control of the Gaza Strip, which was previously controlled by Egypt, and the West Bank (including East Jerusalem), which was part of Jordan. Israel soon began establishing Jewish settlements in those areas, both as military buffers against its Arab enemies and as political “facts on the ground” to solidify its hold on the disputed territories. Spearheading the settlement movement, then and now, are religious Zionists who believe in a “greater Israel” stretching from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean. Establishment of a greater Israel, they believe, will fulfill a biblical mandate, hastening the coming of the Messiah. “We build small heavens here,” says settler Arie Lipo. “We are the people of the Bible.”

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