So let's talk about practical matters.

Up until now, you have been a success story. You wanted to create "facts on the ground," so as to prevent any possibility of giving the occupied territories back to the Palestinians.²² You have compelled all the governments, from Eshkol to Barak, to give you a huge slice of the state's resources.²³ You have turned the army into your private militia.

The Israel Defense Forces have become the Settlement Defense Forces.

Politicians of all shades have courted you, and still do. The socialist Yigal Alon planted the first settlers in the heart of Hebron, Shimon Peres planted the first settlement, Kedumim, in the heart of the West Bank. Ehud Barak, who won the elections with the slogan "Money for education and not for settlements," has turned out to be the greatest patron of the settlers ever.²⁴

You have succeeded. Not since the zealots (70 AD) have so few succeeded in imposing their will on so many. The zealots, of course, after initial successes, led to the mass suicide at Massada and to the virtual elimination of the Jewish presence from this country for 1,900 years.

I know that there are major differences between the settlements. There is Kfar Darom, a tiny, fortified, and isolated settlement, in the middle of 1.2 million Palestinians, dominating the lifeline of the Gaza strip. A thorn in the flesh.

Then there is the "Jewish settlement in Hebron," a few dozen fanatical families in the middle of 160,000 Hebronites. Fiving in the "Jewish part" of Hebron there are 40,000 Palestinians, who are condemned to a curfew every time one of your children overturns a stand in the market.²⁵

Quite different are the "quality of life" settlements. They were not founded in order to hasten the coming of the Messiah but for people to enjoy the air and the landscape ("What a beautiful minaret in the village opposite"). They have nothing in common with the violent fanatics of Ma'aleh Amos or Yitzhar. At the present time, death overshadows their quality of life.

Ma'aleh Adumim, whose area is officially bigger than all of TelAviv, was implanted by that arch-settler Teddy Kollek in order to enlarge his fiefdom. Kiryat Sefer, another big township, was established by the coalition as a bribe to the orthodox, who get luxury housing for nothing.²⁶

Settlements of different kinds, settlers of all shades. Yet they all have one thing in common: every settlement is a landmine on the road to peace. You are sitting on the land reserves of the Palestinian people,

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