Successive US administrations have for decades applied varying degrees of diplomatic pressure on Israeli governments to refrain from indigenous restorative strategic construction in Judea and Samaria. Yet the fact is that Israeli governments of all political colors have built in Judea and Samaria since the late 1970s because it is rightly seen as a vital Israeli national security interest. The American pressure has not been successful and has unnecessarily irritated bilateral relations and thus harmed American interests.
For Israeli strategic planners is the indigenous restorative strategic construction a long-term Zionist project meant to ensure Israel’s very military survival. While today Israel has a very friendly eastern neighbor in the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, there is no guarantee that the Hashemites will always remain in power. Iran was once a friendly power, yet turned into a mortal enemy of Israel and the same thing – God forbid – could happen with Jordan. In any case must Israel be prepared for such a scenario and hence the moral imperative of indigenous restorative strategic construction in Judea and Samaria. Israel is not a temporary phenomenon but a permanent one and Israel is preparing for the long haul. Israel is building to prevent the possibility of finding a vast enemy army applying overwhelming force on the mountain ridge of Judea and Samaria overlooking Jerusalem and Metropolitan Tel Aviv.
Indigenous restorative strategic construction in Judea and Samaria is not irrational and certainly not in need of American correction. The US was always wrong about the demographic situation. The demography was always on the side of the Israelis. The Palestinians fertility rates have been falling for decades (currently three children per mother in Judea and Samaria) and Israeli strategic planners counted on the Haredi demographic population explosion to be able to ultimately redeem and enfranchise the entire Judea and Samaria.
Israel intelligence is highly sophisticated and is obviously aware of the strategic rejectionist intentions of the Palestinian side and that it is not possible to resolve the so-called “refugee question” and that the conflict as a whole therefore cannot be resolved with Palestinian interlocutors.
The US and the West generally rather need to help facilitate Median Jewish mass immigration to Israel as a means to demographically resolve the Palestinian problem and allow Israel to apply sovereignty over the entire Judea and Samaria as soon as possible. Gaza would subsequently be annexed by Jordan which would be happy to have a Mediterranean coastline. The international community should fund an underground road and railroad connection under the Israeli Negev desert between Gaza and the East Bank.
In conclusion have decades of US pressure on Israel to halt indigenous restorative construction been an overwhelmingly failed policy because of US shortcomings in properly assessing the strategic situation, including demographic prospects and a lack of understanding that indigenous restorative strategic construction in Judea and Samaria is perceived by Israel as a vital national security security interest, indeed essential to long-term national survival.
Aliyah Organization 