Is a new West Bank settlement Obama's red line?

If it were up to Benjamin Netanyahu, the prime minister would have asked the settlers to rein in their passion for real estate at least until Barack Obama vacates his seat for the next US president. Netanyahu can already take comfort in the fact that despite the protests of the outgoing Obama administration, since it took office in 2009 the number of Jewish West Bank settlers has grown from some 300,000 to about 400,000. Nothing troubles the prime minister more these days than the possibility that Obama will take advantage of the transition period between Nov. 9 and Jan. 20 to leave him a poisoned farewell gift. And nothing makes the Obama administration angrier than the construction of a new settlement.

Unfortunately for Netanyahu, the American calendar is not in sync with the Israeli one. Dec. 25 marks the expiration of the two-year delay granted to carry out the court-ordered demolition of the West Bank outpost of Amona. The chief justice at the time, Asher Grunis, wrote in his ruling that the difficulties of the settlers notwithstanding, illegal construction on private Palestinian land cannot be allowed and does not justify non-enforcement of the law. The judge stressed that not vacating Amona constitutes a violation of the state’s reiterated commitment to carry out the demolition orders, in addition to being a serious violation of the Palestinian inhabitants’ rights. A report by the state comptroller several months prior to the ruling described Israel’s planning in the West Bank as “every man did what was right in his own eyes” (Judges 21:25).

On one hand, in a democratic state a prime minister is supposed to respect court rulings. But on the other hand, Netanyahu is dependent on his coalition partner, the nationalist-religious party HaBayit HaYehudi — whose leader, Education Minister Naftali Bennett, operates according to the rulings of a higher power that transcends that of flesh-and-blood authorities. In July 2015, Bennett climbed onto the roof of a house in the Beit-El settlement to protest the razing of a building ordered by the Supreme Court. He demanded that Netanyahu inform the nation’s top court that the demolition (of Jewish homes, of course) "does not fit the spirit of the government.”

In an attempt to have his cake and eat it, Netanyahu decided to establish new residences for the Amona evacuees. On Oct. 1, several hours after President Barack Obama delivered his stirring eulogy of Shimon Peres at the Jerusalem graveside of Israel’s ninth president, Channel 2 News reported that the top planning committee of Israel’s civil administration in the West Bank had authorized a plan to build 98 housing units in a new settlement to be built near the settlement of Shvut Rahel. According to the plan, up to 300 housing units can be built in the designated area. As a consolation prize, the Amona squatters have also been promised permission to build an industrial zone in their new settlement. In order to circumvent a pledge delivered in Netanyahu’s 2009 Bar-Ilan speech to Obama and to the entire world to refrain from building new settlements in the West Bank until a permanent arrangement is reached with the Palestinians, the new settlement has been defined by the committee as a "neighborhood" of Shvut Rahel.