Trump's plan pits settler ideologues against the pragmatists
This battle has long marked the settlement movement – and it has emerged here as well, as it stands on the precipice of history.
By TOVAH LAZAROFFUS President Donald Trump speaks about negotiations with pharmaceutical companies over the cost of insulin for US seniors on Medicare at an event in the Rose Garden at the White House during the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak in Washington, US May 26, 2020(photo credit: REUTERS/JONATHAN ERNST)
US President Donald Trump’s peace plan has split the settler movement along a pre-existing fault line, which has often pitted the ideologue against the pragmatist.There was a time, just three years ago, when the settlement movement would have celebrated what appeared to be a simple legislative effort to annex just the Ma’aleh Adumim settlement.At the time Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu quashed the Ma’aleh Adumim annexation drive, fearful that the newly elected US president would not approve.Now, Trump has promised to apply sovereignty to some 130 settlements and another 100 outposts – and some of the classic main-pillar figures of the settlement movement have risen up in opposition.To be fair, settler leaders who oppose the plan have done so based on the lack of concrete information, allowing them to read the worst case scenario options into the sovereignty map, which the White House published in January when it unveiled its peace plan.Then there are those who, no matter the details, would oppose the Trump plan purely because it allows for a demilitarized Palestinian state in the West Bank, a move which they view as an existential threat to Israel. Still, it takes a certain kind of ideologue to believe that from their hilltops in the West Bank, they can change the mind of a US President. Even Yamina Party head Naftali Bennett got a sudden dose of cold feet when it came to defying the president, backing away from opposition just days after announcing it. His message to the media in English, which included a public note of gratitude to Trump, was clearly designed to placate the White House.The same deep faith that propelled the settler movement to defy the Israeli government and illegally place a caravan on a barren hilltop – with dreams that they were laying the cornerstone for what would one day be a legal city in Israel – is now propelling them to stare down the White House.Then there are the pragmatists – those in the settler movement who have believed that ideology tempered with pragmatism is what has allowed them to arrive at what until recently seemed like an imaginary push for sovereignty with US support.It is after all, in the eyes of many, the 1974 famous compromise at Sebastia – by which settlers evacuated the site in favor of approved housing where the Kedumim settlement is located – that is credited with opening the door to the overall development of the Samaria region.
The battle between the ideologies and the pragmatists has long marked the settlement movement – and it has emerged here as well, as it stands on the precipice of history.So it should come as no surprise that the Trump plan, the most favorable peace plan ever offered Israel, has broken the movement into these two well-known camps.Among those who have geared up for battle, there are three men who have currently been leading the pack.These are Yesha Council head David Elhayani, Samaria Regional Council head Yossi Dagan and Efrat Council head Oded Revivi.All three men were in Washington when the Trump plan was unveiled in January, so Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu could brief them in real time.Both Elhayani and Dagan oppose the plan. They are working in conjunction but not necessarily in partnership.The Samaria Regional Council often operates as its own independent entity when it comes to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.But Revivi, who until recently was the Yesha Council’s foreign envoy and one of its most dependable foot soldiers, has gone against the leadership, to urge support for the Trump plan.He has drawn into the supportive camp Ariel Mayor Eli Shaviro, Megilot Regional Council head Aryeh Cohen and four other council heads: Nir Bartel of Oranit, Shy Rosenzweig of Alfei Menashe, Asaf Mintzer of Elkana and Haim Mendel Shaked of Har Adar.Standing together with Elhayani, aside from Dagan, are three other regional council heads: Israel Ganz of Binyamin, Shlomo Ne’eman of Gush Etzion and Yochai Damri of the South Hebron Hills. These four are some of the more visible Yesha leaders. Ne’eman was also in Washington in January. Beit El Council head Shai Alon and Ma'aleh Adumim Mayor Benny Kashriel are also opposed to the plan.David Elhayani (photo credit: FANI ELIMELECH)David ElhayaniA farmer by trade, the tall, secular, veteran settler leader served for eleven years as Jordan Valley Regional Council head, before taking on the additional mantel of Yesha Council head in November of 2019.Elhayani grew up in Tiberias and moved to the nearby Jordan Valley in 1983. He came into prominence when he battled against a feared evacuation of Jordan Valley settlements under the Obama administration.Since then he has watched the pendulum swing from evacuation to sovereignty.For years he has stood on the Jordan Valley mountain tops with politicians to show them its commanding view of the region and its proximity to neighboring Jordan, as he emphasized that as the crow flies, it is a direct line from Iran, to Iraq, to Jordan and then to his region.Elhayani has taken the politicians to the valley to feed them dates and red peppers as he explains the significance of the area as a cradle of agriculture.For years he predicted to The Jerusalem Post that application of Israeli law would first happen in his region. It was a prediction that came true last September, when Netanyahu began his annexation talk with the Jordan Valley.But he did not envision that sovereignty would be coupled with Palestinian statehood. When Netanyahu initially spoke of the application of sovereignty during the elections, Elhayani stood with him at rallies and pledged his support him.But Elhayani, who is almost impervious to pressure when fired by conviction, was also one of the first to turn around and denounce the plan. His slogan has been this: “No to Palestinian statehood, no to Trump’s map, yes to sovereignty.” YESHA Council’s chief foreign envoy Oded Revivi (photo credit: COURTESY YESHA COUNCIL)Oded ReviviAn attorney by trade, with degrees from Britain and the US, Revivi entered politics in 2008, when he became the council head in Efrat and the Yesha foreign envoy in 2016, only recently resigning from that post.Under his leadership, Efrat has received approval for a number of highly significant construction projects, which will likely ensure that the mid-size settlement will become a city within the next decade.A member of the Likud Party, he is known as a moderate who often provides a diplomatic and cautious response. Revivi’s fluent English and experience abroad have placed him in the position as an unofficial Yesha Council envoy to foreign audiences, whether or not he holds the position in an official capacity.Revivi has taken pride in his good relations with the Palestinian villagers near Efrat, and has spoken of the importance of co-existence with Palestinians, including inviting them on an annual basis to his succah.He has said in the past that “making peace, like Succot, will only be achieved by taking extra-ordinary measures and utilizing out-of-the-box methods. First we must have peace locally between neighbors, and only then will we be able to foster national reconciliation.”Revivi broke early with the Yesha Council over the Trump peace plan, arguing that the historic opportunity for sovereignty is worth the compromises inherent in the plan.In support of the Trump plan he has been uncharacteristically blunt and outspoken, including writing opinion pieces and actively engaging on Twitter. He is among those who believe that Israel can safely support the plan without worrying about the creation of a Palestinian state, because he does believe the Palestinians will meet the US dictates for the creation of such a state.Revivi has likened the Trump plan to the 1947 UN partition plan. The issues inherent in that plan did not stop the Jewish leadership of the time from grasping that opportunity and, he argues, the settler leadership should take that same stand now. Samaria Regional Council head Yossi Dagan at a protest rally on the ruins of the former Sa-Nur settlement. (photo credit: TOVAH LAZAROFF)Yossi DaganDagan first appeared in media headlines as an activist opposed to the 2005 Disengagement plan, which robbed him of his home in the evacuated settlement of Sa-Nur in northern Samaria. He still wears an orange plastic band in symbolic identity with that battle, which has stood at the heart of his political campaign to place all of Samaria within sovereign Israel.Although Dagan holds a law degree, his focus has been on politics as a platform for change. He was elected to head the Samaria Regional Council in 2015, replacing Gershon Mesika, who had developed strong international ties between the council and right-wing politicians around the globe, including the US Evangelical community.Mesika had already operated his council as a entity in conjunction with Yesha, which held its own agenda.Dagan took up his mantle and expanded it. He was an early supporter of Trump. As a sign of his political acumen, he first met David Friedman in 2016, even before Friedman became the US ambassador to Israel.A member of the Likud central committee, Dagan has understood how effective a dual campaign within Israel’s political system and the American Evangelical community can be, particularly in the pursuit of sovereignty over Israel’s biblical heartland.Blunt and outspoken, with an instinctive sense of how to maximize the political moment, his motto has been “You can't have partial sovereignty." He has added to that, “no to a settlement freeze, no to isolated enclaves, no to a Palestinian state."At the same time though, he has clashed with US officials. Last week, after claiming that Israel would end up losing sovereignty over parts of Area C after annexing parts of it in July. A senior US official blasted Dagan at the time, saying: "This is a complete lie and whoever is spreading it is doing great damage to Israel, the US and the Jewish people."
