In the latter half of 1967, while Israel's supporters around the world were still celebrating its stunning six-day victory over three Arab armies, leaders in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem were already beginning to plan for Jewish settlement in the newly conquered Palestinian territories.
Some believed that the presence of Israeli civilians in the occupied areas would strengthen Israel's security. Others were driven by religious zeal. Some felt the pull of the historic homeland, the "greater" Israel that so many Jews had dreamed of for so long. "They have divided my land," roared Rabbi Tzvi Yehuda Kook in a sermon just weeks before the war. "Yes, where is our Hebron? Have we forgotten it? And where is our Shekhem? And our Jericho -- will we forget them?
Over the next four decades, the number of Israeli settlers climbed steadily. There were none at all on the West Bank at the time of the 1967 war; 10 years later, when Menachem Begin was elected prime minister, there were more than 4,000. By 1993, when the Oslo peace process began, that number had grown to 116,000.
At that point, one might have expected the settlement movement to have collapsed. After all, in the months and years after Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and Palestine Liberation Organization Chairman Yasser Arafat shook hands on the White House lawn, most Israeli leaders -- not just from the left but from the right as well -- endorsed the concept of a two-state solution, which was generally agreed to involve giving up the occupied territories.
Yet settlement building has not stopped. Instead, the number of West Bank settlers has more than doubled again; today, nearly 300,000 Israelis live in 120 settlements there (not including Jerusalem). Driven by internal politics and the need to keep smaller political parties happy, Israeli governments of both the left and the right have allowed growth to continue; even when new settlements or illegal "outposts" aren't being established, the existing ones are getting larger, as houses are added and expanded under what Israel insists is "natural growth."
The United States has long opposed settlement construction, but its criticism has been far too muted. Now, perhaps, that will change. Last week, President Obama said unequivocally after meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that "settlements have to be stopped." Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton was even more specific when she added on Wednesday that the administration wants "a stop to settlements -- not some settlements, not outposts, not 'natural growth' exceptions. That is our position."
