A similar question was posed by the Hamas leadership delegation visiting Moscow last week as they reportedly produced a blank piece of paper and pen and asked the Russian Foreign Minister to draw the borders of the Israel they were being asked to recognize.  So much for Hamas chutzpah.  This is the question that begins, ends and echoes throughout Gershom Gorenberg's vivid, detailed and thoroughly readable account of the first 10 years of the settlements.  He writes of a period prior to the emergence of an overbearing pro-settlement lobby (often annoyingly self-tagged as pro-Israel) in domestic US politics that combines a vocal but minority segment of the Jewish community, the fundamentalist Christian right and many neo-cons.

Anyone interested in the roots of the settlement movement – in which these groups have invested so much financial and political capital (look at "Christian Zionism: Road Map to Armageddon?" by Stephen Sizer for an eye-opening account of the facts and figures) and which has been so self-destructive to Israel's national security interests should read Gorenberg's book.  He quotes the pre-'67 doctrine of then Israeli PM Levi Eshkol and then IDF Chief of Staff Yitzhak Rabin as being that "Israel could realize fully its national goals within the armistice lines."  Slowly a majority of Israelis and their leaders might be understanding that adopting this approach is imperative to Israel's future. 

The early settlers fused religious fervour and a sense of destiny with a political plan of action, all in the face of a confused and divided government.  (Sound familiar?)  Hard realities and experience failed to shake their belief.  In the 1973 Yom Kippur War, when Israel was at the height of its territorial dimensions, it suffered its greatest military setback and human losses.  Ideology and "belief said that settlements helped Israel to hold land.  The war said otherwise…  In order not to lose faith, one had to redouble it."  Contemporary war planners – sorry "freedom" planners – take note.

In this respect, last year's Gaza settlement evacuation was a dramatic watershed, despite all its shortcomings.  The settler movement, over the course of thirty plus years, had gone from being a fringe challenge to the establishment to becoming integral to it.  A bureaucratic network, resembling a state-within-a-state, facilitated housing and infrastructure development, linkages to utilities, tax breaks, IDF protection, and a reality whereby over 450,000 Israelis live beyond the Green Line.  Akiva Eldar and Idith Zertal describe this in rich detail in their "Lords of the Land: The Setters and the State of Israel, 1967-2004" – which, unfortunately, is currently only in Hebrew (although an English version is promised and a very good review in English can be read here).

Belatedly, in Israel the tide might be turning.  In addition to the Gaza evacuation, there has been an officially commissioned investigation by former State Prosecutor Talia Sasson – the Sasson Report – which outlines a series of measures to prevent further unauthorized outposts, land grabs, and wasting of public resources in the territories.  The Sasson Report outlines a reality whereby "State authorities speak two voices… one hand builds outposts, the other invests money and force to evacuate them… everyone is king… In order to maintain the democratic regime of Israel, urgent measures must be taken to change the reality."  (Read the report here) 

According to polls, there will be a parliamentary majority after Israeli elections for outpost removal, further settlement evacuation and the implementation of Sasson's recommendations.  This will be one of the testing grounds for the next Government. 

Yet many of Israel's self-declared friends in the US appear stuck in a time-warp, light-years behind the domestic debate and policy thrust inside Israel, and they often try to impose their backward and dangerous thinking on Congress and the US policy debate.  Unfortunately, and despite the better intentions and motives of many of it supporters, AIPAC often falls into this category.  Taking it a step further, if you look at the roster of keynote speakers at this week's AIPAC annual conference (VP Cheney, Ambassador Bolton, Richard Perle (!)), then it seems AIPAC has placed itself squarely in the neo-con camp.  This is a strategy of dubious efficacy, especially today.

While AIPAC (so far unsuccessfully) plays catch-up, Israel will need to continue in the direction of its new-found realism, and both proceed with territorial down-sizing and navigate away from unilateralism if it is to reach the promised land of secure and recognized borders.  While I agree with Jo-Ann Mort on most things, and especially the well-deserved scorn that she heaps on Shimon Peres, I do not subscribe to the view that it is too late. 

Gorenberg in his book suggests that Israel was on the way to getting to grips with itself and becoming normal, when the 1967 land acquisitions and their accompanying expansionist temptations came along and disturbed everything – normalization, interrupted.

Israel is now in need of normalization, resumed – which can only be predicated on an end to being an occupying power.  Settlement evacuation is a part of it – but not nearly the whole story.  (More tomorrow.)

And finally, a reference from Gorenberg's book that should resonate chillingly in today's world.  On page 91, we get the text of then Israeli Foreign Ministry Legal Counsel Theodor Meron's note to the Prime Minister's Office: (September 18, 1967)  "My conclusion is that civilian settlement in the administered territories contravenes the explicit provisions of the Fourth Geneva Convention."  Legal counsel ignored; result – a price Israel continues to pay to this day.  Beware the slippery slope of abandoning international law and legitimacy.