While all eyes, for good and ill, are on Gaza and the Trump plan, the future of the Jewish state is being decided in Judea and Samaria. It is there, and not in Haifa or Tel Aviv, where Jewish history was made over the last 3,500 years. The League of Nations assigned Judea and Samaria to be part of the territory that was to become the Jewish National Home, and then the State of Israel. In 1967, the UN Security Council Resolution 242 recognized that Israel had a right to retain any territory the IDF had won in the Six-Day War that the Jewish state required if it was to have “secure and defensible borders.”
In Judea and Samaria, Jews — of their own free will, not by government fiat — have been establishing outposts on state and waste lands, beginning with a few caravans, that then over time are replaced with houses, and those outposts expand to become villages. The increasing numbers of Israelis in Judea and Samaria means it will be ever less likely that a 23rd Arab state will be created on that land. Now there are close to 540,000 Israelis living in Judea and Samaria (which the Jordanians renamed in 1950 as the “West Bank”). Another 350,000 Jews live in east Jerusalem, which, like Judea and Samaria, had been included by the League of Nations in Mandatory Palestine, but which Jordan’s Arab Legion seized in the 1948 war. During the Six-Day War, Israel was able to take back from Jordan all that territory, which included the Old City. During Jordan’s 19-year rule as military occupier, Jews were not allowed to visit the Temple Mount nor the Western Wall. After the war, Israel could exercise its preexisting right to Judea, Samaria, and east Jerusalem. And ever since, Israeli Jews have been moving into all three areas. Now young Israelis are more determined than ever to build more outposts, that will gradually become villages, throughout Judea and Samaria — that is, to create irreversible facts on the ground.
More on this building fervor can be found here: “As the world backs a Palestinian state, a Jewish future is being cemented in the West Bank,” by Ruth Marks Eglash, Jerusalem Post, October 16, 2025:
On a dusty hilltop with sweeping views of Ramallah to the west and the Jordan Valley to the east, three generations of one Israeli family recently gathered to build a memorial to their loved one Hadas – a sister, daughter, and mother – who they say was killed in a terrorist attack nearby six years ago.
The men, with grisly [sic] beards, the women in colorful, neatly bound headscarves, and a slew of energetic children were setting up a mitzpeh (observation point) with picnic tables overlooking the winding road where Hadas’s car crashed and she was killed.
The family says she lost control of the steering wheel while dodging rocks thrown by Palestinians.
They are clearly enthusiastic about their project, yet wary. There is concern that their actions might draw unwanted attention from nearby Palestinian villages, human rights groups, or Israeli authorities – any of whom might try to stop the construction.
The family has no permit and refused to give more than basic information or to be photographed, but they are firm in their message: This is Jewish land, and they will do with it what they wish.
Last month, nearly 150 countries – including close allies of Israel – reaffirmed their support for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, with some formally recognizing a Palestinian state.
Nearly 150 countries recognized a nonexistent “state of Palestine.” No one could describe its borders, or its government, or its population, or how it is to be governed, and whether it will be demilitarized. It is a fiction, pleasing to some leaders who lemming-like jumped on the juggernaut of recognizing a “Palestinian state” after France and Spain and Ireland got the ball rolling. After October 7, 2023, 80% of Israelis reported that they did not believe in, and would oppose, a “two- state solution.” As Prime Minister Netanyahu has repeated, “there will never be a Palestinian state” on this side of the Jordan. He was clearly alluding to the possibility of Jordan, which was created out of eastern Palestine, some 78% of the territory that had originally been included in Mandatory Palestine, of becoming that “state of Palestine” on the other, eastern side, of the river Jordan.
On the ground, however, a very different reality is emerging. While diplomacy takes place abroad, a Jewish entity is clearly taking shape on the very land Palestinians hope for a future nation state….
The Palestinians don’t limit their hopes to a “future nation state.” They look forward to a “future nation state” that will serve as a launching pad for attacks on a much-diminished Israel, so that their ultimate goal — the disappearance of Israel and its replacement by a 23rd Arab state — can be achieved.
Wellington says
Israel’s greatest fault? It has been too kind.
What political entity gives up territory after winning a war?
Israel should have annexed the so-called West Bank right after the 1967 War as well as the Sinai and, of course, the Golan Heights. Expulsions of “certain people” should have followed, also a standard event after victory in warfare. What? It’s been better the way it has been since 1967? I think not.
࿗Infidel࿘ says
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Yeah, giving back the Sinai was a major mistake. Israel should have, in that war, demolished al Aqsa as well, and had its troops on the east bank of the Suez Canal, forcing at least 50% of the Suez traffic revenues to go to Jerusalem rather than Cairo. As well as annexing everything – Sinai (including Gaza), Judea, Samaria and Golan. Problem is that they had Labour – Golda Meir – as their prime minister, who was like a JFK in those days
somehistory says
In ancient Israel, they dispatched their enemies who were out to eliminate the nation. They didn’t take prisoners and they insisted that any aliens in the Land had to abide by the Law given to Moses.
The “Land” incudes Judea and Samaria. There was no ‘west bank” in the Bible’s history of the Jews unless it says somewhere as a simple description of some body of water’s “west bank.”
࿗Infidel࿘ says
In Judea and Samaria, they need to reclaim those major cities – Hebron, Jericho, Nablus and even Bethlehem – by settling thousands of Jews there – armed! And just push back on any demands that any Jews be removed from Judea or Samaria. Only the “Palestinians” need to be
Cynthia says
The biggest mistake was not annexing and throwing out the vicious Palestinians in ‘67. Rabbi Kehana was right.
The Palestinians have attacked Israel nonstop and will never want peaceful coexistence.
James Lincoln says
Does anyone know WHY – in 1950 – Jordan renamed Judea and Samaria as the “West Bank”???
Crown says
They gave it that bland name – the West Bank of the Jordan River – in order to:
1 – Imply that the land belonged to Jordan. Funny how there was never, under the Jordanian occupation, any attempt to assert a separate “Palestinian” identity.
2 – Attempt to erase the name “Judea” from the area. That gives away the game: the ancient name “Judea”, of course, reveals the Jewish origin of the area, long, long before any of the benighted votaries of Muhammed ever swept in and infested the land.
James Lincoln says
Thanks, Crown.
Walter Sieruk says
The lands of Judea and Samaria by archaeological, Biblical and historical rights belong to the Jewish State of Israel. That term “the West Bank” was fabricated by enemies of Israel to cover -up, as to hide the reality of who , the Jews, those lands actually belong to.
OLD GUY says
If the Jewish people want to own and control those lands they will have tout forth the energy and fight to do so. Islam is NOT going to give up its quest to destroy the Jewish people and Israel. Israel will have to always defend its borders and people.
Walter Sieruk says
What many people think of as the “West Bank” is actually the land of Judea and Samaria. by archeological and historic rights are the lands of Judea and Samaria.
That so called “West Bank” are really Judea and Samaria is likewise conformed in the Bible.
Therefore, the Knesset is absolutely in the right for recognizing that area of land as Judea and Samaria.
In fact,, God had given all that land to the Jewish people. This may be found in the Bible, as seen in, for example, Genesis 28:13-15. 35:10-12. Deuteronomy 32:48,49. Psalm 105:7-11.
In other words the Jews have tall this land by Divine Right. Moreover, the Jewish people should have this land by historic rights as shown in First Kings 4:20,21, 24,25. 8:55, 56.
For the Bible informs its reader “For the Lord has chosen Jacob for Himself, Israel for His special treasure.” Psalm 135:4. [N.K.J.V.]