Daily Alert Archives

Building Thousands of Homes in E-1 Is Critical for the Future of Jerusalem and for Israel's Security

(Israel Hayom) David M. Weinberg - Every Israeli prime minister since Yitzhak Rabin has planned and promised to build in the E-1 quadrant adjacent to Jerusalem. E-1 begins on the eastern slopes of the Mount of Olives and is the last significant piece of unsettled land in the Jerusalem envelope. It is the only place where thousands of homes can be built to overcome Jerusalem's serious housing shortage. There has been no significant new building underway in the Jerusalem envelope for more than two decades. Jerusalem needs 6,000 new apartments a year just to meet the demands of natural growth. Highway No. 1, which runs from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem and down to the Jordan Valley, is the only west-east axis across the State of Israel with a Jewish population majority. It is the only safe route through which Israel can mobilize troops from the coast to the Jordan Valley in case of a military emergency. Israel needs to secure the road via the E-1 corridor and the city of Maale Adumim. The world needs to understand that Jewish communities beyond the 1967 lines are not "obstacles to peace" and do not constitute "occupation" of foreign land, but rather are manifestations of Jewish return to ancestral lands. Many Israelis once entertained the possibility of a full-fledged, democratic, and demilitarized Palestinian state in Judea and Samaria living in peace alongside Israel - but no longer. The slaughter of the Second Palestinian Intifada disabused most Israelis of that notion, and Hamas's Oct. 7 assault buried it even deeper. It is no longer believable or feasible, at least for the very long term. The writer is a senior fellow at Misgav: The Institute for National Security & Zionist Strategy.
2025-08-26 00:00:00
Full Article