Now, Israel has to decide what those territories are. Are they now part of Israel proper? Begin, Sharon, and Netanyahu says "it is not the occupied territories" but Samaria and Judea. It belongs to Israel. Israelis have the right to build homes and settlements on it.
According to UN resolution 242... these occupied territories should not have settlers and settlements transfered to them.
Politicians like Peres, Abba Eban, Moshe Dayan (at first), Rabin, etc. say these lands belong to the Palestinians. It is our intent to always turn them back over and make a Palestinian state...
This divide is crucial. If the territories are indeed occupied, promised to the Palestinian Arabs for their own state... then should Israel be building settlements in another country? How do you draw borders?
According to Oslo, the PA has been given authority and self-rule in the Gaza Strip... but Israel constantly builds new settlements. If the Palestinians get their state, what becomes of the settlements? Of the Israelis who have built their lives there? Right now, those settlements are armed camps.
The Religious Parties also build in the settlements. They have been careful to build on unoccupied lands, but in places like Hebron, those settlements live on top of Arab cities. How do you divide that up?
Every time a new settlement goes in, it proves to the Palestinians that Israel has no intention of ever giving them self rule.
So, this divide is huge is Israeli politics. According to the world and in American foreign policies... from Johnson on... Israel is an "occupying" force - illegally building settlements on land that does not belong to them.
Likud on the other hand said no sovereignity for Palestine. Self rule in their cities and municipalities, but those territories conquered in 1967 are Israel's.
This is how I understand the situation. Others can add there understanding.
I guess my question is, why do the Arabs insist on a "Jew free" Palestine while at the same time they demand a "right of return" for 3 million Arabs to swamp and overwhelm Israel. There are 1.2 Arab citizens of Israel but the Palestinians want their state to be entirely Judenrein. If the two states are going to live together in mutual coexistence then there should be Jewish Palestinians the same way that there are Israeli Arabs.
Hebron is a holy city, the second holiest city to the Jews. Jews lived in Hebron for thousands of years. The only reason the "settlements" are so heavily fortified is because the Arabs and their supporters refuse to allow the possibility of Jews living among them. Until they welcome Jewish citizens the same way that the Israelis welcome Arab citizens, they haven't achieved the democratic spirit insisted on by the President.
People could then ask, well, why would Jews want to live in Palestine when they have Israel? The reason is that it is still the Holy Land even if we are in galus (diaspora). Thirty years ago if anyone suggested that someday American Jews would want to go and live in Russia people would think they were nuts. But governments change and I know some American Jews (very close family members) who now live in Moscow.