At last week's Likud faction meeting, Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon explained that diplomatic complexities mandate Israel be very careful when it comes to settlement expansion. He is against any radical move and all for moderate ones, as he is admonished by Washington over every house built in Judea and Samaria. Ya'alon supports the settlement enterprise, but he abides by the law, and during his time as defense minister not one illegal outpost has been established in Judea and Samaria. Last week, settlers invaded two buildings in Hebron in blatant violation of the law. Unlike in previous cases, Ya'alon did not allow the government to get bogged down by red tape and ordered security forces to evict them immediately. The new tone in the American rhetoric, expressed when U.S. Ambassador to Israel Daniel Shapiro accused Israel of having two sets of rules in Judea and Samaria -- one for Israelis and one for Palestinians -- did not fall on deaf ears. Shapiro's accusation was grave and unprecedented, and it was echoed by a Saturday editorial in The New York Times criticizing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's condemnation of the ambassador's statement. Failing to take immediate action against the settlers would have suggested the accusation had merit. For 48 years, two dramatic decisions have dulled international criticism over Israel's presence in Judea and Samaria: The first was former Defense Minister Moshe Dayan's brave decision to open the border crossings to Jordan; the second was former Chief Justice Meir Shamgar's decision to afford the Palestinians the right to petition the High Court of Justice. Defending the rights of the Palestinian population mandate restricting construction across Judea and Samaria, and Ya'alon follows this rule. The complex reality on the ground, however, failed to overcome political demagoguery. The dust over the Hebron eviction had yet to settle before Habayit Hayehudi MKs -- opposition nestled within the coalition -- as well as senior Likud MKs such as Yariv Levin, Zeev Elkin and Miri Regev, voiced their support for the settlers' violation. This position may gain the Likud members some political points in the party caucus, but such statements constitute an intolerable breach of the collective responsibility for the government's stability. If Levin, Elkin and Regev plan on remaining ministers, they share responsibility for the eviction they so strongly condemned. Likud and Habayit Hayehudi hard-liners have threatened to withdraw their protection of the government via withholding their voted in the Knesset plenum. This, of course, is nothing but hot air. Likud and Habayit Hayehudi ministers and MKs will not be this government's downfall, and if Netanyahu and Ya'alon continue to make the right decisions, hostile international allegations suggesting that the Israeli government is fostering illegal policies can be easily dismissed.
