TRANSITION UNDERWAY IN YESHA COUNCIL

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 JERUSALEM 002602

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

NEA FOR FRONT OFFICE. NSC FOR ABRAMS/SINGH/PASCUAL

E.O. 12958: DECL: 12/20/2017
TAGS: KWBG PBTS PREL PHUM IS
SUBJECT: TRANSITION UNDERWAY IN YESHA COUNCIL

Classified By: Consul General Jake Walles, per reasons 1.4 (b) and (d)


1. (C) Summary: The settlers' Yesha Council is in
transition following the late November election of candidates
from outside the traditional settlement pioneer leaders.
Settler pioneers Benzi Lieberman and Pinchas Wallerstein are
finishing their terms in office, having been accused of
"losing the movement" after Gaza disengagement. In a series
of meetings with PolOff since the elections, settlers have
said they hope to improve their own lives and distance
themselves from the GOI, with whom they say settlement
leaders have been too close, in anticipation of future
evacuations. End Summary.

Yesha Council Elections
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2. (C) The Yesha (Hebrew acronym for "Judea, Samaria, and
Gaza") Council has been the premier settlers' political
movement since the 1970's. It has undergone significant
changes since the GOI disengaged from Gaza and four
settlements in the northern West Bank in 2005 and dismantled
the West Bank outpost of Amona in 2006. On November 27,
settlers elected regional council heads in Samaria and
Binyamin, the two largest of the four West Bank regional
councils. Leadership elections for regional councils are
held every four years, and the Samaria, Binyamin, Gush
Etzion, and Hebron Chairs comprise the Yesha Council officers
who select the Council's chair and deputy chair. (Comment:
The contemporaneous meeting in Annapolis overshadowed these
elections, which received limited press coverage, but were
important among the settlers. End Comment.)


3. (C) Northern West Bank settlers have told PolOff in a
series of meetings since late November that the elections
focused on "potholes and trash pick-up," not big political
issues. They said in both elections, the "establishment"
candidates, who were proteges of incumbent settler leaders
associated with the movement's post-1967 founding, lost to
popular locals with little experience in public office or
connection to national Israeli politics. Settler media
called the election a victory of "sandals over loafers".
Settlers say the results are a message to Israeli
politicians, to whom their former leaders were too close.


4. (C) Settlers from across the West Bank have told PolOff
in a number of meetings that they blame the Yesha Council for
not preventing the 2005-6 evacuations, recalling that the
Council did not support the calls of settler rabbis for IDF
soldiers to refuse orders to evacuate Jews from Gaza.
Settlers underscored to PolOff the "continued suffering" of
Gush Katif evacuees and said they will use all available
means to avoid future evacuations, including calling for
soldiers to refuse orders and possibly violence. They have
repeatedly said the old guard leadership was too close to
Israeli politicians and blamed that relationship for a
political deal on the Gaza evacuation and for their loss of
trust.

Former Pioneers
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5. (C) On the last day of his ten years' leading the Samaria
Regional Council, Benzi Lieberman told PolOff that he has
"had enough" and will return to Tel Aviv. (Note: He headed
the Yesha Council for six of the ten years. End Note).
Lieberman said the Yesha Council still "speaks for 80 percent
of the settlers." However, settler Mel Borenstein from
Elkana (Northern West Bank) told PolOff that Lieberman "lost
the movement" after the evacuations, and destroyed his own
credibility and the Yesha Council's. He criticized Lieberman
and old guard Yesha leaders for focusing on settlement
building ("actions over words") and failing to build a
constituency inside Israel. He noted that only twenty
percent of Israelis have visited the West Bank. Pinchas
Wallerstein, Binyamin Regional Council's outgoing chairman
and Yesha pioneer added to PolOff that the Yesha's chief
objective now should be to persuade mainstream Israelis of
the importance of their cause.


6. (C) Shimon Riklin, founder of Migron outpost, told
PolOff that settler voters wanted real technocrats, capable
of providing services and improving infrastructure,
education, and health care, not leaders "who are friendly
with Jerusalem politicians." He said the Yesha abandoned
settlers at Gush Katif, but the 2005-6 evacuations served
settlers' interests by demonstrating that IDF violence
against fellow Israelis (settlers) is "pointless." Riklin
added that the next confrontation with the GOI will likely be
at Migron and "far more violent" than Amona.

JERUSALEM 00002602 002 OF 002



Comment
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7. (C) The electoral loss of settler pioneers and the
election of non-traditional, locally focused leaders to the
Yesha Council indicates that settlers have completed a
political transition since the Gush Katif evacuations from
Gaza. In numerous meetings, settlers told PolOff that they
"feel like political pawns," who were "deceived and misled"
at Gush Katif by a GOI that "incentivized and encouraged"
their movement for nearly forty years. They said they are
now setting out with new leaders who are free from
obligations or connections to politicians in Israel. Many
also say they are prepared to engage in violent and ugly
resistance if tested.
WALLES