The West Bank revolution: How Bezalel Smotrich changed Israel's map for the better - opinion

OCTOBER 10, 2026 10:07Over the past four years, something remarkable has been happening in Judea and Samaria.Since the current government took office at the end of 2022, it has approved the establishment or retroactive legalization of 104 Jewish communities there.At the center of this transformation has been Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who also serves as a minister in the Defense Ministry. In 2023, he was given broad authority over civilian affairs in Judea and Samaria, including settlement planning, through the newly created Settlement Administration.And he has used that authority to reshape settlement policy.The 104 communities are not all entirely new. The figure also includes previously unauthorized outposts that were legalized and neighborhoods that were granted independent status.Even so, the scale is extraordinary.Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich attends a ceremony marking the establishment of the new Israeli settlement of Ma’ale Arugot in Gush Etzion, in the West Bank, September 2, 2026. (credit: CHAIM GOLDBERG/FLASH90)The government approved plans and funding for 34 communities over the summerThis past summer alone, the government approved plans and funding for 34 communities: nine in Samaria, seven in the Mateh Binyamin Regional Council area, seven in the Jordan Valley, six in Gush Etzion, four in the Hebron region, and one in the Dead Sea area.It amounts to nothing less than a settlement revolution.And it is taking place amid steady demographic growth. As of January 1, a total of 541,085 Jews lived in Judea, Samaria, and the Jordan Valley, excluding eastern Jerusalem. That represented an increase of 2.2% in a single year, twice the growth rate of Israel’s population as a whole.Some of the government’s decisions have corrected anomalies that persisted for years. Communities that existed in bureaucratic limbo have finally received official status. Further, the government has moved to restore the four northern Samaria communities – Homesh, Sa-Nur, Ganim, and Kadim – that were uprooted under Ariel Sharon’s 2005 disengagement plan.Twenty years after Israel withdrew from northern Samaria, Jews are returning.But the importance of what is happening cannot be measured by numbers alone.Look at the map.Northern Samaria overlooks Israel’s densely populated coastal plain, where much of the country’s population, industry, and infrastructure are concentrated. Strengthening the Jewish presence there reinforces Israel’s hold on the mountain ridge overlooking its heartland while reversing the retreat initiated by disengagement.Further east is the Jordan Valley, where seven more communities were included in this summer’s decision.The valley provides Israel with strategic depth along its eastern flank and separates the Palestinian population centers of Judea and Samaria from Jordan and the wider Middle East.Settlement cannot replace soldiers. But civilian communities, roads, and infrastructure help ensure a lasting Israeli presence in territory vital to the country’s security.The same principle applies elsewhere. Shalem, east of Shechem (Nablus), will strengthen the Jewish presence in central Samaria, while six additional communities in Gush Etzion reinforce Jerusalem’s southern approaches and the historic Jerusalem-Hebron corridor.Then there are the farms.According to Smotrich, roughly 160 agricultural farms have been established throughout Judea and Samaria during the government’s tenure. Unlike conventional settlements, many consist of little more than a family or two, several structures, and herds of sheep or cattle.But that is precisely what makes them significant.A town may require hundreds of homes and extensive infrastructure to establish a substantial presence. A farm can maintain agricultural activity across thousands of dunams with a fraction of the population.The Smotrich revolution is not merely about building housesTheir purpose is to protect state land, counter unauthorized Palestinian construction and cultivation, and extend Jewish activity into the open spaces between existing communities, along roads, and across ridgelines.The Smotrich revolution is not merely about building houses.It is also about controlling the spaces between them.Just as important, Smotrich has changed the way the government handles settlement.For decades, even right-wing governments often treated construction in Judea and Samaria as exceptional. Planning meetings were sporadic, approvals could languish for years, and international pressure routinely slowed the process.Smotrich has sought to turn settlement development into a normal and continuous function of government. Planning procedures have been accelerated, longstanding communities legalized, and the Settlement Administration institutionalized inside the Defense Ministry.The government has also put money behind the policy, including over NIS 1 billion for roads and infrastructure serving new and existing communities.Without roads, water, and electricity, settlements can remain little more than dots on a map. Smotrich has sought to make them permanent facts on the ground.That is the real significance of what has taken place over the past four years.For decades, advocates of Palestinian statehood proceeded from the assumption that Judea and Samaria could eventually be divided, Jewish communities removed or isolated, and a sovereign Palestinian entity established in their place.The Smotrich revolution has steadily closed off that option.Oct. 7 demonstrated the potentially catastrophic consequences of allowing territory adjacent to Israeli population centers to fall into the hands of those bent on the Jewish state’s destruction. A Palestinian state in the hills of Judea and Samaria would overlook Jerusalem and much of Israel’s coastal plain, placing the country’s population centers within easy reach of those who seek the Jewish state’s destruction.For supporters of Palestinian statehood, that is precisely why the settlement revolution is so alarming.But for those of us who believe that establishing a hostile Palestinian terrorist state in Israel’s biblical heartland would be a historic and strategic disaster, it is precisely why the revolution matters.Smotrich has not merely changed settlement policy.He has changed the map, making a Palestinian state in Judea and Samaria virtually impossible.And thank God for that.■ The writer served as deputy communications director under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.Follow us on Google