THE WAR OF THE HILLS

Dr. Salam Fayyad, is a man to be reckoned with, although he keeps a very low profile. Currently, he is a Senior Scholar and Lecturer in Public Policy at the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University.

In 1907 Dr. Fayyad was appointed Prime Minister of the Palestinian authority, a position he held until he stepped down in June 2013. In August of the same year, he founded "Future for Palestine," a nonprofit development foundation.

In 2009, he published a plan to take over Israeli-controlled Area C and unilaterally establish a de facto Palestinian state by 2011. This plan, known as “The Fayyad Plan”, posed a significant threat to the Jewish communities across Judea and Samaria.

The appropriate Zionist response to this was the agricultural farm movement. 

The struggle to thwart the Fayyad Plan to take over Judea and Samaria is still in full swing. Only the establishment of dozens of additional farms will ensure that the Palestinian Authority does not take over Area C and fatally harm Jewish settlement - in areas that are vital to maintaining national security.

A minimal investment in resources and infrastructure is enough for a small number of conscientious and determined pioneer farmers to be able to hold extremely large areas for the state, work the land or graze herds on it, and protect the borders. 

                                                                                        

Before October 7, 2023, there were about 60 Jewish farms scattered throughout Yesha (Judea and Samaria). Since then, 100 new farms have been established. These farmers saw what happened when Hamas broke through the border fence in Gaza, and they seek to prevent similar attacks in Yesha.

Despite the small area of the actual farm, it grants control over much larger areas since, not only do farmers work the land adjacent to the farm, but the farm’s activities also involve the daily use of extensive grazing areas. In this way, the farm’s ongoing activities thwart attempts by hostile elements to take over the land, and assist in countering agricultural crime and smuggling.  

There are currently over a hundred agricultural farms, which are protecting over six hundred thousand dunams of state land in Judea and Samaria. The farm enterprise spans vast areas and holds more than twice as much land as all the towns and cities in Judea and Samaria combined - including Ariel, Ma’ale Adumim, Beitar Illit, and Modi’in Illit. The construction boom is continuing and already, since the Swords of Iron War broke out, at least 15 new farms have been established in the area.  

A decade and a half after their establishment gained momentum, it can already be stated that the agricultural farms play a crucial role in protecting Israel from the threat posed by the Fayyad Plan, in maintaining security in the region, and in creating a defensible Israeli demographic continuity in Area C.  

The establishment of the Farm Association in 2024, enables the numerous farms in Judea and Samaria to operate in a more efficient and organized manner - ensuring continuous Israeli control over the region. 

However, the momentum of fulfilling the settlement vision through agricultural farms must not stop in Judea and Samaria. In recent years, the number of Jews in the Galilee has been in continuous decline, and as of 2023, it was less than 15% of all residents (compared to about 25% in the past). Meanwhile, in the Negev, the illegal expansion of the unrecognized Bedouin villages and the increased rise of Palestinian nationalism, (and even involvement in terrorism within it), are turning it into a “state within a state” that threatens the southern towns.  

As the HaShomer HaChadash (The New Watchman) organization rightly claims, the agricultural farm is the settlement model of the 21st century. Only extensive investment by the State of Israel in establishing dozens of farms in the coming years, not only in Judea and Samaria but also in the Negev and Galilee - as a project of national priority - will allow us to protect all parts of the Land of Israel, and not lose the south and the north again.  

More than a century ago, Joseph Trumpeldor said: “Wherever the Jewish plow plows its last furrow, that is where the border will run”. His insight is more relevant than ever. This makes the agricultural farm enterprise the most important security and strategic mission of our time.