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I
tion, six people who'd looked
at houses in Ariel came into
the real estate office to sign
contracts, even though they
still could have backed out.
"I want to call on all the
people of Judea and Samaria
to calm down," Mayor
Nachman said in a post-
election radio interview.
"We know our strength, and
we know what kind of public
support we have, which runs
throughout the country."
Yisrael Harel, former head
of the Council of Jewish
Communities in Judea,
Samaria and Gaza, noted
that the Jewish population
there was growing rapidly,
and that 20,000 new homes
were now under construc-
tion. "That's quite a solid
entity, which cannot be
threatened," he said. "But
the people are concerned
that after a few years, the
effects of freezing set-
tlements will take place. I
don't see that we should
worry for the next 2-3 years.
What's going to happen
afterward? We'll have time
to see."
Judging from the reactions
of Ariel residents, Mr. Harel
seemed to be reading the set-
tlers' mood correctly.
Dismantling Ariel set-
tlement "isn't even a vague
possibility," said Ms. Shalit,
the fund-raiser. Much of the
land where Ariel was built
was purchased from Arab
owners during Mr. Rabin's
government of the mid-
1970s, by then-Defense Min-
ister Shimon Peres, she
noted. And, Ms. Shalit add-
ed, Mr. Rabin has stated re-
peatedly that he will not
force Jewish settlers out of
their homes, as some 5,000
were when Menachem Begin
ordered the destruction of
the Yamit settlement in
Sinai, prior to returning the
whole peninsula to Egypt.
Palestinian autonomy in
the territories, which Mr.
Rabin says he can arrange
within nine months, doesn't
worry them either. "No Jew
will come under the rule of
an Arab, not even an Arab
meter maid," said one elder-
ly resident. Indeed, Mr.
Rabin has pledged that
under autonomy, Palestin-
ians would run their own
local affairs, not those of
Jewish settlers.
What worries them is the
long run — whether, after
years of phenomenal growth,
especially in the last several
years with Ariel Sharon as
housing minister, a new
Labor-led government will
dry up funding even to es-
tablished settlements like
Ariel. This, they fear, would
cause their standard of liv-
ing to drop, deter new
residents from moving in,
and maybe even lead veter-
an settlers to pull up stakes,
leaving the settlers as the .
orphans of Israel.
"The people here feel very
insecure at the moment, and
they're just trying to put a
good face on," said the elder-
ly resident, having a coffee
on the busy promenade lined
with shops. "The man
(Rabin) said it flat out — he's
not going to put money into
settlements. There were
plans for a big highway run-
ning through here, from the
Jordan Valley to Tel Aviv.
Scrapping it is not going to
make life here more rosy.
"There's no future for
building here, all the incen-
tives are going to be gone,
and this place is going to be
more like an army outpost
than a suburb of Tel Aviv," #
said the man, who preferred
not to give his name.
I put the question of Mr.
Rabin's plans for Ariel to a
man exceedingly close to the
prime-minister-to-be. His re-
sponse was cautious and
purposely vague, but it may
have been less than satisfy-
ing to an Ariel resident.
He noted that Mr. Rabin
opposes uprooting set-
tlements and that, under the
Camp David agreement,
would be five years before a
permanent solution wa
reached. "And by that time
there could be all sorts of ar-
rangements that would
remove the concerns of the
residents of Ariel."
As to whether Mr. Rabin
considers Ariel a "political.
settlement," he said that
Mr. Rabin "wants to
strengthen the settlements
around Jerusalem, and those
on the confrontation lines —
in the Golan Heights and on
the Jordan Valley (in the.
West Bank, near the Jorda-
nian border). And he has
said he wants to freeze the
Mass infusion of government
funds to those other set-
tlements that do not con-
tribute to Israel's security,.
but which are 'political.'
Now Ariel is not in Greater
Jerusalem, nor on the Golan
Heights, nor in the Jordan
Valley. Rabin has said that
you defend Israel along its
borders, not 50 kilometers
west of them. He said this in.'
connection with Emanuel,
but it applies equally to
Ariel."
Does Mr. Rabin plan to
"dry up" Ariel and all other
"political settlements?"
"Not dry them up — he'll
maintain their existing
functions, he'll just stop
their development." ❑