🚨Israel Spends $800 Million To End the Dream of a Palestinian State Forever

**Ben Hilton** (0:00)
In the midst of major turmoil in the Middle East, Israel just announced something that will anger nearly every single country on earth. In direct defiance to the world's idea of a Palestinian state, Israel has just committed nearly $1 billion towards building communities in Judea and Samaria, what some call the West Bank. At a time when the world is expecting Israel to beg their allies to help them fight, this may seem like an insane move, but when you look at what's going on below the surface, behind the scenes, this makes perfect sense. Israel is quietly moving in a direction few people ever thought they would, and that direction is quickly shifting the balance of power in the world.
So the Israeli Knesset passed a new budget for Judea and Samaria. This actually happened a few weeks ago, but was kept quiet until this week for diplomatic reasons. The basic idea is 1.3 billion shekels, or about $434 million, are now earmarked for building 34 new communities in Judea and Samaria. Another billion shekels, or about $330 million, were also approved for building roads in Judea and Samaria, specifically better roads for connecting Israeli communities. This is a direct result of a proposal created by Finance Minister Betzalel Smoltrich in direct collaboration with Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu, and also Missions Minister Orit Stroke.
This new construction will bring the total number of new communities in Judea and Samaria up to 103 built over the last four years of Netanyahu's government. This is really significant because before these were built, there were only about 140 recognized communities in operation, so this adding of 103 new ones has almost doubled the previous number. In a statement about the bill, Smoltrich said, We are strengthening the security of the state of Israel, killing the idea of establishing a terrorist state in the heart of the country and strengthening our hold on the homeland in Judea and Samaria. All of this is really interesting because just a few years ago, Israel was technically on the fence concerning Judea and Samaria. Publicly, Bibi was open to the idea of a Palestinian state, and said so on many occasions. During the Obama years, Israel agreed to a major building freeze as a precondition for negotiations with the Palestinians. Also, President Trump in his first term created and presented a plan for a complex peace deal in another effort to build a state for the Palestinians, and Israel agreed to it. Thankfully, the Palestinians rejected the offer. So, between then and now, what changed? I believe there has been a fundamental shift inside of Israel. A few years ago, Israel was a small country in the Middle East, surrounded by massive nations that wanted to destroy them. The US was their primary ally, and they depended on the US for survival. It was a constant guessing game as to who would attack Israel next. Would it be Hamas? Would it be Egypt? Syria? Lebanon? Iran? Iraq? The list goes on and on. Because of that, Israel had to play a dangerous game. They had to nod and smile when the EU, when American leaders talked about creating a Palestinian state. Not because Israel thought it was a good idea. On the contrary, many Israeli leaders knew it was a suicidal idea. They did it because they felt like they had to. They couldn't risk angering the US or the EU or their enemies around them.
But now, all of that has changed. Over the past few years, Israel has fundamentally transformed from being a country on the defensive to almost an empire in the making. Israel has been attacked on seven different fronts over the past few years, and on every front, one respect. You can see this animation here of the sheer volume of missile attacks Israel has had to defend against over the past few years. Seeing it in one place like this is insane.
Yet Israel survived these attacks while sustaining very few casualties. They were able to successfully defend their airspace, and thereby their cities and neighborhoods. Then, while defending themselves from thousands of missiles, Israel destroyed their enemies. Hamas is almost gone. The Houthis are quiet. Syria is no longer a current threat. Lebanon is now trying to separate themselves from Hezbollah and cooperate with Israel. But even bigger than all of that is what's happening with Iran. As you know, the horrible MOU between Iran and the US has collapsed, and Iran has again begun attacking their neighbors. They've attacked Jordan, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, and US military bases in the region just over the past couple of days. But who they haven't attacked is Israel, the one country they hate the most and are sworn to destroy. And this begs the question, why not? I believe it's because Israel has established deterrence. Iran knows if they shoot missiles at Israel, Israel will inflict an enormous amount of pain in return.