The settlement movement registered major victories this year on various fronts. Its representatives are reaching new heights in politics, the judiciary and the media. One out of five residents east of the Green Line is a settler. The expansion of settlements continues unabated, and - most importantly - settlers are in full control of the Israeli national narrative. In 2012, as more and more observers declared the death of the two-state solution, the settler became the new normal. By Lisa Goldman and Mairav Zonszein For decades, the settler movement and Israel’s secular, largely Ashkenazi urban elite have been playing a game of…

Naftali Bennet, the Director General  of the Yesha Council, is apparently suffering from the heat wave. Otherwise, how could one explain the answers he gave to Yossi Verter of Haaretz today, who asked him about the settler movement that Bennnet heads joining the tent demo. Verter: Didn't anyone (in the tents - AK) tell you that if Israel hadn't invested till today almost 100 billion dollars in the settlements, maybe the situation would be better here? Bennet: Rubbish. Our presence in Judea and Samaria prevents bombings in Rothschild boulevard. The economy in Israel was in the dumps before the IDF…