ABSTRACT
It is difficult to believe now that the author once travelled to the West Bank by car with American students from Jerusalem several times a week without even being stopped at the border. A year after the Beit El settlers had evacuated Maoz Tzur, then-Israeli Defense Minister Ariel Sharon urged settler youth to "grab the hilltops". He was channeling their frustration of the Wye River Accords calling for miniscule relinquishments of West Bank land to the Palestinian Authority. Retaliatory occupation was once part of the story of how Palestinian land became Jewish in the West Bank. As acts of violence against settlers on the part of Palestinians desperate to keep their land continued, however, Israelis living within the recognized borders of Israel started to resent the funds expended for settler protection. Several years ago, it looked like movement was waning in wake of several violent incidents that called attention to them and stimulated the government to bring them to heel.
