Sharren Haskel, Israel's deputy foreign minister, toured this bloc of Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria this week, using the visit to argue that continued settlement construction represents the country's most effective response to mounting diplomatic pressure from the European Union.
Haskel was accompanied by Yaron Rosenthal, head of the Gush Etzion Regional Council, and Moshe Berniker, the council's deputy head. Gavriel Boxman, a social media influencer who posts online under the name Kosher Guru, also joined the delegation.
The group's first stop was the Elef Lookout in the community of Neve Daniel, where officials briefed the delegation on the area's growth in recent years as well as the security, settlement, and public diplomacy challenges the regional council says it continues to face. The delegation later visited a sound and light installation in Kfar Etzion depicting the history of Jewish settlement in the area, including what officials described as the community's fall and later return.
The visit came, Haskel said, only a week after the European Union advanced new measures targeting Israel, which she characterized as a boycott. She did not specify the measures in her remarks. "The response has to be clear," she said, according to a readout of the visit. "Resolve. Settlement. Sovereignty. That is the real answer to the European Union."
Haskel said that touring the area allowed her to see, in her words, history and the future meeting before her eyes, and that every home built in the area advances both the settlement enterprise and Israel's position internationally. She said the "facts on the ground" underscore what she described as Israel's claim to the territory, and pledged that the government would continue working to strengthen Gush Etzion and reinforce what she called the country's historic roots in the region. She added that she hoped this message would also be reflected in international media coverage.
