Israeli frontier settlements: a cross-temporal analysis

Pragmatic geo-political considerations and a national ideology have guided both pre-1948 and post-1967 Jewish frontier settlements. Each settlement stage was characterized by penetration into remote areas on the periphery of older, established communities. In order to comprehend the development of Jewish frontier settlements, three factors must be analyzed: the historical geographic situation, the method of settlement, and the spatial network of the settlements themselves. Consequently, three waves of frontier settlements are explored in this research: (a) 1907-1916, which marked the first settlement attempt made by the Zionist Organization; (b) 1936-1939, when 'Tower and Stockade' settlements emerged as a reaction to the British partition plan; and (c) 1967 to the present, which followed the 'Third Arab-Israeli' war.