The idea of applying Israeli law over the blocs of settlement as a first phase of full sovereignty entails a number of obstacles, but there is also a solution for them. Rethinking the first phase.
The following lines do not seek to relate to the overall realization of the vision of sovereignty, but focus on its initial steps, which, if they are not done with the appropriate attention to certain details, might bring about results that are the opposite of what is hoped for.
In discussions held in right-wing circles on how to apply sovereignty over Judea and Samaria, a proposal to apply Israeli law in the first phase on the Jewish communities emerges as an interim solution. This idea is expressed mainly among senior members of the Likud, but not only from them. There is no need to have especially sharp hearing to hear senior members of the Likud carefully expressing their support for the application of Israeli sovereignty in the areas of the blocs of settlement and not in Judea and Samaria in general. Therefore, they carefully word it as "sovereignty in Judea and Samaria" rather than "sovereignty over Judea and Samaria", and this semantic difference has significance.
Since this idea does not ensnare Israel in a demographic trap, it sounds magical, but entails some significant problems that must be taken into account and perhaps it is worthwhile to consider an alternative that I would like to present here:
The main problem of applying Israeli law over the Jewish communities (or the blocs of settlement, depending on the speaker's choice of wording) is that this idea might be a legal-judicial obstacle against the aspiration and efforts to establish new settlements.
Defining a different legal status for the settlement enterprise in contrast to the rest of the area might become a trap and an obstacle to the government of Israel if it would like to establish new communities. To establish new communities would require, besides all of the currently existing procedures, a legislative process that will change the definition of land planned for establishing a new community where there is not yet Israeli sovereignty. This legal process would be several times more complex than what is required today. Thus any such step can be expected to arouse anew the political argument between the Right and the Left that might spill easily over into an international conflict. The result might be a total freeze on any chance to establish new communities.
In my humble opinion, the necessary first step toward sovereignty is not the application of sovereignty and Israeli law over the blocs of settlement alone, but the application of Israeli law over the entire area save for the densely populated Arab areas of settlement. This might be called, in short – the Arab blocs plan.
In order to carry out the process it will be necessary to map the Arab cities and the areas of densely populated Arab villages and to leave them, for the time being, under Arab municipal-autonomous responsibility. Over all the remaining area, Israeli law will be applied with all that that entails.
With this new definition of the area, it will be possible finally to do away with the division of the area according to the Oslo legacy, into Areas A, B and C. From this point onward, until the next phase of the application of sovereignty there will be only two definitions (and there is no reason not to give them Hebrew names, Aleph and Bet, for example).
A new division of the area and proper Israeli enforcement will also put a stop to the PA's orchestrated and well-funded takeover of the lands of Judea and Samaria, which is occurring today undisturbed. The absurd situation where Israel volunteers to limit Jewish building to the blocs of settlement (if at there is any building at all), while the Arab side spreads out as a result of a nationalist effort, will be stopped.
We may assume that the Arab blocs plan will be criticized by the bleeding hearts who would be quick to draw parallels with the "ghettos" and bring up reminders of other dark times that their imagination can conjure up, as usual. It is worth reminding these critics that when it came to the Jews being limited to the "ghettos" of blocs of settlement, this did not bother them.
It is worth noting incidentally that the application of Israeli law over the areas of Jewish settlement alone, might also present a problem to realizing the vision in full: when there is a situation of equal civil rights for the residents of the Jewish Judea and Samaria as part of the application of the law on the communities, it will be possible to put an end, practically and thankfully, to discrimination. However, the new situation might provide a motive for freezing the existing situation and making do with it, since the harm that exists today to civil rights of a half million (for now) residents, will be removed from the agenda. Diplomats and politicians will see in this a situation that is possible to live with and worse, there may be some among them who will see this situation as a basis for establishing an Arab state on most of the area in parallel to the equalization of rights for the Jewish residents in the blocs of settlement. Thus, the idea of applying the law over only the blocs of settlement might bring the efforts to realize the vision of sovereignty to be shelved