It is always good news when Jews are moving into and building houses in the heartland of Israel, and that is just what the Israeli government announced this month! According to Axios, the Israeli government told the Biden administration that it intends to build thousands of new housing units in the communities inside what the world calls the West Bank. In other good news, the Israeli community of Homesh now has running water as the settlers living there announced that they were connected to Israel's water supply, an important step for the expansion of any community.

Homesh has drawn strong international criticism, especially after the welcome news from Prime Minister Netanyahu that the government intended to legalize the outpost. Predictably, the European Union and the United States strongly criticized Israel for its activities in Judea and Samaria, saying that "West Bank settlement activity" is an obstacle to peace, according to the Jerusalem Post.

No Surprises Here

The criticism is the latest in a long-standing movement against Israel, which we've covered in the past, and is an attempt to divide the Land and give Judea and Samaria, the heartland of Israel, to the Palestinians.

(Read More: Who is actually stealing land in Judea and Samaria?)

This week, Israel launched its largest operation against terrorists in the city of Jenin in 20 years. (Watch the Israel Guys’ excellent video: Israel Has Not Done This in 20 Years) The spokesman for the EU naturally condemned Israeli military operations in Jenin, which were aimed at rooting out terrorists, and called on Israel "not to proceed with plans for more construction in settlements, these are illegal [and an] obstacle to peace," according to Jpost. US State Department spokesman Matthew Miller chimed in and warned that new plans to build 4,560 new settlement homes were troubling, warning that such “unilateral actions... make a two-state solution more difficult to achieve and are an obstacle to peace.”

The EU as well as current and past U.S. governments like to blame the settlements in what they call the West Bank as an obstacle towards peace. But what would happen if they got their way and Judea and Samaria were given to the Palestinians? Let's forget for a second the obvious fact that it would bring more terrorism, destruction, and death instead of peace, as Israel's Palestinian neighbors seek Israel's destruction instead of living in harmony.

Obstacles to peace?

Think for a moment about how every conversation about a two state “solution” assumes that a future Palestinian State will be Jew-free. Millions of Arabs enjoy a good life in Israel, yet the two-state double standard would tear Jews from their homes and expect that they give up their claims to places like Hebron, Shiloh, and Har Bracha (the Mount of Blessing).

The Gluck Family (left) and Batya Erdstein both left their homes in the United States to rebuild the Land of Israel

What the corporate press, the United Nations, the EU, and so on, don’t want people to know is these so-called "obstacles to peace," are thriving communities of Jewish men, women, and children, who have returned in faith to Judea and Samaria, the Land given to them by God thousands of years ago, and where almost 80% of the Bible was written or took place!

Take the Erdstein family, who live in the thriving community of Itamar for example. Itamar, located just outside of the biblical city of Shechem, is a growing community of about 1,400 people nestled into the Samarian hills, yet according to the EU and Biden administration, these people and their community are obstacles to peace, and the community must be destroyed. Batya and Baruch Erdstein, who originally moved from the States and met in Jerusalem, moved their six children to Itamar around seven years ago.

Batya works to support their family by creating the beautiful ceramics found on our site while Baruch works to restore the land and has planted over 200 fruit trees that cover the hillside. This beautiful family of eight felt called by God to return to the Land of their ancestors and help in its restoration, yet just because of this, the Biden administration labels them the enemy and would have you believe that they are the problem, the obstacle to peace.

(See Batya’s beautiful ceramics)

Another family, the Glucks, also felt a calling to return home, and in 2006, they fulfilled their dream of making aliyah and moved from New York to Jerusalem with their three boys. Today they have a family business making amazing salves, which their children help to make. This family is referred to as an obstacle to peace by the world. Their crime? Living in the Heartland of Israel.

Our invitation to you

These are only a few examples of beautiful families on the front lines of the restoration of Israel. They are one of, if not the most, attacked and hated people groups in the world. All of this simply for being Jewish and for bringing their families back to the heartland of Israel.

Many of them see their rebuilding the land as fulfillment of biblical prophecy and continue on wholeheartedly in spite of the obstacles: "And I will bring my people Israel back from exile.“They will rebuild the ruined cities and live in them...I will plant Israel in their own land, never again to be uprooted from the land I have given them,” says the LORD your God." — Amos 9:14-15 We’re inviting you to join us in standing with these brave pioneers as they return and build communities just as God promised they would!