I originally considered calling this post “Strength in Numbers”.

The family took a trip today to look at some other settlements – specifically settlements we never visited before in the Judea region.

There was one that surprised us and I don’t yet know what conclusions to draw from my visit, but there is definitely a lot to think about.

We settlers have a public image or stereotype that most of us don’t fit into. But after today, I’d even go so far as to say that most settlers don’t even come close to the stereotype.

Today we visited the settlement of Beitar Elite – home to 35,000 people (5200 families), of which 14,500 are school-aged children – and growing rapidly (10% annually).

What makes Beitar, as a settlement, different is that Beitar is an ultra-orthodox community.

To begin with, I don’t think the residents see themselves as “settlers”. I think they see themselves simply as Jews living in Eretz Yisrael. (By the way, I was also surprised to learn that Kiryat Sefer is also a settlement – known also as Modiin Elite – again an ultra-orthodox community).

There is no doubt there is strength in numbers, but also in philosophy.

As chareidim, due to both necessity and desire, I would describe Beitar as a high density, but inexpensively built city (though it has it expensive housing sections too).

What makes it unlike other settlements is that these residents know what they want from their community and municipality and they demand it and get it.

This is not a community that overly relies on private transportation, so there are shops and stores everywhere within walking distance, public transportation appears to be excellent, which chopperim filling in the holes left by Egged. And there are an abundance of shuls and shopping malls (yes, that’s right – shopping malls - plural).

Perhaps some settlers like having to rely on their cars to go everywhere. I know I don’t, and while I wouldn’t want to live in such a high density city (and it is a city) I don’t understand why the rest of us settlements (or even groups of settlements) don’t have any malls or shopping strips that come close to what I saw today (except for the city of Ariel and Ma’aleh Adumim).

Driving around I did not get the feeling I was in a settlement. I could have been in Har Shlomo, Elad, Pisgat Ze’ev, or Rechesh Shuafat.

True the city had a decent fence around it, and an outside security company at the gates (and an army base next door) as well as the neighboring requisite Arab villages, but it is the atmosphere that was different.

It felt and looked like any of the typical new chareidi neighborhoods in Israel (and that's how the residents appeared to see themselves).

And that brings me to my next point.

I cannot imagine that if we settlers had more communities like Beitar scattered around in key positions that anyone could even begin to think about another expulsion.

To begin with, Beitar, all by itself, has 4 time the population that Gush Katif had. A goal that is shared by Tel Zion – a similar community in the Binyamin region, next to the settlement of Kochav Yaacov.

But more than that, can you imagine the uproar the Chareidim would have if one of their own communities were to be uprooted? They would tear the country apart with no mercy.

Gush Katif did not have the active support of the Chareidi community because there were no (to my knowledge) Chareidi communities in Gush Katif. Gush Etzion has Beitar at the edge. Binyamin has Tel Zion.

Shas and Aguda would actually fight before thousands of their own (voters) would be thrown to the dogs.

Unfortunately, like everyone, each community seems to worry first and foremost about their own.

Chareidim know what they want from their community and community services and they get it. Standard issue settlers are happy to get anything at all.

This trip presented a lot of food for thought, and I am still digesting it.