In many ways, it was like a winery somewhere remote in Spain. Dry, hot air, even in October. Scrubby, dusty hillsides, apart from the green of the vine fields. But the main building looked more American. Even the modified AR-15 above the bar didn’t seem out of place.

The tension with the Arab population is evident in what Katsof says

The tension with the Arab population is evident in what Katsof says

But I was not in Spain, nor Texas. Settlers Winery in Esh Kodesh is, depending on who you talk to, either in the Occupied West Bank or Samaria. Founded by Aaron Katsof, a reserve major in the IDF, the winery’s logo features boots on the ground. Katsof tells me this is because they ‘have to have boots on the ground to make a difference’, to establish ‘where the borders will cross’. The wine they make here will be banned from Britain under the recent sanctions announced by Ed Miliband.

Kodesh’s religious purpose here is clear. His wine is named ‘Settlers’, he told me, ‘because God tells Joshua to come to the land, cross the river… and to settle the land. Settling the land is a good thing. He comes to empty land, to break the bedrock, to plant trees, to create a better, brighter future for our children’.

Of course, Israelis today do not come to an entirely empty land. The tension with the Arab population is evident in what Katsof says. He describes how members of his family living........

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