Ya’alon: Settlers needed to back IDF troops in Jordan Valley

During a tour of the Jordan Rift Valley Tuesday, Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon spoke of the strategic need to keep Jewish settlers in the valley as back-up for the IDF units securing Israel’s eastern border.  He also defended the decision to locate the IDF College on Jerusalem’s Mt. Scopus. He reminded critics that Mt. Scopus had always been maintained as an Israeli enclave, even during the years when the Kingdom of Jordan occupied E. Jerusalem and the West Bank up until 1967.