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Here is the truth about the incorrect use of the words "settlers" and "settlements."

Six of us -- a French TV reporter, a reporter from Le Monde, a Swedish reporter, a Swedish/Finnish reporter, and my husband and I boarded a van and headed on a modern four-lane highway past established Jewish suburbs to the area of Samaria. We were accompanied by Aliza, an American-born guide from Yesha, the council with representatives of all the Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria. Along the way various Jewish communities were pointed out to us as we passed rocky terraces, olive trees, and large homes built by Arabs.

David takes us to an area called HaBracha (the blessing) on Mount Gerizim, 800 meters (2,264 feet) above sea level. Here, we meet Nir Lavi, 37 years old, married and father of five, who came here in 1988 to plant vineyards where there was no population, in this abandoned area. There were 35 to 40 families who felt a connection to work the land.

The first vineyard finally took shape in 2002, growing Merlow and Cabernet Sauvignon grapes. (Today Carmel Mizrachi winery buys their grapes.) Since 2003, they are working with the Gerizim Tourism and Agriculture Council, bringing tourists from Europe to see the "Side Road Wineries," offering food, a tour in English and information on the history of the areas and the wine.

Today there are more than 230 families in HaBrachah. Next to his home, Lavi showed us the 40-square-meter (430 square feet) manufacturing plant and a 30-square-meter (323 square feet) oak room for bottlings and boxing the first vintage of 3,000 bottles of Cabernet Sauvignon 2007 in Heart Lander bottles.

In his home, he offers us wine and breakfast -- bread, dips, coffee, tea, salads. "I decided to make wine from the soul," this Ph.D. in foreign relations explains. "I felt a bond to the land. I felt I had to plant vineyards."

Lavi took a one-year course at Ariel University Center, spent a year on a moshav and half a year in a winery.

"To feel the land of our fathers, we are putting life into these hills," he said. "This is our concept. We found vineyards in biblical times mentioned in Gedalia. He kept farmers who didn't go to Babylon to produce wine."

Lavi tells us not only are these families working the land but now a group of Christians, led by Tom Waller of Memphis, Tenn., come to help. (For more information, email Tommy@ServeIsrael.com.) Waller explains his group, "Serving Israel's Farmers," brings people from North America twice a year to help with pruning and taking grapes from the vines.

"We're spiritual people," he says. "We see this as God's land." He tells us 30 people are here now for pruning -- "people who love the land," interested in "agritourism."

From here we go to the agricultural town of Itamar. Here live 150 families with 50 more families in a hilltop community, who work organic farms with goats, sheep, and chickens. This area is the largest producer of organic eggs in Israel. We walk up to Gidonim, founded 14 years ago where we meet Yael Tene. She is a mother of 10, ranging in age from 11 to 33 years of age with 11 grandchildren. Her husband works in the building trade around the community.

Nine years ago, her brother, a rabbi, started a yeshiva on this hilltop for "youth of the hilltops," youth at risk, integrating agriculture with Torah learning.

From where we stand and speak with Yael, she describes the growth of this hilltop community and the problems with the nearby Arab village whose members are all part of a clan related to the late Yasser Arafat. On another hill nearby in Gidonim, we can see a tomb, where they think the Judge Gideon is buried.

From here we drive to the area of Karnei Shomron, the heartland of Samaria, established in 1977, and comprised of three areas and newer neighborhoods, with a population of more than 7,000 Jewish residents. A lawyer and member of their city council explains that half of the residents are religious, half are secular. They have a shopping mall with a bank, nurseries, two high schools, a teachers' college, a yeshiva, two industrial zones, shops with local crafts, health clinics, and nine synagogues. This hilltop gives us a view of Herzlia, Ranaana, and Tel-Aviv in the distance.

We learn about Gilad Zar, a local security officer, who was assassinated by Fatah in 2002. After the youth of Karnei Shomron wanted something in his memory, his father, Moshe Zar, purchased land for six Jewish communities, one for every letter of his son's name. Among them are Ramat Gilad and Havat Gilad, both established in 2002. Coincidentally, as we stood listening to the story, a dignified gentleman approached us -- and we were introduced to Moshe Zar.

We then travel to Bruchim where Yitzhak, manager of this 10-year-old Torah observant Jewish community, explains its growth to 100 families and its history and its technical problems with the government.

A short ride from here brings us to the amazing Ariel University Center of Samaria and its president for the past 13 years, Professor Don Meyerstein.

Ariel began offering non-degree courses for adults in the homes of professors in 1982. In 1987, the group came to this area, formerly an industrial zone, and began a college preparatory program. Three years later, the first academic courses were offered under the auspices of Bar Ilan University, which had established five outlets around the country, Ariel being one of these. In 2004, the association with Bar Ilan lapsed and Ariel became independent, pursuing university status. Nine of the 12 buildings now belong to the University Center. In July 2007, it stopped calling itself the College of Judea and Samaria and renamed itself Ariel University Center, a temporary status that has conditions to be fulfilled within the next five years in order to be called a university.

Meyerstein says he sees his job as "a balance to be the best university we can and to create a set up which will insure a long-lasting existence of this university."

Today the university of 8,500 degree-seeking students sits in the city of Ariel, a city of some 20,000 people. There are 25 academic departments of which 24 give a degree, including five engineering, five natural sciences, four medical related, architecture, communications, social sciences, and humanities. Some four percent of the students are Arabs. Tuition is the same as in other universities, 8,400 NIS a year (as of this day translated to about $1,985.81); on the average 20-25 percent of the students are on scholarships. In a rather forward-looking approach, students can take eight credit hours a year of their choice free.

When asked about the political location of the university, the president takes us to his office balcony and says, "I can see two-thirds of the Israel coast from my balcony. I don't see a political problem in being here." The city of Ariel is part of a large Jewish community bloc, which, says the president, "will stay in Israel forever."

Meyerstein says they "sell" the university from "mouth to ear." They try not to have classes larger than 70 students; it is cheaper to study in Ariel than the major cities because the costs of housing are lower and "there are less pubs and they are less expensive."

A day after our tour, the chief rabbi of Israel, Yona Metzger, toured Israel's rabbinate in Samaria Jewish communities and learned of issues of building permits for housing and educational institutions in Samaria. The rabbi published a letter suggesting communities in the Diaspora take part in sister community programs with Jewish towns of Samaria.

Sybil Kaplan is a journalist who used to live in Israel in the 1970s; she and her husband returned to Jerusalem from Overland Park, Kan. last August where she works as a foreign correspondent for The Jewish State and writes food articles for the Jerusalem Post.