We’re not Waiting for John Kerry – the National Camp Presents an Alternative
The 2nd issue of the Sovereignty Journal is released as the international community is applying pressure on the government of Israel to divide the Land.
In this 2nd issue of Sovereignty politicians, academicians and people in the field explain the disaster inherent in dividing the Land
and present the Zionist alternative from the Right.
As American Secretary of State John Kerry begins another visit to Israel feverishly trying to promote political negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian Authority, and in the presence of aggressive international pressure on the government of Israel to abandon additional parts of the Land of Israel, the Women in Green movement together with the Forum for Sovereignty release the second issue of the journal, Sovereignty.
The editorial staff of the journal notes with satisfaction that because of the enthusiastic response to the first issue, Sovereignty is expanding its circulation, distributing 100,000 copies in Hebrew and 50,000 copies in English. In addition it can be read online http://ribonut.co.il/ or ordered by snail mail.
The journal is also expanding its scope and now comprises twenty pages including articles and interviews with politicians, thinkers, professors and people in the field who unambiguously declare that the “two state” plan represents an existential threat to Israel, whereas the alternative that the Israeli Right presents, which is the application of Israeli sovereignty over Judea and Samaria and the Jordan Valley, is the most realistic, secure and Zionistic alternative for the future of Israel, even if the plan is not without difficulties and challenges.
Among the interviewees in this issue of Sovereignty are Deputy Minister of Transportation Tzipi Hotovely, coalition head Yariv Levin, head of the Samaria Council Gershon Mesika, journalist Caroline Glick, Rabbi Dov Berel Wein, Dani Dayan, former Ambassador Yoram Ettinger, Prof. Arie Eldad, Prof. Eugene Kontorovich, Dr. Martin Sherman, Prof. Rafi Yisraeli and others.
The editorial staff of Sovereignty considers it especially important to disseminate the vision of Israeli sovereignty in Judea and Samaria at a time when there are those who want to forget and cause others to forget that there is an alternative to the policy that has failed again and again, the policy of the Left and of dividing the Land. “There are approximately 650,000 Jews living in Judea and Samaria, the Golan and East Jerusalem. Approximately 400,000 of them live in Judea, Samaria and the Jordan Valley. While Israeli sovereignty has been applied in Jerusalem and the Golan Heights, in Judea and Samaria the residents still live under military rule. What this means is that Israeli governments have left a power vacuum that invites the Arabs and the entire world to come in. The State of Israel has left the options open regarding Judea and Samaria. The Jewish residents of Judea and Samaria are gradually closing these options, but this activity, while important, is not sufficient. Since 1967 parallel battles are being waged: as the Jewish pioneers have been establishing facts on the ground, the Left has been busy planting the idea in the Israeli consciousness that the People of Israel is an occupier in its own land”.
The editorial staff of Sovereignty wonders if the victory in the battle will be won by building in the field or by the written word. “It is clear that building alone is not enough. We must work on the basic foundational consciousness of our lives: that the Land of Israel belongs to the People of Israel. In the past, when this was the belief that that guided us, we succeeded. The original aliyot (waves of immigration) knew that they must come to the Land of Israel despite being a minority. Demography did not determine which action to take, rather, the bright and clear goal was – the Land of Israel”.
“Indeed at the beginning we were forced to make do with holdings in the area of the coast, the coastal plain and the valley but we still had the hope of return to the region of the mountains, where our people have a history of thousands of years. We prayed for a unified Jerusalem and under our bridal canopies we vowed – if I forget thee O Jerusalem may my right hand lose its cunning. And indeed in the war that was forced upon us in 1967, it became possible to return to the mountain, to our provinces – Nablus, Shiloh, Bethel and Hebron. Jerusalem was unified. The world applauded for us. They knew that we are right, that this is the land of the bible, and that it belongs to the people of the bible. If only we had declared sovereignty then, it would have been accepted as a matter of course. The Arab population would have come to terms with our sovereignty. Today, 46 years after liberation, the Left has succeeded to raise doubts about our natural right to the Land of Israel. These doubts have penetrated the media, the legal system, academia and even the Likud movement. The mere existence of our doubt emboldened the Arabs to demand a state that they never had on land that was never theirs”.
At Sovereignty, we see the efforts in public relations and consciousness raising as a way to begin making a change in the internal Israeli arena and the international arena. “We must work on consciousness. To say loudly and repeatedly: This is our land and we must take sovereignty over it and apply it in the field. We must not leave other options open”.
As noted, the journal’s editorial staff does not see the frequent and frenetic visits of John Kerry as a reason to become discouraged, rather the opposite. “It is especially now that we must act and with all of our strength. We must be ready for the moment that the “talks” blow up either at the table or, heaven forbid, in exploding buses. We must be prepared and ready for the day when the anticipated unilateral announcement in the UN will come. We must now remind our leaders, including the Prime Minister, that they were elected on a nationalist platform, that a realistic political alternative to the illusory ‘two-states’ plan exists. It is possible and is also our obligation in an era when our Middle East neighborhood finds itself in the midst of a violent, blood-soaked ‘Spring’. As political changes shake the Middle East we must be prepared with suitable Zionist options. We, the editors of Sovereignty see this as the key objective that guides us”.
For Details: ribonut@gmail.com
www.ribonut.co.il
Yehudit Katsover 0507161818 Nadia Matar 0505500834
The Movement for Israel’s Tomorrow (Women in Green)