Some post-elections thoughts

Dear friends and partners,

Shalom!

The results of the elections left the national camp in confusion. It really seems that we are facing a complex period, and that the leaders of our camp, and not only they, will have to do some deep soul-searching, both on the national level and the personal level.

There are many reasons for the complex results, which should all be part of the soul searching that is required. The internal battles, the ideological factionalism, the mutual slandering and the endless incidents of “firing within the tank” – all of these alienated many potential voters. And there was also a sense of confidence and complacency that caused many right-wing voters to stay at home. The mobilization for voting was not strong enough. We had not internalized that indeed, the Right might lose the lead and with it, the ability to form the next government.

All of this will need to undergo internal analysis by the Right camp before the next elections, whether at the ballot box or in the public, political sphere.

In addition to the general soul searching, we in the Sovereignty Movement also need to do our own soul searching, grow in humility and become more cautious. We must understand that the way to sovereignty is still quite long and we must take step after step, constantly increasing our circles of support. We will need to check methods of hasbara that will make the vision accessible to more sectors; simultaneously we must encourage and strengthen the leadership of the Right in its battles against opposition, both internal and external.

At this phase, we are still far from knowing how the next government will look, but it is clear that any possible structure of the government will require us to work much harder. We will have to work laboriously, with sweat and tears. The Land of Israel is also acquired through the pangs of democracy.

On this eve of Rosh Hashana we take the opportunity to thank each and every one of you, dear supporters and partners, for your active involvement in promoting the vision of sovereignty from the field up to the prime minister’s office. Your activism has succeeded to instill the vision of sovereignty in the Israeli consciousness as an everlasting component of the historical Zionist vision, as an expression of generations of longing and the People of Israel’s yearning for the return of Israel’s sovereignty over its Land.

Hasbara initiatives have made it clear to more and more of the public, and through it, to the public’s representatives, that the political time for sovereignty is right, because of the sympathetic government of the American president, because of Europe’s preoccupation with its own crises on the continent and because of the Arab world’s growing disgust with endless Palestinian demands.

All of this reached Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who understood well that the People demands sovereignty and anyone who desires to be elected as a leader of the national camp must be true to this vision. While we cautioned against the concerning and dangerous methods of partial sovereignty, the principle that arises is one: Israel desires sovereignty!

Before the elections and especially in light of U.S. President Donald Trump’s approaching political plan, we met with a considerable number of statesmen and policy makers from Israel and abroad, explaining the vision of sovereignty, its importance, its challenges and ways to implement it.

From a deep internal understanding that negative results for the national camp in the elections might, Heaven forbid, lead to withdrawals that would be disastrous and dangerous for the future of Israel, we led a hasbara and media campaign calling for the national camp to unite, we produced video clips warning not to gamble in the ballot box by telling people to vote only for parties that would surely  pass the percentage threshold and we led a campaign with yet another clip urging people to go out and vote.  

Here we must mention the activism of members of the Sovereignty Youth Movement, which fully mobilized to encourage voting with a sense of the Zionist mission to promote the mission of the generation, the mission of sovereignty.

On election day, members of Sovereignty Youth set up headquarters at the Oz veGaon Preserve, where, with telephone conversations and activity on social media, they encouraged the voters to get out and vote. The young men and women also embarked on an activity in the field on election day, met voters and urged them to go to the balloting sites. This activity summed up a long period of hasbara activity in booths that the young people set up throughout the Land.

It is also worth mentioning the Sovereignty Conference attended by the youths, where elected officials made declarations of loyalty to the vision of sovereignty and committed themselves to promote it. The public figures who took part in the event were not content with expressing their admiration of the commitment and devotion of the members of Sovereignty Youth – they also noted that the event instilled within them a pioneering spirit and a sense of mission to implement sovereignty. The youths also set up a parliamentary team to encourage elected officials of the nationalist camp to promote the steps of sovereignty in practical, parliamentary ways.

At this point we must consider the right and measured way forward to continue leading the sovereignty revolution to its implementation. We recommend using the period of the holidays to take a deep breath and think together about the future. To that end, we call on you, dear friends and partners, to be part of the soul-searching that we all must do. Send us your suggestions and thoughts for extending the activity to bring additional audiences to join the circle of activity and hasbara, until the vision is implemented.

One principle is clear and we will continue it with full strength and courage: We grow through pain. Difficulty and complexity have never discouraged us and will never discourage us. We will gird our loins, work harder, become stronger and continue to believe in the justice of our cause and the victory that it promises. We will continue to strive and push forward, we will progress step by step up the slope until the vision of sovereignty is realized – Israeli sovereignty  over our entire Land!

Wishing all of you Shana Tovah,

Yehudit and Nadia