A Research Institute for Promotion of Sovereignty in Judea and Samaria to be Established

As a direct outgrowth of the large conferences and the publication of the journal Sovereignty, the Forum for Application of Sovereignty in Judea and Samaria held a special meeting where it was decided to establish a research institute that will conduct a deep and authoritative examination of the various aspects of the Right’s proposal to apply sovereignty over Judea and Samaria.

In the meeting that was held Monday, January 6th by the Forum for Application of Sovereignty it was decided to continue to promote the political alternative of the Right, despite and perhaps even because of the international pressures on the government of Israel to divide the Land and establish a Palestinian state.

Among the decisions that were taken by the Forum for Sovereignty, founded by the Women in Green movement, was a decision to hold a series of future activities for members of Knesset and ministers to promote the idea of sovereignty and to establish an academic research institute that will examine in depth the various issues that this process entails.

Among the issues entailed in the process that the institute will investigate and research is the economic issue including aspects relating to real estate, industry, regional collaboration and more. The institute’s staff will also examine the legal, international issues relating to the application of sovereignty over Judea and Samaria, as well as public relations and media aspects.

The main goal of the institute will be to present, within the time frame of a few months, authoritative and well-grounded conclusions of their research to the Israeli public and the decision makers in Israel. The research will be accompanied and guided by leading academics in their fields.

The meeting, in which it was decided to establish a research institute as well as a Forum of rabbis that will act in parallel in their communities to deepen a Land-of-Israel consciousness, is the direct outgrowth of the large conferences that were held and are still being held throughout the Land with the call to apply sovereignty over Judea and Samaria as well as the publication of the journal Sovereignty, the second issue of which was issued last weekend.

Dr. Mordechai Kedar, demographer and former ambassador Yoram Ettinger, journalist and economist Eran Bar Tal, manager of Arutz 7, Rebbetzin Shulamit Melamed, journalist Caroline Glick, Rabbi Itai Elitsur, Yoni Ben Dov and others took part in this meeting. The discussion was led by Yehudit Katsover and Nadia Matar.

The meeting was held in the home of Israel Prize winner and former member of Knesset Geula Cohen, a member of the forum for Sovereignty, who is seen as a fundamental and source of inspiration in light of her parliamentary success, as a member of Knesset, to pass the legislation for sovereignty over the Golan and East Jerusalem. Cohen grants her backing and sustained support to the entire event and the call for application of sovereignty that arises from it.

During the discussion, various lines of thought were raised concerning the right way to promote the sovereignty process. Among other issues, the participants discussed the question of whether to present one consolidated plan from the Israeli Right or perhaps to present several suitable suggestions to the public, the common denominator of all being sovereignty in Judea and Samaria. Some of the speakers voiced support specifically for the need to increase discussion of the diverse views on the issue and to encourage the debate over the various ways to apply sovereignty in Israeli public discourse.

Another part of the discussion dealt with the question of how the Arab population relates to the Palestinian Authority leadership and whether the population itself desires Abu Mazen and his people as their leaders. Dr. Mordechai Kedar presented conclusive data according to which, except for the people of the Palestinian Authority itself, from where they draw their livelihood, the Arab Palestinian public, by a decisive majority, sees the Palestinian Authority as forced upon them and even colonialist. According to the Middle East scholar Kedar, the American government is not at all aware of the revulsion in the Palestinian street that exists toward the leadership that is forced upon it, and this fact should be declared and proven to the entire world.

Caroline Glick extensively described the issues that appear in her new book The Israeli Solution – a One State Plan for Peace in the Middle East , a book that deals with all aspects of sovereignty and will be published in English in March.

Regarding America, demographer Yoram Ettinger emphasized the lack of Israeli familiarity with the true balance of power in the American government – the weakness of a president during his second term of office and the real power of Congress. Also, Ettinger mentioned the ties of various joint interests that bind Israel and the United States together, ties that do not relate to the Palestinian issue. According to him these ties are purposely ignored by those who prefer to describe the relationship between the two countries as if it depends only on the Palestinian aspect.

Ettinger noted that the Israeli public is frightened of saying “no” to the Americans. This, notwithstanding our past experience from which we have learned that prime ministers such as Ben Gurion and Shamir knew how to do this and surprisingly the relationship between the two countries was not harmed because of it, rather the opposite.

For Details

Yehudit Katsover 050-7161818 Nadia Matar 050-5500834

The Forum for Sovereignty

Link to the Sovereignty Journal: www.ribonut.co.il