The initial lesson almost everybody will claim is that nothing notable resulted from the Likud primary elections. Binyamin Netanyahu easily won the top spot and Danny Danon retained a seat in the Knesset. Yuli Edelstein, followed by Gilad Arden – then Israel Katz, Miri Regev, Silvan Shalom, Moshe Ya’alon, Ze’ev Elkin and Tzachi Hanegbi rounded out the top positions. The presumably big story is that none of the Likud leadership mentioned ceding land for making a Palestinian state, nor making conciliatory moves to placate the Demands of the European Union, nor surrendering lands demanded by the United Nations nor folding before pressures from United States President Obama nor buckling to demands made by the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) threats nor bending under to the compulsion emanating from any of the European governments nor mollifying to any pressures to relent claim to any land claims by any Arab or Muslim entity. This would have been laudable and reassuring except for the lack of claiming anything concerning the surrender of lands beyond the Green Line. Probably the one comment heard in the reporting was an assurance that the Western Wall would remain under Israeli control made by Tzipi Livni and Yitzhak Herzog which would have made the perfect invitation to address that the Likud would not only retain control over the Kotel but would keep all of Jerusalem, the settlements, the Jordan Valley, the Judean Hills and all of ancient Israel, but no such retort was presented. The question of what they are in favor of committing themselves to about the ancient homelands of the Jewish State, of the lands of Judea and Samaria is a question of paramount importance and the answer must not contain any ambiguities or vagueness and must be replied to without even the slightest hesitation of falter so as to be given spontaneously proving it is their default and singular position. Such must be the position and response to the state of mind of any candidate on any list before a true Zionist can feel comfort in granting any party their vote.
There was some disconcerting news pertaining to the subterfuge around efforts to keep Moshe Feiglin from attaining a safe position or even any position on the Likud list and with that news one might also question if these efforts also had an effect on Tzipi Hotovely just missing making the list of favorably situated spots when she missed being in the twentieth spot and that pushed her back to the twenty-sixth spot behind some seats reserved for party regional leadership and people chosen by the Prime Minister personally. Another step towards proving that Likud stands firmly in the nationalist camp and also the Zionist camp would be Benyamin Netanyahu placing Tzipi Hotovely in one of his discretionary spots assuring her a better chance at continuing to serve and have an additional Zionist voice in the Knesset. The next step which the Zionist camp must take careful notes to will be the filing by the parties of their official lists. If any Zionist belongs to a party which places within its list any appreciable numbers of candidates who have ever stated their approval to surrendering Judea and Samaria and permitting a new Arab state which will most assuredly become another Hamastan either through elections or by force of arms, just as did Gaza, then one should seriously consider giving their vote to another party. There should be little if any room for Ministers to the Knesset who would allow another debacle such as the events which formed Kadima and led to the unilateral disengagement from Gaza producing a similar result with Judea and Samaria. This was one fear that occupied my mind and led to great consternation when after the last elections when Prime Minister Netanyahu immediately chose to bring into his potential coalition Tzipi Livni’s Hatnuah Party (הַתְּנוּעָה) which had not only surrender lands for peace members on her party list but also was headed with the ultimate land for peace person outside Labor, Meretz and the Arab Parties. When Tzipi Livni was then given the position to be the lead Israeli for negotiating and dealing with the Palestinians and all that would eventually entail, which came way too close to my worst fears, I said prayers that like Pharaoh, Abbas and companies’ hearts would harden and refuse every offer. That is apparently exactly what came to be as Abbas once again proved the wisdom of Abba Eban who stated referring to the forming of another Arab nation west of the Jordan River that, “The Arabs never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity.”
It is always nerve racking when offers are made where almost the entirety of Judea and Samaria and especially if Eastern Jerusalem is included which initially guarantees that Jews will lose all access to the Temple Mount and the Kotel and additionally the Synagogues which were so painstakingly refurbished and restored will once again be torn asunder and be once again defiled. There is still one last thing which granting the Arabs and Abbas their state and Hamas taking control within one year or two is that within six months of Hamas rising to power Israel will once again be facing a war of extinction against who knows how many armies. The war that would follow Hamas taking over Judea, Samaria and Eastern Jerusalem would be frightful and potentially the most dangerous situation since the War of Independence as it is surreal yet potentially possible, if not probable should such a war come four or five years down the road, that the Arabs would have a number of European nations aiding their efforts and arming them with top of the line NATO equipment. It might even become a worst case scenario should Turkey also become a party to the conflict and demand that the rest of NATO come to the aid against the nation warring with Turkey, a fellow NATO member who is permitted such a request. Where it is unlikely, though not completely out of the realm of possibilities, that the United States would aid Turkey against Israel, but it is nowhere near as certain when one considers that the numerous European NATO members might comply with the request resulting in a much broader war and increases the potential for Israel to be defeated without, as assisted Israel in all her previous conflicts, the good L0rd assists once again.
The one thing that Israel needs to make sure does not happen is for the leftists make up the lead in any coalition, especially if the Prime Minister position will be occupied by Tzipi Livni as she most assuredly would surrender the store simply to assure herself a legacy. Tzipi Livni is driven to become the Prime Minister who achieved peace with the Arabs and received a Nobel Peace Prize for her heroic and valued leadership. The question with her deciding what is acceptable could potentially lead to her insisting that Israel retain Tel Aviv but hopefully she not surrender both the Negev Desert and the Galilee central plains and hills and certainly not surrender Netanya and Nahariya. Of course she might not get the opportunity as Yitzhak Herzog would be allowed first shot at surrendering almost all of Israel. Yitzhak Herzog recently vowed to shut down the World Zionist Organization’s Settlement Division, which functions as an operational arm of the government to build and establish communities and infrastructures in Judea and Samaria. Herzog stated on ‘Meet the Press’ Saturday night, “As Prime Minister I will close the Settlement Division and open it later to serve the Negev and the Galilee. We see again and again the same group takes over the interests of the state and Netanyahu gave in to it.” This is a blanket inference that the lands beyond the Green Line are of little concern and that Yitzhak Herzog is willing to surrender all of Judea and Samaria forcing almost one-million Jews from their homes, something which the Israeli voters must take the efforts to avoid giving this man any power. Not only is that necessary but the Israeli voters must make certain that whichever party gets to form the next government is a party headed by a devout and solid Zionist who knows that not only without Jerusalem does Israel fail, but also without Hevron, Shechem, Jericho, and possibly also Bethlehem. These are the minimalist demands and retaining all the lands promised by treaties are reserved solely for a Jewish State where the peoples living within have individual rights, commercial rights, property rights and religious rights but political rights are reserved for the Jews when voting and ruling the nation come into question. This was decided immediately after World War I and was ratified by the European nations, Japan and the United States and ratified by the United Nations. Without going into detail, here is the thumbnail sketch one more time, The San Remo Conference implemented the Balfour Declaration word for word as their conclusion; following that decision the British had the mandate and proposed splitting the mandate with three-quarters approximately was to be utilized for an Arab state and would be defined as the lands west of the Jordan River while the lands east of the Jordan River, that less than one-quarter of the Mandate lands, would be reserved into perpetuity for the Jewish State where all people living within were to keep their properties, businesses, religious rights, civil rights and all rights with the exception of political rights which could be granted them if and only if the Jewish government deemed them to have such powers. All of these treaties were adopted subsequently by the United Nations under Article 80. Get it, got it, good!
Beyond the Cusp
Beyond the Cusp 