 It is difficult
for some to accept the connections being made between Manhigut
Yehudit and those who – when push came to shove – voted in favor of
the Expulsion from Gush Katif. Both MK Miri Regev, who works
tirelessly on behalf of every nationalist issue – be it the Ulpana
Hill or the African infiltrators – and Minister Silvan Shalom who
has been a very positive force for the settlements and other
national interests were not in the right place at the critical hour.
Many find our renewed friendship hard to swallow.
Since the government of Rabin and Peres put the "peace train" on the
Oslo tracks, the sand in the settlement hourglass has been running
out. The recognition of the "Palestinian nation and its rights"
means the loss of recognition of the Jewish state and its rights.
It's as simple as that. The destruction train does not stop at the
1967 borders; the missiles are already falling in Be'er Sheva and
London hardly recognizes Israel. But the policy of removal is
currently focused on the settlements over the Green Line. For now,
the settlements are the front line.
The Israeli Right did not have the tools to counter the alternative
promoted by the Left because it never really had an alternative. All
that the Right had was healthier national feelings. But feelings
don't stop trains – and they certainly cannot place them on a
different track to a different destination. Inside the train, the
Likud MKs will do all they can to help, but they are incapable of
changing its direction.
Nobody thinks that Miri Regev, Silvan Shalom, Yisrael Katz and the
other senior Likud MKs – even the prime minister himself – want to
see the destruction of the settlements. These are not Peace Now
fanatics. They are part of the Jewish majority, members of the
National Camp whose hearts are in the right place. But when they
reach the crossroads where the fate of the settlements must be
determined; when more than mere help is needed; when they reach the
crossroads where true leadership is needed to change the train's
direction – they cannot help.
The bottom line is that the only alternative for the Right is the
faith-based option. Why was this writer the only candidate who dared
run against Netanyahu in this winter's primaries for the
chairmanship of the Likud? Is everyone else in the Likud weak-kneed?
Not at all. But everyone knew that whoever would run against
Netanyahu was politically shooting himself in the foot. Running
against Netanyahu (my own candidacy included) was deemed political
suicide. That means that a true reason of essence was necessary to
justify running – a reason beyond politics. Only I presented a real
alternative and that is why I was the only candidate to face off
against Netanyahu.
The same is true of the struggle for the Land of Israel. When it
gets to the point that continued support of the settlements will be
deemed political suicide, the Likud MKs will need an alternative
support that will provide them with a different ideology and
leadership. That is the only way that they will be able to continue
to fight. As long as that support does not exist, nobody can expect
them to do more than they are doing now.
Have we created that alternative support? There is no doubt that we
have been creating an alternative for the past 15 years. We are now
in the critical stage of establishing grass-roots connections.
Without those direct connections between the various Likud
activists, our alternative will remain ungrounded. But there is no
connection between the factions without connections between the
faction leaders. And the faction leaders, sadly, have failed in the
past.
Those who want to make life easy will once again repeat the
erroneous Effie Eitam paradigm. Once again they will register for
their own small party that will split up once more and run in the
next elections with a different name. As the old saying goes: Fool
me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me! Religious Zionist
politics is once again leading its voters down the same, fallacious
path. The same mistakes have been made over and over again, in
innovative variations, beginning from the days of the Techiyah
party. Whoever is duped again has only himself to blame.
Back to the settlements. The Oslo train cannot be turned around
without true leadership and an alternative track. There will be no
new settlements in Judea and Samaria, no return to the glorious
pioneering days, no new Ma'aleh Adumim or Ariel and no new
neighborhoods inside those towns until the change is made. But the
destruction can be stopped. The strategic change that is necessary
is to establish new, faith-based leadership that is not dependent on
the established leadership that seeks to destroy the settlements.
The pioneers of Migron and Giv'at Asaf, the new generation of
settlers, well understood that the struggle for their settlements
was not purely tactical. They understood that the issue was not
Migron and not even the Ulpana Hill. They realized that they were
the first domino on the way to something total. They were willing to
embark on a real struggle that would turn the destruction of their
settlements into a political liability that would protect the next
settlements slated for destruction.
The legal status of most of the settlers in the Binyamin region is
identical to that of the Ulpana Hill. The foreign conqueror of Judea
and Samaria – King Abdullah of Jordan, bequeathed the territories
that he had conquered to his grandson, Hussein. Hussein in turn
generously allocated the robbed spoils to anyone who would be
gracious enough to take them. In this way, most of the lands in
Judea and Samaria were registered to private owners. The State of
Israel decided to accept this state of affairs as engraved in stone.
Even when the "owners" of the lands had left the country decades ago
and the land is considered absentee property (which is why Peace Now
has not managed to bring claimants for the property in question)
Israel's government decides to destroy the settlement (Giv'at Assaf,
in this case).
In other words, this is just the promo for the destruction of all
the settlements. The Left is working wisely; it is progressing
incrementally, fully synchronized with its people in the State's
Attorney's office and the High Court. They know that too great of an
achievement all at once could torpedo all their gains. But after the
destruction of these small settlements, we will once again be
hearing from Peace Now in Ofra, Shilo and the rest of the towns in
the Binyamin region.
What can we do? It looks like the Outpost Law will be debated in the
Knesset next week. Until then, each and every one of us must do all
that is possible to convince the MKs and ministers to vote in favor
of the law. But as above, at a time of strategic decisions,
additional forces must come on the scene in order to ensure the
desired results. Without the pressure of a real grass-roots struggle
that can create a political liability, all the lobbying may go the
way of Gush Katif. Both the political and extra-parliamentary routes
must be employed to pass the Outpost Law. When the decision makers
believe that the threat of a real struggle is not hanging over their
heads, their fear of the Left will naturally be greater than their
fear of the settlers.
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