Don't Settle for Security Only
Don't Settle for Security Only

This is a Report, RESTORING A SECURITY-FIRST PEACE POLICY, published by Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs.

It was authored in Nov 2011, by Lt.-Gen. (ret.) Moshe Yaalon, Israel’s current Min of Defence.

I take great issue with this idea- that is, restorying a security- first peace policy.

Whenever Netanyahu assures us that he won’t jeopardize Israel’s security I am bitterly disappointed. Its not that I don’t want to be secure, I do, but for me, that is a given.

What I want to hear from our leaders is that Judea and Samaria belong to the Jews for many reasons, including, Israel has the best if not the only legal title to it, it is ours historically, Hashem gave it to us, we won it in a defensive war and international law recognizes it as ours. Yet all we hear from Netanyahu and previous Prime Ministers is that they won’t jeopardize our security.

What I want to hear from them is our rightful claim to the land. Occasionaly they call the lands “disputed”. Not good enough. They should repeat as a mantra that the lands belong to us.

So long as they are silent on our rights, they give legitimacy to the occupation myth.

I am glad to read that Min Bennett took issue with Obama’s reference to the lands being occupied by saying that “there is no occupation within one’s own land.”