For Love of the Land

despite the uncertainties, thousands of Jews continue to move to Judea and Samaria, demonstrating that their love of the Land, and their faith in our Divine right to it, remains unshakeable
Here is a remarkable statistic.

Israel's Interior Ministry reports that the Jewish population of Judea and Samaria (which the media refers to as the "West Bank"), soared in 2007 by 5.2 percent. That's three times the pace of population growth within pre-1967 Israel.

As a result, the total number of Jews living in these areas went from 268,000 to 282,000, with the rise due to a combination of natural growth and migration.

What makes this development so significant is that it took place despite the Olmert government's attempts to strangle Jewish life across the Green Line. Olmert has imposed unprecedented restrictions on Jewish construction in Judea and Samaria, and he has made clear his intention of handing the land over to the Palestinians as part of any future peace deal.

Nevertheless, despite the uncertainties, thousands of Jews continue to move to Judea and Samaria, demonstrating that their love of the Land, and their faith in our Divine right to it, remains unshakeable.

May their numbers continue to grow.

The Real Disgrace... is Ehud Olmert

With all due respect to the prime minister, the fact that there are still plenty of Jewish youth who are willing to dedicate themselves to reclaiming our ancient patrimony would hardly seem to qualify as a "disgrace." If anything, it should serve as a source of pride and hope, for it demonstrates that true Zionist idealism and love of the land continue to resonate among the next generation.
A "disgrace" - that is how Prime Minister Ehud Olmert described the continued existence of Jewish hilltop communities in Judea and Samaria while speaking to the cabinet this past Sunday.

Yet rocket salvos from Lebanon and Palestinian terror attacks do not seem to get the premier equally worked up.
 
As I suggest in the column below, Mr. Olmert is effectivelty engaging in what psychologists refer to as "projection", for the real "disgrace" is when a premier with no mandate, no foresight and no popular support arrogates to himself the right to make fateful decisions in order to save his political skin. 
 

The Real Disgrace

By Michael Freund

This past Sunday brought with it a major new development, one that is likely to affect the future of the entire region: Ehud Olmert is finally upset about something.

Speaking at the weekly cabinet meeting, the prime minister lashed out, invoking unusually harsh language to make his point, so much so that it immediately made waves, generating noisy headlines for much of the rest of the day.

And just what, you might be wondering, was the object of the premier's newfound wrath? No, it was not the Katyusha rockets fired into the northern Galilee from Lebanon last week that had the premier up in arms. Neither do the daily Palestinian attempts to bombard Sderot and Ashkelon seem to have affected his mood.

Indeed, even as Iran rapidly advances toward nuclear prowess, our fearless leader's blood pressure has remained fairly stable.

The issue that Olmert chose to single out above all else was none other than the Jewish people's stubborn determination to build and settle the Land of Israel.

And boy was he fuming.

Referring to the various hilltop communities that have sprouted up in recent years throughout Judea and Samaria, which the media likes to besmirch by labeling them "illegal outposts," Olmert said it was a "disgrace" that they had not been demolished.

"The fact that illegal outposts are still standing," he told his ministerial colleagues, "even though the last two governments decided to evacuate them is a disgrace."

With all due respect to the prime minister, the fact that there are still plenty of Jewish youth who are willing to dedicate themselves to reclaiming our ancient patrimony would hardly seem to qualify as a "disgrace."

If anything, it should serve as a source of pride and hope, for it demonstrates that true Zionist idealism and love of the land continue to resonate among the next generation.

Quite honestly, if that is what passes for a "disgrace" these days, then I'm all in favor of more such ignominy. As the famed English actress, Dame Diana Rigg, once wryly put it, "I hope there's still a tinge of disgrace about me." But somehow, I think it is apparent to much of the Israeli public that when Prime Minister Olmert denigrates others as being a "disgrace," he is in fact merely engaging in what psychologists call good, ol' fashioned "projection."

Or, as the great sage Shmuel pointed out in the Talmud (Kiddushin 70a), he that declares others unfit is essentially revealing his own flaws.

FOR IN fact the real disgrace is when a premier with no mandate, no foresight and no popular support arrogates to himself the right to make fateful decisions of historic import in a transparent effort to save his political skin.

With the January 30 Winograd report on the 2005 Lebanon fiasco looming ominously over the horizon, Olmert dispatched Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni on Monday to formally begin discussing "core issues" such as the division of Jerusalem and the future of Judea and Samaria with the Palestinians.

Olmert knows that the only possible way he can avoid political oblivion is to try and position himself as a peacemaker heavily invested in a process with our neighbors, as that will make it more difficult for the Labor Party and the Left to justify toppling him once the report is made public.

In fact, Olmert's desire to retain power is so strong and deep-seated that he seems to have few qualms about crossing virtually every one of the few red lines that Israel still has.

Even on the issue of the so-called "right of return" of Palestinian refugees, which has long enjoyed an iron consensus across the Israeli political spectrum, the prime minister has indicated that he is ready to capitulate. As Channel 10 television reported (January 10), Olmert has agreed to allow at least 50,000 Palestinian "refugees from 1948" to "return" to Israel as part of a final peace deal.

The prime minister's cynical political calculations are also what lie behind his outburst over the "disgrace" of the "illegal outposts" earlier this week. Aides to Defense Minister Ehud Barak, who is no fan of the outposts himself, were quick to blast the premier, accusing him of trying to torpedo Barak's attempts to resolve the matter peacefully.

The aides assert that Barak reached a deal with leaders of the Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria that would entail the voluntary relocation of certain outposts, but that Olmert has repeatedly sought to undermine the understandings, preferring instead to use force.

"It seems as though the prime minister is actually seeking a violent confrontation with the settlers for political gain," Barak's associates told Haaretz (January 14), adding, "This sort of frivolity could end in violence."

Hey, but as far as Olmert is concerned, a few broken Jewish bones and some nasty cerebral concussions seem like a small price to pay when compared with the political capital he might possibly reap from confronting the settlers that everyone loves to hate.

James Madison, one of America's founding fathers, once wrote, "Liberty may be endangered by the abuse of liberty, but also by the abuse of power." And it is that abuse, which Mr. Olmert has so artfully been practicing, that is truly the greatest disgrace of all.

--- from the January 16 Jerusalem Post

The Real Occupation

if there is anyone who should be considered an "occupier" in the territories, it is Mahmoud Abbas and his illegitimate regime.
It is time for Israel and its supporters to finally muster up the courage to acknowledge the cold, hard truth - the West Bank and Gaza are "occupied territories."

These areas are administered by a cruel and heartless regime, one that has no mercy on its perceived foes, targeting them with derision, humiliation, and even military force.

Little concern is shown for the lives of the innocent, as ruthless measures are employed with the aim of driving the residents from their homes, making them so miserable that they will have no choice but to leave.

This occupation is a menace to the entire region, destabilizing it and undermining any chances for a lasting peace between Arabs and Jews. There is no choice but to bring about an end to this colonialist enterprise, and to dismantle the occupation once for and all.

Or, put more simply: Mahmoud Abbas and the Palestinian Authority have got to go.

For, if there is anyone who should be considered an "occupier" in the territories, it is Abbas and his illegitimate regime.

Over the past 14 years, the Palestinian Authority has transformed large swaths of Judea, Samaria, and Gaza into hothouses for terrorism and violence. It has targeted Jews living in these areas, seeking to compel them to leave by shooting at them, firing mortar rounds at their communities, detonating explosive devices as their cars pass by and invading their homes.

The PA has set new standards of corruption, misusing foreign donor money for unsavory purposes, and cultivating a culture of death and suicide among their own people. They have thwarted all efforts to end the century-old Arab- Israeli conflict, preferring instead to resort to the rifle.

Under the PA's rule, the Palestinian-occupied territories have become an irritant to the entire Middle East, threatening to plunge it into another round of bloodshed and violence.

BUT THERE is a far deeper, and more compelling reason, why the PA should be considered an "occupying power": It has taken control of land that does not belong to it.

Regardless of what the United Nations or even George W. Bush might say, Judea, Samaria, and Gaza are the patrimony of the Jewish people. History, quite simply, is on our side.

Hundreds of years before the advent of Islam, the territories were home to vibrant Jewish communities. David, king of Israel, was born and raised in Bethlehem, while the prophet Amos foretold the future in the hills near Tekoa, southeast of Jerusalem.

Ancient synagogues and burial sites dot the landscape, all serving as physical testimony to the Jewish presence in these areas. Politicians may lie, but 2000-year old stones do not.

Visit Shilo, capital of the northern kingdom of Israel, in Samaria. Take a look at the ruins of King Herod's palace at Herodion, in Judea. Stop by the Cave of the Patriarchs in Hebron, and you will see with your own eyes that these areas were Jewish long before the sword of Islam was ever unsheathed.

To suggest that Israel has no right to this land, or that it has taken someone else's territory, is simply an affront to truth and to history. If you do not accept the Bible as proof, then look to the archaeologists, who will gladly point out the evidence to you.

Even after the Second Temple in Jerusalem was destroyed and the people of Israel sent into exile, Jews continued to live in these areas, albeit in smaller numbers. Hebron was home to a continuous Jewish presence up until 1929. Only once their neighbors massacred them were they forced to flee.

Gaza - yes, Gaza - also has a long and rich Jewish history. The Hasmonean king, Yochanan, brother of Judah the Maccabee, took Gaza in 145 BCE, and his brother Shimon sent Jews to settle there. In the fourth century of the common era, Gaza served as the primary port of commerce for the Jews of the Holy Land.

Nearly 40 years ago, on the outskirts of Gaza City near the sea, Egyptian archaeologists discovered a mosaic floor from an ancient synagogue. According to the inscription, it had been built in the sixth century, or 1400 years before the establishment of the PLO.

These are hard facts. They cannot be denied or argued away. When Jews now seek again to live in these areas, then, they are doing so not as foreign occupiers, but as indigenous residents returning home. They are merely continuing in the paths of their ancestors, walking where they walked so very long ago.

So to all those who say "End the Occupation" - I couldn't agree with you more. Let us remove Mahmoud Abbas and his regime, and return the land to the Jewish people, its original owners, once and for all.