The CEO of Moetzet Yesha, the Council of Judea and Samaria, once headof PM Netanyahu's staff, wrote an open letter to Prime Minister Netanyahu, which appeared in the Hebrew newpaper Makor Rishon this weekend. INN has translated his forthright appeal to his former boss for a return to a courageous policy of vision.
Mr. Prime Minister, the moment of truth has arrived. You have to decide. Do you want, G-d forbid, to enter history as the man who founded the state of Palestine at Bar Ilan University? Or as the leader who, at the last minute, found the courage to save his people from an existential disaster.
Two years of building freezes, concessions and maneuvers from a position of weakness, have resulted in an Israel facing an untenable international situation .
Every time you gave in, you thought the world would applaud and reward you with approval. Reality turned out to be quite different. Immediately after you agreed to a Palestinian state, came the demand to freeze construction and settlement. After all, why build if you are going to give it to the Palestinians? After your unprecedented declaration that you are freezing all settlement for ten months, you found yourself subject to yet another wave of pressures. Your weak stance registered in every country and resulted in ridicule for us, for our independent country which is supposed to decide its own fate.
You have been led by Ehud Barak to a conduct a policy based on fear. You are apprehensive about demography, afraid of a bi national state, anxious about international isolation. And now, the biggest fear: the tsunami, in Barak’s words, of the unilateral declaration of a Palestinian state this September. This fear has filtered down to your ministers, MK’s and from there to some of the people. It has led to paralysis. Your government has become passive instead of being a force to be reckoned with.
After the horrendous slaughter in Itamar, you said, rightly, that the PA holds direct responsibility. You described exactly how Abu Mazen shoots hate into the veins of Palestinian children from birth until adulthood. You told how the PA awards monetary prizes to murderers of Israelis and names squares in Ramallah after mega-terrorists. That was right on the mark.
But what has your government actually done about those observations? You are not the opposition. You are the Prime Minister of Israel. The Jewish people doesn’t need analyses, it needs leadership.
We are confronted with an organized attempt to dehumanize us, to destroy us. We can overcome this attack, but we have to enter the arena and start fighting. Today.
We have many ways of doing this: the Western world has recognizes the Islamic threat; Americans support us overwhelmingly (68% for us, versus 19% for the Palestinians, in a Gallup poll taken a few days ago); Congress is for us (80% of US Congressmen call themselves pro-Israel); and many world governments see the situation clearly. The international situation now is not irreversible. We can change it dramatically. But we must free ourselves of the cowardice that has overwhelmed us.
Mr. Prime Minister, you can gain strength from our former Prime Minister, Menachem Begin, who was a proud Israeli. After he annexed the Golan Heights to Israel, President Regan delayed the strategic cooperation treaty between Israel and the United States in response. What a heavy blow! Begin did not worry. He called for the United States ambassador, Sam Lewis, and said to him: “Is Israel a vassal state? A banana republic? This government is made up of people who fought, endangered their lives and suffered greatly. You may not and you cannot frighten us with threats and punishments. You do not have the right to punish Israel. We lived here 3700 years without an agreement with the United States and we will continue to live here without it for another 3700.”
Mr. Prime Minister, Obama is weak and far from being Regan. Israel today is much stronger than it was during Begin’s time. What is needed is the ability to stand strong and the courage to act.
The time has come for your speech. But not a speech of apprehension and concessions. It is time to tell the world the truth: the concept of a Palestinian State has collapsed. Such a state will not be established between the sea and the Jordan River. Not today, not ever. You have to show the world the delegitimizing war against Israel. You have to declare that Israel has ceased to stand on the sidelines. We are returning fire. We are beginning the counterattack.
This week it was reported that you told your party members: I am alone, alone, alone!,
when facing international pressures.
Mr. Prime Minister, you are not alone. If you find courage within you, if you tell the truth and lead us in strength and steadfastness, you will find us all behind you.
That is the reason you are in charge.