I remember well the time when the whole world looked at Israel with admiration, when our policy was clear, our resolve resolute and our military was respected as the best in the world. Long before the rest of the world woke up to the peril of Muslim fanaticism, Israel has sampled its onslaught again and again. Each time, an unhesitating, immediate, sharp response put them in their place.


After the war of 1973, the president of Egypt, Anwar Sadat, realised that the humiliation and losses suffered by his country were too great and must never be repeated and that a peace with Israel would be the better option. His de jure recognition of Israel's legitimate existence culminated in a peace treaty. King Hussein of Jordan followed suit de facto and, with the northern border with Lebanon remaining quiet, a sort of uneasy calm descended on the area.


Only the devious Egyptian, Yasser Arafat, driven by his ambition to become the leader of a newly created independent state, continued to ferment unrest among the Arab

Determined Israeli leaders once maintained the status quo.

population. He also convinced the United Nations that there exists a people called "Palestinians," of which he is a son, who deserve to have their own homeland. Interesting how dictators, strangers to a land like the cuckoo, manage to take it over. The Austrian Adolf Hitler did it in Germany, and both were terrorists in their own way.


But determined Israeli leaders, good diplomacy and the military might of Israel maintained the status quo.


Just like the results of a sustained commercial advertising campaign, people begin to believe the truth of the claims for the product. So, the so-called Palestinians - especially the residents of the Gaza Strip, many of whose grandparents settled there after World War II because of the large international aid to the area - have been so indoctrinated that they blindly believe the lies disseminated by their leaders. They were told that they are a Palestinian nation whose country has been hijacked by the Jews. However, no such entity ever existed. Their campaign for a homeland is directed at Israeli soil. That has found resonance in many international circles and gained such momentum, such that only a strong and resolute Israeli government can put the genie back into the bottle.


But for the past few years, under the leadership of Ehud Barak, Ariel Sharon and now Ehud Olmert, and their corrupt ministers, the government has capitulated to the demands of the international community, now led by the US President George W. Bush and his Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. It is evident by the reversal of their previous policy that they are no longer particularly interested in the welfare of the State of Israel, but rather in the economic and - with the new developments in Iran - the strategic advantages of aligning with the Saudis and other oil producers.


I have often repeated that countries do not have friends, only interests; and for all the American aid today, we would be dropped like a hot brick if US economics would dictate it. (I should mention here that any US cash for military hardware is given on the understanding that it has to be spent in the US and not with Israel's military industries or elsewhere.)


Former Prime Ministers Yitzchak Rabin and Barak experienced pressure to sign agreements that were to result in reciprocal arrangements. They were fortunately scuttled by Arafat. But what about Sharon and Olmert? Their actions in Gush Katif and Samaria were not made with anybody else's participation and can be compared to an intermarriage that is eroding the strength of the Jewish people, destroying the Jewish homeland from within, when our enemies could not succeed from outside.


It's now more than 18 months since the greatest crime in the history of Israel was perpetrated, not by a bunch of private thugs, but by the government of this country. For the actions in Gush Katif and Samaria I cannot find a more fitting and descriptive adjective than "criminal." Only a radical change of government, and the total removal of the gang of three - Olmert, Tzipi Livni and Amir Peretz - from the corridors of power, can bring about a reversal of what would otherwise be the ‘thin end of the wedge' leading to further expulsions of innocent Jews from their homes and the eventual handing over of large parts of the country to our sworn enemy. And in the long run, even that would not be the end, until the Muslim fundamentalists have succeeded in executing another Holocaust.


Our wonderful and dedicated Zionist young people who yearn to populate the hills and valleys of our ancient homeland are following the lead of some well-meaning, sincere and devoted men and women, whose campaigning often attracted much publicity, but so far has achieved few, if any, of their stated aims. Their futile excursion to the ruins of Homesh under the banner of "Returning to Rebuild" was misguided and doomed from the start. One did not need the brains of the proverbial rocket scientist to anticipate the government response to this well-publicised action. To encourage bringing electric generators and materials with the intention, on this occasion, to rebuild this settlement was an irresponsible act on the part of the organisers. It brought false hope to many of the youngsters who made the trek in the belief that it was for real.


Instead of showing this government up for what it is - the enemy of the people and our Jewish homeland - this campaign achieved the opposite. It was a public relations

The campaign attracted publicity, but achieved few, if any, of its stated aims.

 triumph for the government that ridiculed the participants, treating them like naughty children who insisted - and just for this once received their treat, but under strict constraints of which non-compliance would result in punishment. It has to be viewed as an unnecessary humiliation, a self-inflicted wound. The IDF and police decision to allow the event was less an act of atonement for previous sins, as widely interpreted, than a clever stratagem to try and repair their tarnished image.


I hope and pray that the time will come soon when our brothers and sisters will return to their homes from which they were so cruelly expelled. But I also fervently believe that we must avoid fiascos like that at Homesh. It was counter-productive and damaging to the cause. Instead, we must work to educate the uninformed about the erroneous claims emanating from Gaza and Ramallah, counter their heavy propaganda and, at the same time, convince our own street of the catastrophic consequences if we allow this government to continue with its present policy.