Daniella Weiss, leader of the Nachala movement, has a message for the new government: “We want to continue the Zionist effort.”
Speaking to Arutz Sheva from the growing community of Evyatar, Weiss said that she has no fear that Evyatar will be evacuated.
“I do feel a very heavy burden on my shoulders to promote everything here, to build more, to bring more families,” she said.
Evyatar now has 53 families and hundreds of children.
She is, however, not ignoring the “complicated political situation” with pressures from multiple sectors.
“I cannot shut my eyes and ignore the pressure from all sides,” she said. “But we have to reached a point where to destroy a community of 53 families and with a synagogue and a hall and a kindergarten and nursery and a mikvah that is being build now, we have reached point where things are to a great extent irreversible.”
She is hopeful that Zionism is present in the new government, regardless of where on the political spectrum the party resides.
Her optimism is that ”Zionism is alive in the hearts of the government, whether right, center or left. As we sing in Hatikvah, as long as there is a point of Zionism in the heart, we will continue to live as a nation.”
Yesterday, Weiss met with former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, current leader of the opposition.
He pumped his arm and said, “Yes to Evyatar.”
When asked if she asked him hard questions, such as why he was finally waking up when he had so many years as prime minister to give his approval, she explained that she doesn’t deal in hard questions with political leaders. The answers are always the same: pressure from the US, and the need to be thankful and maintain the close relationship with the American government and politicians.
“I do not deal with calculations. He could do this, he could do that. I’m trying to transfer to the members of the Knesset and to the ministers the feeling of a nation that wants to continue the Zionist effort,” she said.
She invited Netanyahu to visit Evyatar.
“I invited him to come and we shall see. I hope that in the course of the coming days we’ll see Netanyahu. And maybe (Prime Minister Naftali Bennett) and maybe also (Interior Minister Ayelet Shaked). It will be a nice Zionistic celebration.”
To them she has a message: “Zionism is alive on the hills of Samaria.”
“This is what I say to Netanyahu and this is what I saw to Bennett. I say to them, “Listen to the voice of the settlers of Samaria, of the settlers of Judea. We want to continue the Zionist effort.”
She noted that many people see the new community as reminding them of the beginning of the settling of Samaria.
“This is a revival of the spirit of Zionism,” she said.