"We have forgotten our destiny," people are complaining - and five new Jewish settlement sites are being planned in Judea and Samaria.
Families are being collected and are preparing to become the pioneers who will start five new Jewish towns in Judea and Samaria in the coming weeks and months. First and foremost will be Givat HaEitam, in the northern end of Gush Etzion's Efrat, overlooking Solomon's Pools just south of Bethlehem. The goal is not to start another hilltop outpost, but rather a full-fledged neighborhood in an outlying area of an already-existing town.
Yehudit Katzover of the Land of Israel Faithful explains: "We have forgotten the basics. Everything now has become checkpoints and fences and retreats. We must be connected with the Land of Israel, and not let our enemies take it over!"
Givat HaEitam is an urgent front-line location in that struggle, Katzover explains: "The cursed wall tearing apart our Land right down its middle is planned to be built inside an area that belongs to Efrat. They have already begun work, and soon Eitam - which was planned for 2,500 housing units for Efrat! - will be in Palestinian hands, if we don't stop it."
Five families have already signed up for Givat HaEitam. On July 25, the day after the fast of Tisha B'Av, a mass ascent to the location is planned. Among the thousands who are expected to take part, the five families are not planning just to visit or to make a protest march, but rather to take up residence - unless the army stops them, in which case they plan to try again.
Four other locations are being planned as well. Two of them, Elon Moreh and Kedumim, are in the Shomron, while another one is south of Gush Etzion along the road to Kiryat Arba, and a fourth is in Hashmonaim near Modiin. The organizers have experience in grassroots settlement campaigns; they organized the construction of 21 outposts a year and a half ago in various locations throughout Judea and Samaria.
Land of Israel Faithful spokesperson Datia Yitzchaki, formerly of Kfar Yam in Gush Katif and now living in Efrat, told Arutz-7, "We've had enough hiding behind protective walls and defensiveness and withdrawals. It's time to reclaim the pioneering spirit we once had, and start populating the Land again."
"It is practically two years since the expulsion... The time for action has come. We have the opportunity to repair. As we face the swamp of despair, corruption, decay and loss of path in which the country has been sinking in recent years, a new breeze is beginning to blow - one of values, Judaism and Zionism declaring out loud: The Nation of Israel Lives! ... We can now enter the driver's seat and turn the wheel in a different direction. There is no better place to start the change than from the northern Shomron - and Homesh first! The area [unlike Gush Katif] is still under IDF control, the roads and sidewalks are still there, the IDF continues to patrol, and the trees and flowers continue to bloom, waiting for the Jews to return and water them... Our leaders' pride and shame at admitting their mistake is the only thing holding us up. But ever since we began our campaign to return to Homesh, a new spirit has begun to take hold in the public, one that says that the terrible fiasco of two years ago can and must be fixed. It's just a matter of time; it is up to us."