\"The right-wing has no alternative to Oslo.\" So has said Shimon Peres many times in the past, and in general, Israel\'s left wing continually challenges the right wing with this statement. Arutz-7 Israel National Radio, rising to the challenge, brought together over 20 leading thinkers of Israel\'s nationalist camp and asked them for their alternative to the Oslo process. Excerpts from two responses appear below, and those of others are planned to be included here during the course of the week.
Uri Elitzur, former head of Prime Minister Netanyahu\'s Bureau and the ex-editor of Nekudah:
\"The left is correct, we don\'t have an answer. I\'m not sure if an answer has to be provided, but we must at least recognize that the left is providing a diplomatic answer, while we are not... Two major questions face us: What will be the final borders of Israel, and what will happen with the Arab residents of Yesha? We can\'t avoid these questions, and they are intertwined. We haven\'t given an answer to these questions because we don\'t want to - because if we say that we want our final borders to include all of Judea and Samaria, then the Arabs living there become our headache...
\"For the short-term, I see a form of autonomy… Regarding the Arabs of Yesha, we must say clearly, yes, they are our responsibility. This will be a heavy price for us to pay in order to hold onto the Land of Israel, but we have to pay it. This doesn\'t mean that I would rule out transfer, and I don\'t think it\'s an unethical solution, but I do think that it\'s not realistic for the next few decades at least. We have to be the body that is responsible for their autonomy. There are many variations as to how such an arrangement would work - taxes, voting rights, etc. - but the main thing is to say that we refuse to give up on the Land of Israel and that we are willing to admit that these two million Arabs of Eretz Yisrael are here and they are our headache.\"
Kedumim Mayor Daniella Weiss:
\"The claim of the left-wing that we have no alternative is wrong. We are not seeking an alternative, because we have a way, a path: The Land of Israel is all ours, and we have to settle it, and we must continue the process of the Jews\' return to their land, as told in the Prophets. We have merited to see the Land become more and more settled, and especially since the Six Day War, when we were allowed to return to the important sites of Jerusalem, Hevron, Shechem, Beit El, Jericho, and thank G-d, the verse is being fulfilled, \'You, mountains of Israel, shall bring forth your bounty to the People of Israel who have returned here.\' ... We simply have to add more effort, more study, more education, to redeem more lands... We don\'t have to weaken ourselves by talking about an \"alternative,\" just because they try to trap us with this question. Not every stupid question has to be answered. Thank G-d, we have a strong direction and path, and it need not be replaced. When you have something good, it doesn\'t have to be switched. We must simply continue... If specific problems arise, such as Arab terrorism, then we have to deal with them. If anything, this problem helps us see even more clearly that there is simply no room in this Land for another national entity. G-d, in His great mercy, is helping us to see that there is no possibility of giving these murderers any form of a presence here, whether it be autonomy or something else. What has to be done is simply to take strong action - as Arik Sharon began to do but he needs to be encouraged to continue - against this Palestinian Authority until it falls apart.
[What will then come in its place?, she was asked.] Joshua, when he led the People of Israel into the Land 3,000 years ago, and our rabbis throughout the generations, have taught us that every non-Jew who completely accepts the Jewish people as masters of this Land may remain here... Whoever doesn\'t, may not stay here. Those who would wage war against us, we have to fight against them. We don\'t have to come up with new diplomatic solutions beyond those that our Rabbis and Joshua have already set for us. Why do we have to come up with new ideas? What, would we dream of formulating, Heaven forbid, a new Torah or a new set of commandments? There is no need to come up with anything new, because \"the Torah of G-d is perfect and revives the soul\" (Psalms) - it revives the soul when it is perfect, meaning when we take it in its entirety, with all its components - the personal ones, the communal ones, the social ones, the national ones, and the universal ones - and then it revives the soul. But to take it apart? To divide the Land, to divide the Torah, Heaven forbid? Why do we have to break apart this wholeness? Why do we have to search for alternatives? There is one wholeness, and it is based in the Torah.\"
Uri Elitzur, former head of Prime Minister Netanyahu\'s Bureau and the ex-editor of Nekudah:
\"The left is correct, we don\'t have an answer. I\'m not sure if an answer has to be provided, but we must at least recognize that the left is providing a diplomatic answer, while we are not... Two major questions face us: What will be the final borders of Israel, and what will happen with the Arab residents of Yesha? We can\'t avoid these questions, and they are intertwined. We haven\'t given an answer to these questions because we don\'t want to - because if we say that we want our final borders to include all of Judea and Samaria, then the Arabs living there become our headache...
\"For the short-term, I see a form of autonomy… Regarding the Arabs of Yesha, we must say clearly, yes, they are our responsibility. This will be a heavy price for us to pay in order to hold onto the Land of Israel, but we have to pay it. This doesn\'t mean that I would rule out transfer, and I don\'t think it\'s an unethical solution, but I do think that it\'s not realistic for the next few decades at least. We have to be the body that is responsible for their autonomy. There are many variations as to how such an arrangement would work - taxes, voting rights, etc. - but the main thing is to say that we refuse to give up on the Land of Israel and that we are willing to admit that these two million Arabs of Eretz Yisrael are here and they are our headache.\"
Kedumim Mayor Daniella Weiss:
\"The claim of the left-wing that we have no alternative is wrong. We are not seeking an alternative, because we have a way, a path: The Land of Israel is all ours, and we have to settle it, and we must continue the process of the Jews\' return to their land, as told in the Prophets. We have merited to see the Land become more and more settled, and especially since the Six Day War, when we were allowed to return to the important sites of Jerusalem, Hevron, Shechem, Beit El, Jericho, and thank G-d, the verse is being fulfilled, \'You, mountains of Israel, shall bring forth your bounty to the People of Israel who have returned here.\' ... We simply have to add more effort, more study, more education, to redeem more lands... We don\'t have to weaken ourselves by talking about an \"alternative,\" just because they try to trap us with this question. Not every stupid question has to be answered. Thank G-d, we have a strong direction and path, and it need not be replaced. When you have something good, it doesn\'t have to be switched. We must simply continue... If specific problems arise, such as Arab terrorism, then we have to deal with them. If anything, this problem helps us see even more clearly that there is simply no room in this Land for another national entity. G-d, in His great mercy, is helping us to see that there is no possibility of giving these murderers any form of a presence here, whether it be autonomy or something else. What has to be done is simply to take strong action - as Arik Sharon began to do but he needs to be encouraged to continue - against this Palestinian Authority until it falls apart.
[What will then come in its place?, she was asked.] Joshua, when he led the People of Israel into the Land 3,000 years ago, and our rabbis throughout the generations, have taught us that every non-Jew who completely accepts the Jewish people as masters of this Land may remain here... Whoever doesn\'t, may not stay here. Those who would wage war against us, we have to fight against them. We don\'t have to come up with new diplomatic solutions beyond those that our Rabbis and Joshua have already set for us. Why do we have to come up with new ideas? What, would we dream of formulating, Heaven forbid, a new Torah or a new set of commandments? There is no need to come up with anything new, because \"the Torah of G-d is perfect and revives the soul\" (Psalms) - it revives the soul when it is perfect, meaning when we take it in its entirety, with all its components - the personal ones, the communal ones, the social ones, the national ones, and the universal ones - and then it revives the soul. But to take it apart? To divide the Land, to divide the Torah, Heaven forbid? Why do we have to break apart this wholeness? Why do we have to search for alternatives? There is one wholeness, and it is based in the Torah.\"