New York State Assemblyman Dov Hikind is in Israel for three days, with a busload of other Jews from the U.S., and their message is: “The Jewish presence in Judea, Samaria and Jerusalem is growing and will continue to grow – and we want to be a part of it.”
A state assemblyman from Brooklyn since 1983, Hikind told Israel National Radio’s Yishai Fleisher on Monday, “Obama, Clinton, and the others – we will continue to give our message to those who just don’t get it, and that is that these communities will continue to grow and get stronger, regardless of the position taken by any American president. There will continue to be more and more people here as pressure is applied to Israel.”
In addition to carrying this message, a more practical purpose of the quick visit is to look into possibilities of building or buying homes in eastern Jerusalem and/or Judea and Samaria. To this end, the group visited Samaria on Monday, stopping off in Elon Moreh, Itamar, Rechelim and the Gilad Farm (Havat Gilad, east of Kedumim).
At Gilad Farm, they met with two men who can help them with their desire to purchase property or build a home: Moshe Zar, owner of some 600 dunams (150 acres) of land in the area, whose son Gilad was murdered by Palestinian terrorists in June 2001 in a roadside shooting just a mile away, and Gershon Mesika, Mayor of the Samaria Regional Council. In some of the Samaria communities, the only signature missing for approval of a new home is that of Mesika – who is readily inclined to give it. For information, click here.
The group also visited Nof Tzion, a new Jewish neighborhood in eastern Jerusalem, too look into possibilities of living there as well. On Tuesday, they were scheduled to arrive in Shdemah, between Jerusalem and Gush Etzion, where Hikind will plant an olive tree in support of the ongoing struggle to keep Shdema in Jewish hands.
Accompanying Hikind on the trip are “all types,” he said. “We have a comedy writer from Los Angeles and his family, businesspeople, teachers, rabbis, people with and without yarmulkes – all sorts of people who want to be a part of this. We will also be running another trip soon of American elected officials, both Jewish and non-Jewish; they have to see with their own eyes that the proposed two-state solution is not only a non-starter because Israel has no peace partner on the Arab side, but that it is also a major danger to the State of Israel.”
Discounting Obama’s policies regarding Israel almost totally, Hikind was only slightly more generous to Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu: “He’s got to stand by the positions he took as a candidate, meaning to recognize the right of Jews to build in their communities and to expand; we’re not talking about new communities, but to say that you can’t grow or expand your home is absolutely preposterous.”
A no-holds-barred Zionist, Hikind described in glowing terms the determination and resolve of the Jews in Judea and Samaria: “The people in these communities, they just move ahead and do what they have to do!... For us, what a pleasure it is to fill the rooms in the hotel in Ariel with our group!”