Pinchas Wallerstein, one of the founders of Ofrah, the first modern Jewish town in southern Samaria (Shomron), announced Monday morning to his fellow members of the Yesha Council of Jewish Communities in Judea and Samaria that he is leaving his position as Director-General. Like another long-time Yesha leader, MK Yaakov Katz (Ketzaleh), Wallerstein was known for his trademark cane.
He had previously served as Chairman, a position now filled by Danny Dayan – and cited the “overlapping responsibilities” between the two positions as his main reason for leaving. Wallerstein has been a leader of the Jewish settlement enterprise in Judea and Samaria for 35 years. Although he called for civil disobedience against the Disengagement in 2005, saying that people must be willing to be arrested and even risk their lives in their efforts to physically stop the abandonment of parts of the Land of Israel, he has lately become known for a more “State-minded” approach.
He was one of the leaders of the controversial Kfar Maimon event just prior to the Disengagement from Gaza. The Yesha Council had organized a mass rally not far from the entrance to Gush Katif, attended by tens of thousands of people, and at which it was promised that an unstoppable charge towards Gush Katif would be made. However, Wallerstein later admitted that this was never actually the plan, and that it was merely a show of strength and an outlet to unleash public frustrations, in order not to “defeat the IDF.”
Wallerstein’s letter of resignation states:
“After not insignificant hesitations and difficulties, I have decided to leave my positions in the Yesha Council, both as a member of the secretariat and the Director-General. I am doing this primarily in order to enable Danny Dayan to make his imprint on the Council’s activities…Wallerstein then defends his position opposing the yeshiva student-soldiers’ protest against being ordered to evict Jews from Yesha:“I am well aware of the critical nature of this period, and of the need to concentrate our forces and efforts under a responsible leadership, in order to face the decrees threatening the settlement enterprise. And I am convinced that there is no body other than the Council that can lead the extra-Parliamentary struggle. The reason for my decision to leave stems mainly from my inability to define my job boundaries without impinging on those of the Chairman.”
“In the debate whether to condemn the behavior of the soldiers at a military formation [during which Wallerstein issued a condemnation in the Council's name which he was later forced to retract - ed.], I did not hear of any Council members who justified it. There were those among us who thought we should not respond, and there were those who thought it was a foolish and infantile act – and I thought that under the circumstances, we should react, and strongly. And I am still of this opinion. We must act to ensure that the IDF is not involved in political acts of evictions and destruction, but we must not allow soldiers in uniform to do things that are liable to strike at the sanctity of the IDF.Wallerstein is not willing to compromise on his above position even for the sake of “unity,” but at the same time says he will never come out against the Yesha Council:“I believe that we must not ignore any abuse of the IDF or its soldiers. Similarly, we must not be silent about any attack on our leaders, or in the face of the ‘Price Tag’ approach [in which residents avenge police/army actions against Jews by striking out similarly against Arabs – ed.]. Our silence in these matters will harm us. This is not a question of tactics, but rather a genuine position that views the State of Israel as ‘the beginning of the sprouting of our Redemption,’ and that therefore any action that means a weakening of the State, and certainly of the IDF, from any direction, cannot be forgiven.”
“If we do not take an unambiguous position regarding our ideals, this will harm our ability to teach our values to the youth; we will be leaving ‘tactical vagueness’ in order to gain ‘unity of the camp.’“I do not intend to stand by the wayside, and I intend to make my position known whenever possible. However, under no circumstances will I come out against the Yesha Council. There is no doubt that the leadership’s responsibility vis-à-vis the developments that are liable to occur require careful consideration and national responsibility. I am confident that you will have the strength to meet these challenges.
“This will be the first time in my adult life that I will not be part of the leadership of the public to which I have had the privilege of belonging. I thank all those who enabled me to represent them and share the enormous burden. In the words of the Prophet, ‘Let us be strong for our nation and the cities of our G-d, and G-d will do what is right in His eyes.’”