I planned so many articles while I was in Shirat Hayam in Gush Katif, and drew so many conclusions: about the conceptions that failed; about the leadership in the field that fought for its own survival, instead of for Gush Katif; about rabbis who sent their students to perpetrate the crime of expulsion. There is much moral stocktaking to do now and many issues must be clarified in-depth. Who is really the enemy and from what direction will he come to attack us? Is it the right thing to continue to enlist in the army now? What should be our attitude to this state that is devouring us?
However, after four policemen dragged me away and dumped me in a bus, and after I took a last furtive look at the sun setting on Shirat Yayam, I said the blessing Baruch Dayan Ha'emet, made a ritual tearing of my shirt, wiped away a tear, and said: That's it. I'm not now going to beat on anyone else's breast. Now we have to advance, gather up the tremendous energies that were dispersed in every direction, and concentrate them on a single task - to conquer the hill, to gain leadership of the nation. Now is not the time to die honorably. We must conquer the hill and become the authority that gives the orders.
Everything is clear now. We have seen the monster in all its ugliness and deceit. I was mistaken and I misled others when I said there wouldn't be disengagement because we wouldn't let them do it. I was mistaken and I request forgiveness. In the Israeli dictatorship, you can't fight without employing violence. It is impossible to defeat terror without employing terror, and since we're not built to do this, we actually let them get away with it. If we don't conquer the hill, then there will be many more disengagements.
I don't mean that we should give up the struggle. We have to fight for every outpost and every home, but these are only delaying tactics. The evil people, using our money and our children recruited into their army, with their UPVs in the air and their destructive weapons on the ground, with their riot police thugs, Border Guards, GSS and police, these evil people with their grand expulsion army and all the state organizations that they robbed us of, will always win.
We have no alternative: We can be wiped out or take over the leadership. We can die or take the hill. And now this is clearer than ever.
We have to gather up all the energies, frustration, pain and anger. We have to gather our wonderful youngsters and our tremendous public, and direct them towards the 137,000 people who will, in a short time, elect the next leader of the State of Israel.
137,000 - this is the number of people appearing in the Likud official list of voters. Sharon is employing delaying tactics, but in the final analysis, primaries will be held in the near future. If every frustrated youth, if every Jew who was expelled from his home, if every grieving mother, if all of us understand at last that this is the real battlefield for the leadership of the state, and instead of taking the bull by its tail, we take it by its horns, if we reach every single one of the 137,000 Likudniks, as we did in the Likud members referendum, but with far greater spiritual and emotional strength - then we can achieve a strategic result.
I've learned my lesson and I no longer promise victory, even though I'm sure that in the end we will triumph. However, a strategic result in the leadership arena means the absolute reversal of the trend. You thought you had destroyed the belief-based public and buried it in the sand dunes of Katif - and now it is rising up and liberating the state from your clutches.
A strategic result, even if we don't win this time (and again, I certainly think that we can win), means that our young people won't have to play cat-and-mouse games with the army, but will have assumed the vantage point of leadership. Such a strategic result will cause an absolute change to Israeli consciousness.
This is what we're taking about now: join Manhigut Yehudit, go through a rapid course, receive an operational file with a list of names and addresses, and don't leave your assigned Likud member until you've persuaded him to vote for a leadership that has a G-d.
That's what it's all about. To die or to conquer the hill.
However, after four policemen dragged me away and dumped me in a bus, and after I took a last furtive look at the sun setting on Shirat Yayam, I said the blessing Baruch Dayan Ha'emet, made a ritual tearing of my shirt, wiped away a tear, and said: That's it. I'm not now going to beat on anyone else's breast. Now we have to advance, gather up the tremendous energies that were dispersed in every direction, and concentrate them on a single task - to conquer the hill, to gain leadership of the nation. Now is not the time to die honorably. We must conquer the hill and become the authority that gives the orders.
Everything is clear now. We have seen the monster in all its ugliness and deceit. I was mistaken and I misled others when I said there wouldn't be disengagement because we wouldn't let them do it. I was mistaken and I request forgiveness. In the Israeli dictatorship, you can't fight without employing violence. It is impossible to defeat terror without employing terror, and since we're not built to do this, we actually let them get away with it. If we don't conquer the hill, then there will be many more disengagements.
I don't mean that we should give up the struggle. We have to fight for every outpost and every home, but these are only delaying tactics. The evil people, using our money and our children recruited into their army, with their UPVs in the air and their destructive weapons on the ground, with their riot police thugs, Border Guards, GSS and police, these evil people with their grand expulsion army and all the state organizations that they robbed us of, will always win.
We have no alternative: We can be wiped out or take over the leadership. We can die or take the hill. And now this is clearer than ever.
We have to gather up all the energies, frustration, pain and anger. We have to gather our wonderful youngsters and our tremendous public, and direct them towards the 137,000 people who will, in a short time, elect the next leader of the State of Israel.
137,000 - this is the number of people appearing in the Likud official list of voters. Sharon is employing delaying tactics, but in the final analysis, primaries will be held in the near future. If every frustrated youth, if every Jew who was expelled from his home, if every grieving mother, if all of us understand at last that this is the real battlefield for the leadership of the state, and instead of taking the bull by its tail, we take it by its horns, if we reach every single one of the 137,000 Likudniks, as we did in the Likud members referendum, but with far greater spiritual and emotional strength - then we can achieve a strategic result.
I've learned my lesson and I no longer promise victory, even though I'm sure that in the end we will triumph. However, a strategic result in the leadership arena means the absolute reversal of the trend. You thought you had destroyed the belief-based public and buried it in the sand dunes of Katif - and now it is rising up and liberating the state from your clutches.
A strategic result, even if we don't win this time (and again, I certainly think that we can win), means that our young people won't have to play cat-and-mouse games with the army, but will have assumed the vantage point of leadership. Such a strategic result will cause an absolute change to Israeli consciousness.
This is what we're taking about now: join Manhigut Yehudit, go through a rapid course, receive an operational file with a list of names and addresses, and don't leave your assigned Likud member until you've persuaded him to vote for a leadership that has a G-d.
That's what it's all about. To die or to conquer the hill.