It was the summer of 2006, Israeli leaders’ egregious Disengagement from Gaza a year earlier had emboldened Hezbollah to ambush IDF soldiers on patrol along the border in a gamble to force the release their Lebanese brothers in arms being held in Israeli prisons.
In return Israel launched both a ground invasion and naval blockade. Hezbollah retaliated raining down thousands of rockets on Northern Israel leaving over 150 Jewish lives lost, thousands more wounded and residents evacuating to safer ground for the duration of the war.
In Buffalo, my hometown, where I was staying for the summer, more than a thousand Jews gathered for an evening with Israel’s Consul General in New York City who was crisscrossing the state to raise awareness and funds for our beleaguered fellow Jews living under fire.
The Consul, whom I’m sure meant well, began his talk by going over the various wars the State of Israel had endured to date, saying after each one “and then something happened.” What that was, he never explained.
Of course what happened was what didn’t happen and that encapsulates the missing message about sovereignty.
Nadia, co-chair and founder of Women in Green and The Sovereignty Movement was my guest last week for The Architecture of True Peace online events for Israel Crown Heights Women for the Safety and Integrity of Israel is hosting this month. Her topic: The Sovereign Path Forward.
With a shout, Gevald!, at the signing of the Oslo Accords, Nadia and her mother-in-law Ruth, z”t understood immediately the treaty would take Israel right back to the Auschwitz Line - Abba Eban’s metaphor for describing Israel’s dangerously indefensible pre-Six Day War Green Line borders.
Sadly the powers that be blinded themselves to Eban’s imagery, abandoning secure borders, recklessly putting Jewish lives in danger, bringing down one tragedy after another, culminating in the catastrophic pogrom on October 7th, r”l.
Thus we cannot comprehend why Prime Minister Netanyahu would order our brave troops to withdraw from the territorial and security gains made in Gaza fighting to defeat Hamas.
Does the Prime Minister not recall the Lubavitcher Rebbe’s warning against relying on the Bar Lev Line, calling it an outmoded Maginot-like concept that would be ineffective in holding back the enemy. Using high pressure water cannons, the Egyptians were able to break through the Bar Lev Line sand wall within only a few hours at the start of the Yom Kippur War.
The Bar Lev Line was easily washed away into the sea; will the Prime Minister and his Security Cabinet then put millions of Jewsh lives in danger by relying on a Yellow Line in the sand, an imaginary one no less, to prevent another invasion by Hamas and other Arab/Muslim terrorists?!
We are at a loss to understand the Prime Minister’s eagerness in setting a tone for President Trump to believe he can unilaterally take over the Gaza Strip for himself and his business cronies, let alone offer anti-Semitic Qatar, Egypt and every other Arab neighbor in the region an invitation to oversee the area's administration.
Has the Prime Minister forgotten that these are the same nations that financed October 7th, that harbor Hamas' leaders and continue to badger Jews and Israel at every step?!
Hamas has violated the “ceasefire” repeatedly with zero repercussions from Mr. Chairman of the Peace Board - who not only lashed out at Israel for eliminating Hamas senior military commander Ra’ad Sa’ad over the weekend but also makes no secret that he intends for the Gaza Strip to become the pathway for a Palestinian State!
Which leads us back to Nadia Matar and co-chair Yehudit Katzover’s decision in 2011 that it was time to focus on putting Sovereignty - the something that should have happened after the Six Day War - back on the map.
“Rise up and walk through the length and breadth of the Land, for I have given it to you.” (B’reishis 13:17)
From the Lubavitcher Rebbe’s letter to Israeli poet Uri Tzvi Greenberg in 1977:
“When we confidently demonstrate the truth of our claim to the Land of Israel, the opposition will fall away.
“Since Judaism emphasizes that action, rather than mere theory, is of primary importance, our focus should be on the concrete steps needed to establish our Jewish presence throughout the Land of Israel.
“Therefore, we must establish Jewish settlements in all areas of the Land of Israel, especially those that are most contested.
“By following this path, not only will the Nations of the world not protest, but they will even come to assist the Jewish People.”
“Shlomo HaMelech ruled over the whole region west of the Euphrates River, from Tiphsah to Gaza, over all the kings west of the Euphrates; and he had peace on all sides around him.
"During Shlomo HaMelech’s reign, the Jewish People dwelt in safety, each person under their own grapevine and fig tree, from Dan to Beersheva.” (1 Kings 5:4-5)
Tamar Edelstein is coordinator of CROWN HEIGHTS WOMEN FOR THE SAFETY AND INTEGRITY OF ISRAEL - Uniting Jewish Women around the World -Under the Lubavitcher Rebbe’s Directives for True Peace
To watch a replay of The Sovereign Path Forward with Nadia Matar: https://us02web.zoom.us/rec/share/LwzbksftdE2QtnXWQn7d0IyT9E-3oMO3yqq3WGWqujxJkRdFMRt7HJOs50Dp8cQl.ntMMd5nNg2FXneWD?startTime=1765301304000 Passcode: s=7!Dv59