Ronen's group is calling for unified national support for Jewish rights to settle anywhere in the Land of Israel. Ronen claims that the pioneers of Hevron are no different from the pioneers who founded the Kibbutz movement.
codebase="http://activex.microsoft.com/activex/controls/mplayer/en/nsmp2inf.cab#Version=6,4,7,1112"
standby="Loading Microsoft Windows Media Player components..."
type="application/x-oleobject">
pluginspage="http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/download/"
filename="http://www.israelnn.com/data/radio/asx2006/02/06/rl_363.asx"
src="http://www.israelnn.com/data/radio/asx2006/02/06/rl_363.asx"
Name=MediaPlayer
ShowControls=1
ShowDisplay=1
ShowStatusBar=1
width=300
height=69>
Press "Play" above to listen to interview with Tzafrir Ronen.
Tzafrir Ronen [pictured above] was raised on the ideals of the Labor party and the secular Kibbutz movement, having served as senior campaign advisor for Yitzchak Rabin in the 1992 elections and as a founding member of a Kibbutz at the site of the ancient Jewish village of Gilgal in the Jordan Valley.
Ronen says that in the wake of the Oslo Accords, he has gradually come to believe that the Labor party has turned against the very ideals that it was founded on. "It takes time for a person who grows up in the Labor party to understand that today, Labor is an anti-Zionist party," says Ronen.
Ronen expressed strong criticisms of the current state of affairs in the Israeli government. "I am a third-generation Israeli. Israel has always been a parliamentary democracy; today Israel is looking more like a South American regime,"
Ronen told Israel National Radio's Yishai Fleisher and Alex Traiman.
Ronen explained that the Sharon government was elected in 2003 based on a firm anti-Disengagement platform, with Sharon emphatically stating that the fate of Netzarim (an isolated Jewish town in Gaza) would be the same as the fate of Tel Aviv. He said that Sharon was mandated by the people of Israel to fulfill those campaign promises, but he changed his position, and essentially stole those votes in order to pursue the Disengagement Plan. In addition, Tzafrir feels, Sharon ignored the results of an internal Likud party referendum that opposed the disengagement, a referendum that he called for and promised to abide by.
"Arik Sharon stole mandates, resulting in the destruction of democracy, and the media supported him," Ronen stated, adding, "Sharon fired two of his ministers, Elon and Lieberman, without a vote and without a reason. If one can fire a minister every other day, in order to get a majority vote, then what kind of regime is that?"
Ronen hopes that Israelis will take advantage of the upcoming elections to make their voices heard and right the wrongs perpetrated by the Sharon administration:
"Olmert's party is made up of stolen votes from the Likud mandate. In Israel, we vote for the party, not the person; that's the system. Olmert should not be the acting prime minister. The acting prime minister should have been selected from the party from which Sharon was selected, which is the Likud."
Ronen claims that Attorney General Menachem Mezuz's decision not to categorize Sharon as "permanently incapacitated" was made in order to prevent the appointment of an acting prime minister from within the Likud party, as the law dictates.
"There is no free media in Israel. The media are slaves to politics. Ask all the academia, professors and experts - Why is there no overall news coverage of Hevron? The NRG Maariv website published a reported conflict between our group and left wing activists while we were in Hevron, but in reality nothing happened. The news media are a bunch of liars," explained Ronen.
According to Ronen now is the time to unite as a nation in support of Jewish rights to live and develop the Land of Israel:
"Left and right are very old-fashioned terms. I belong to the Kibbutz movement; I established Kibbutz Gilgal in the Jordan valley. Either we feel that this country belongs to us because the 'Land of Israel' belongs to the 'People of Israel,' or it does not. Either you belong to this country or you don't."
"For two thousand years we waited for a chance to come back to Zion. What is Zion? Not Tel Aviv and Givat Olga [in central Israel]; it is Bethlehem and Hevron, where we started out. A nation that is willing to give up the land of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Rachel to our enemies is a nation that will stop being a nation. I am not talking about borders; I am talking about giving up the dream," Ronen stated.
codebase="http://activex.microsoft.com/activex/controls/mplayer/en/nsmp2inf.cab#Version=6,4,7,1112"
standby="Loading Microsoft Windows Media Player components..."
type="application/x-oleobject">
pluginspage="http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/download/"
filename="http://www.israelnn.com/data/radio/asx2006/02/06/rl_363.asx"
src="http://www.israelnn.com/data/radio/asx2006/02/06/rl_363.asx"
Name=MediaPlayer
ShowControls=1
ShowDisplay=1
ShowStatusBar=1
width=300
height=69>
Press "Play" above to listen to interview with Tzafrir Ronen.
Tzafrir Ronen [pictured above] was raised on the ideals of the Labor party and the secular Kibbutz movement, having served as senior campaign advisor for Yitzchak Rabin in the 1992 elections and as a founding member of a Kibbutz at the site of the ancient Jewish village of Gilgal in the Jordan Valley.
Ronen says that in the wake of the Oslo Accords, he has gradually come to believe that the Labor party has turned against the very ideals that it was founded on. "It takes time for a person who grows up in the Labor party to understand that today, Labor is an anti-Zionist party," says Ronen.
Kibbutz Gilgal located in the Jordan Valley
Ronen expressed strong criticisms of the current state of affairs in the Israeli government. "I am a third-generation Israeli. Israel has always been a parliamentary democracy; today Israel is looking more like a South American regime,"
Ronen told Israel National Radio's Yishai Fleisher and Alex Traiman.
Ronen explained that the Sharon government was elected in 2003 based on a firm anti-Disengagement platform, with Sharon emphatically stating that the fate of Netzarim (an isolated Jewish town in Gaza) would be the same as the fate of Tel Aviv. He said that Sharon was mandated by the people of Israel to fulfill those campaign promises, but he changed his position, and essentially stole those votes in order to pursue the Disengagement Plan. In addition, Tzafrir feels, Sharon ignored the results of an internal Likud party referendum that opposed the disengagement, a referendum that he called for and promised to abide by.
"Arik Sharon stole mandates, resulting in the destruction of democracy, and the media supported him," Ronen stated, adding, "Sharon fired two of his ministers, Elon and Lieberman, without a vote and without a reason. If one can fire a minister every other day, in order to get a majority vote, then what kind of regime is that?"
Ronen hopes that Israelis will take advantage of the upcoming elections to make their voices heard and right the wrongs perpetrated by the Sharon administration:
"Olmert's party is made up of stolen votes from the Likud mandate. In Israel, we vote for the party, not the person; that's the system. Olmert should not be the acting prime minister. The acting prime minister should have been selected from the party from which Sharon was selected, which is the Likud."
Ronen claims that Attorney General Menachem Mezuz's decision not to categorize Sharon as "permanently incapacitated" was made in order to prevent the appointment of an acting prime minister from within the Likud party, as the law dictates.
"There is no free media in Israel. The media are slaves to politics. Ask all the academia, professors and experts - Why is there no overall news coverage of Hevron? The NRG Maariv website published a reported conflict between our group and left wing activists while we were in Hevron, but in reality nothing happened. The news media are a bunch of liars," explained Ronen.
According to Ronen now is the time to unite as a nation in support of Jewish rights to live and develop the Land of Israel:
"Left and right are very old-fashioned terms. I belong to the Kibbutz movement; I established Kibbutz Gilgal in the Jordan valley. Either we feel that this country belongs to us because the 'Land of Israel' belongs to the 'People of Israel,' or it does not. Either you belong to this country or you don't."
"For two thousand years we waited for a chance to come back to Zion. What is Zion? Not Tel Aviv and Givat Olga [in central Israel]; it is Bethlehem and Hevron, where we started out. A nation that is willing to give up the land of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Rachel to our enemies is a nation that will stop being a nation. I am not talking about borders; I am talking about giving up the dream," Ronen stated.