Generally, when
dignitaries and officials visit Israel, they make a point of stopping at the
Western Wall — the Kotel — and they refrain from invoking Jesus Christ. This is
done out of respect for the fact that Israel is the Jewish State, something the
United States has always recognized.
Over the years, the Wall
stop has become almost a diplomatic ritual: a solemn photo-op that signals
respect for Jewish history and friendship with Israel. To skip it is to make a
statement.
The Making of a Statement
During his October 2025
visit, Vice President J.D. Vance made just such a statement. The official
itinerary, released on October 21, listed a visit to the Wall and a joint press
conference with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. But that is not what
happened.
Instead, Vance went to
the Church of the Holy Sepulchre — a Christian pilgrimage site — where he spoke
openly about Jesus. “I know that Christians have many titles for Jesus Christ,
and one of them is the Prince of Peace,” he told reporters. “And I’d ask all
people of faith, in particular my fellow Christians, to pray that the Prince of
Peace can continue to work a miracle in this region of the world.”
To many, his words might have sounded well-intentioned — a sincere call for peace. But in the context of the Jewish State, invoking Jesus in public remarks was tone-deaf and inappropriate. In diplomatic language, symbols matter. To skip the Wall and choose a Christian site, to publicly invoke Jesus in the Jewish State, is not a neutral act. One analysis noted that “Vance did not visit the Wall, and went instead to honor and pray at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre” — a move seen as a quiet rebuke to Netanyahu amid friction over Israel’s new sovereignty bill.
The truth is, I’m
perfectly fine with Vance visiting a church instead of the Wall — especially
since he did visit the Wall on a previous trip to Israel. But it seemed he was
hammering home a point, and in doing so, crossed a line. Suggesting that people
of faith — which presumably includes Jews — should pray to the “Prince of
Peace” is, frankly, offensive to Jews.
He’s welcome to believe
in any deity he likes. I only wish he respected our beliefs as much as I
respect his right to believe in his. The visit to the church, coupled with a
public call for Jews to pray to Jesus, felt off.
The Sovereignty Bill
What truly drove the
point home, however, was Vance’s attitude toward Israel’s sovereignty bill. The
Knesset had just granted preliminary approval to a measure ending the state of
martial law in Judea and Samaria — a step many see as Israel finally asserting
sovereignty over its own heartland.
Israel deliberately left
the status of these territories vague after capturing them in 1967, hoping to
keep the door open for negotiations. But after decades of failed peace
processes, terror, and external meddling, many Israelis now believe it’s time
to end the ambiguity. Declaring sovereignty, for us, is an act of
self-preservation.
The world, after all, keeps
declaring that our land is “Palestine.” Yet these are Jewish ancestral
territories, won in a defensive war. There is no reason why Israel should not claim them formally as part of the Jewish State.
Vance’s Dismissal
Asked by reporters about
the bill, Vance replied:
“That was weird. I was
sort of confused by that… When I asked about it, somebody told me that it was a
political stunt that had no practical significance. It was purely symbolic… If
it was a political stunt, it was a very stupid political stunt, and I
personally take some insult to it. The West Bank is not going to be annexed by
Israel. The policy of the Trump administration is that the West Bank will not
be annexed by Israel. That will continue to be our policy. And if people want
to take symbolic votes, they can do that, but we certainly weren’t happy about
it.”
If I’d been there, I
might have asked him: What’s weird about Jews declaring sovereignty over
land that rightfully belongs to them? Why would that confuse a Bible-believing
Christian? Surely you know this is land God gave the Jewish people.
To call it “symbolic” is
wrong. It was an act of survival. We see the writing on the wall: the world is
preparing to carve up our land again and hand it to those who burned, raped,
and murdered our people on October 7. Enough. It’s time we took control. It’s
our land.
There is nothing “weird”
about Jews who love their land enough to protect it.
Bibi’s Balancing Act
Prime Minister Netanyahu
had little choice but to downplay the vote, calling it “symbolic” to placate
Washington. In spite of Likud’s abstention, the bill still passed its first
reading 25–24 — a small but historic majority.
I understand the
realpolitik: during a fragile “ceasefire,” the timing looked bad to Vance. And
yes, Arab states may have pressed the U.S. to rein Israel in. But Israel’s
right to its land should never be a bargaining chip for diplomatic convenience.
What Vance said
was shocking. “Very stupid”? “Insulting”? To whom, exactly? To say that a Jewish
decision about Jewish land is meaningless or offensive — that is the real
insult.
Trump Doubles Down
Trump later backed him up
in an interview with Time Magazine:
Which is ironic, because
just seven weeks earlier, U.S. Ambassador Mike Huckabee told Israeli media:
“The United States has
never asked Israel not to apply sovereignty in Judea and Samaria. We respect
Israel as a sovereign state and will not tell it what to do.”
Unlike Vance, Huckabee
refuses to use the propaganda term West Bank. He calls the area by its proper
geographical designation: Judea and Samaria. In 2017, he said:
“There is no such thing as a West Bank. It’s Judea and Samaria. There’s no such thing as a settlement.
They’re communities. There’s no such thing as an occupation.”
Vance, by contrast,
parrots the old Washington line, warning that annexation would “embolden
extremists on both sides” and “undermine trust.” Someone should tell him that
we cannot annex what is already ours.
Amb. Huckabee seated to the right of Vance
Language and Truth
Words matter.
“Annexation” implies we are seizing something foreign. But Judea and Samaria
are as integral to Israel as Safed or Jerusalem. The proper term is not
annexation, but sovereignty — the right of a nation to rule its own land.
We Jews have waited
millennia for this sovereignty. We have bled for it, prayed for it, and
reclaimed it piece by piece. No American politician, no matter how high his
office or how lofty his faith, has the right to tell us it “won’t happen.”
A Visit Full of Meaning
In the end, Vance’s visit
was about symbolism — not just the church or the Wall, but the deeper question
of whose faith and whose history command respect. To pray at the Church of the
Holy Sepulchre while scolding Jews for wanting sovereignty over Judea is to miss
the moral center of this land entirely.
Yet we would never ask
Vance to believe as we do, or share our faith. We ask only that he respect our
beliefs and rights — and stop presuming to decide what Jews may do in the land
that God gave them.
Vance’s visit was full of symbols, and symbols often speak even louder than statements. Skipping the Wall for the church might have been meant as a gesture of faith, but to many of us it felt like a gesture of distance — from Israel, from Jewish history, from understanding what this land means to its people.
Faith, after all, is personal.
But our connection to this land is not only a matter of belief — it is the
story of our people, written into our prayers, our bones, and our history. That
is what Vance failed to grasp: that our faith, our story, and our land are
bound together, a holy bond that can never be severed and never surrendered —
not even to Donald Trump and his vice president.
Senator Lindsey Graham is considered to be one of the most pro-Israel
members of Congress. It’s difficult to imagine why. In speaking to the Jerusalem Post
at the recent Republican Jewish Coalition summit, Graham trotted out the old
two-state solution from its well-earned grave, dusted it off, and insisted that
without it, Israel has no sustainable future.
"Being pro-Israel means telling hard truths," said
Graham. "The only path that keeps Israel Jewish and democratic is a
two-state framework, when the conditions are real. That is the reality friends
should say out loud."
Graham claims to be a friend to Israel. But what kind of a friend tells Israel it must give up land, hand it over to bad people, and let them move in and rule it? Does Graham have a God complex? Because God Himself does not
seem to have endorsed this plan. God granted that land to the Jews, not to
anyone to else, and most especially not to the bestial neighbors.
Therefore, Senator, speaking between friends, I have
questions:
What right do you have, Lindsey Graham?
What right do you have to carve up our land and give it away
to our enemies—speaking of it so matter-of-factly, as if it were a foregone
conclusion, telling us that the only way to get peace is to give away our
ancestral lands to the baby-killers who burned, beheaded, and raped our people?
Of what faith are you that you would take the Holy Land away
from us? That you would separate the Jews from Judea?"
But apparently, the good senator doesn’t think of himself in
this way, as a thief. He has ideas! "Hamas must be gone as a governing and
fighting force,” said Graham. “Then you put Gaza in the hands of Arabs who do
not want to kill all the Jews—Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and others. They
reconstruct Gaza. They change the school system so it does not glorify killing
Jews. You devolve authority based on performance. If they cannot meet the
metrics, they do not get the power. Meanwhile, Israel gets new security
boundaries and the right to act."
How lucky is Graham to have insider information. He knows
which Arabs wish to kill all the Jews and which do not. He also believes that
world opinion trumps Israel’s, even when it renders Jews unsafe.
“If you want to marginalize the Jewish state, go down that road,” says Graham.
“It will do more damage to Israel’s future than any bomb Iran could ever build.
You would lose support here in America, and you would isolate Israel from the
world.”
Lindsey Graham is smart. He knows that there are a whole lot
of Muslims. For some reason he thinks this means that Israel has to let them move
in. “There are a billion Muslims. If you imagine a new Middle East with no
Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank, you are living in a dream world,” says
Graham.
In playing the numbers game, Graham somehow misses the fact
that there are 22 Muslim Arab states in the region. He wants the Jews to also give
them eastern Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and Gaza. But do they have to live in these places? Is there no arable land left in any of those 22
Arab states where Israel’s nasty neighbors might reasonably reside alongside
other Muslims who speak their language and share their culture?
Senator Lindsey Graham professes to be a Baptist and a
born-again Christian. How then does he simply ignore the fact that God gave
Israel to the Jews? Graham postures as Israel's ally, yet wishes us to accept
terrorists as our eternal neighbors and relinquish our ancestral lands to them.
Is this your idea of turning the other cheek, Lindsey
Graham?
If so, fine—turn yours if you must, but please, spare the
Jews. That doctrine is part of your faith, not ours.
Our Talmud says something else altogether: "If someone
is coming to kill you, rise up and kill him first."
For us, self-defense is not optional—it's a sacred
imperative.
Coming next week, IY"H: JD Vance on the sovereignty bill.
Disclaimer: the views expressed here are solely those of the author, weekly Judean Rose columnist Varda Meyers Epstein.
Here’s a story that says everything about how Jewish rights are treated in today’s world.
Last week, after writing about how Jewish prayer ties us daily to the Land of Israel, I asked an AI program to suggest a feature image. Among the ideas it gave me was this: “Sunrise over the Judean hills with someone wrapped in a tallit praying.” It was perfect—authentic, moving, and exactly what my column was about. So I said, “Yes, generate it.”
The reply? “I wasn’t able to generate that image—the request violates our content policies.”
Imagine that. First, ChatGPT suggests it as an appropriate image. But when I approve it, suddenly it’s a violation. What changed? Nothing—except that the moment I asked for the image to be made real, the rules shifted. The message seems to be that Jews praying in Judea can be floated as a suggestion, but must never actually be shown.
The official explanation? That such an image was deemed “politically sensitive.”
But “politically sensitive” is just code. It means appeasing those who cannot bear to see Jews in Judea, who insist we don’t belong there. Yet Judea is not just our homeland; it is our very name. In Hebrew, it is Yehuda; from this comes Yehudi—the Jew. To call a Jew praying in Judea a violation is itself a violation: of indigeneity, of identity, of truth.
It no doubt upsets Arabs to see Jews praying in Judea. But it certainly upsets this Jew to be told we may not even depict ourselves praying in our native land. Why don’t Jewish sensitivities matter? Why do Jewish feelings count for less? Is it because there are more Arabs than Jews? More Muslims than Jews? More antisemites than Jews? Or is it simply because they shout louder?
Actually, the plain truth is starker than that. It’s this: the world simply doesn’t care what Jews feel and think. In fact, it is expected that when the world insults the Jews, the insult will be swallowed—our people too polite or too fearful to respond. We are expected to endure having our rights trampled, our sensitivities ignored. The world knows we won’t riot or burn embassies.
But those who rage at the sight of Jews in Judea—the Arabs and their sympathizers, along with the just plain Jew-hating chorus—are loud and angry and violent, especially the last. And so their outrage is indulged, while Jews are expected to tamp down their feelings—not to air them, but to starve them of oxygen until they die. Jewish love for the land is, to the Jew-hating world, inconsequential, immaterial, to be dismissed. Not because the world feels bad that the Arabs don’t have a state, but because the world really, REALLY hates Jews.
But the thing is, the refusal to depict a Jew praying in Judea is a denial of history. It’s the erasure of the Jewish right to be seen praying in the place we come from. And we must not let that go unchallenged. The world expects us not to speak out. It’s time we stopped caring.
Disclaimer: the views expressed here are solely those of the author, weekly Judean Rose columnist Varda Meyers Epstein.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s dismissal of Shin Bet
Chief Ronen Bar, despite being put on hold by the High Court, is a decision
every Israeli should back to safeguard the rights of all Israeli citizens.
Regavim, a nonprofit focused on countering illegal land seizures in Judea and
Samaria and debunking myths like “settler violence,” supports Bar’s removal.
This isn’t some partisan shake-up—it’s a necessary confrontation with an agency
that, under Bar’s leadership, abandoned its mission to protect all Israelis.
Rather than uphold security, the Shin Bet under Bar singled out Jewish settlers
in Judea and Samaria for groundless detentions and deep-seated contempt, even
as Arab terror grew unchecked. A leaked recording from April 2025 has exposed
this outrage, confirming that Bar’s departure is critical.
The “Shmucks” Revelation: Settlers as Scapegoats
The Shin Bet’s Jewish Division, tasked with monitoring
internal threats, has been caught admitting to a chilling practice: arresting
Jewish settlers without evidence. In a recording published by Kan News on April
6, 2025, the division head, identified as “A,” bragged to former Judea and
Samaria police commander Avishai Mualem, “We arrest these jerks even without evidence
for a few days. Put them in detention cells with mice.” The “jerks?” Jewish
settlers, whom “A” elsewhere derided as “shmucks” unworthy of due process. This
wasn’t a slip but a glimpse into a systemic bias that thrived under Bar’s
leadership.
Israel
Hayom’s report captures the outrage: the Prime Minister’s Office labeled it
“a shocking revelation” and “a real danger to democracy,” demanding an
investigation. Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich called out the “draconian Shin
Bet powers against settlers” as “undemocratic, unequal, illegal, and
unconstitutional.” The recording confirms what settlers and groups like Regavim
have long claimed: the Shin Bet wasn’t combating terror—it was persecuting Jews
in their ancestral homeland.
A Legacy of Contempt
The “shmucks” comment that no one was supposed to hear,
wasn’t a stray remark or isolated event. Rather contempt for the Jews of Judea
and Samaria—and the misplaced obsession with them—was a feature of Shin Bet
policy under Bar by deliberate design. October 7 and its devastating aftermath
stem, in large measure, from the rotten fruit of Bar’s tenure. While Hamas in
Gaza prepared to torch, rape, and slaughter Jews in the south, Bar fixated on
targeting Jewish settlers in Judea and Samaria.
Regavim’s Meir Deutsch has charged the Shin Bet with
“nurturing a false myth” of settler violence while “concealing the real data”
on threats like Hamas. Their forthcoming report, "Settler Violence: Facts
vs Narrative," will expose the UN’s inflated claims—thousands of alleged
incidents shrinking to just a handful under scrutiny. When Regavim pressed for
transparency, Bar’s agency stonewalled, shielding its failures and amplifying a
libel that endangered Jews instead of safeguarding them.
Rachel Touitou Weighs In
I put some questions to Regavim International Press
Spokesperson Rachel Touitou: Why does the Shin Bet target settlers? Is it a
political issue? Abuse of power? Is this why Netanyahu is agitating for a
change in leadership?
Touitou’s response underscores the need to clean house—to install new Shin Bet leadership—leadership
that will uphold its original mandate of protecting all Israeli citizens. “From
the data we analyzed in the report, there is a distinct and clear pattern that
permeated the Shin Bet, reflecting a deeply engrained mindset or ‘conceptzia’
as we say in Hebrew,” said Touitou. “Rather than allocating resources and
efforts toward addressing the tangible threat that culminated in the events of
October 7th, the Shin Bet has been, and continues to be, focused on a marginal
phenomenon/issue—namely, unfounded accusations of blood libel directed at
Jewish residents of Judea and Samaria. This focus has inadvertently provided
material to the United Nations and certain extreme leftist organizations which
subsequently leverage it to discredit Israel and advocate for sanctions against
its citizens.
“To your question whether it is a political issue or
not—I’ll answer with another question: why does the Shin Bet dedicate an entire
department with huge resources called ‘the Jewish Department’ and never opened
one—or thought to open one—called the ‘anarchists department?’ That would be a
good question to ask their spokesperson.”
Touitou’s words cut to the core of the matter: Bar’s Shin
Bet wasn’t distracted—it was obsessed with a fiction that fueled global attacks
on Israel while ignoring the real enemies at the gate.
Ignoring the Real Enemy
The Shin Bet’s misplaced scorn didn’t just undermine
trust—it left Israel exposed. While Bar’s agency hounded Jews in Judea and
Samaria, the Gaza threat grew into the nightmare of October 7th. The Jewish
Division’s head mocked IDF soldiers in the the Jewish heartland as “worthless” settlers,
per Israel Hayom, showing an arrogance that dismissed Israel’s defenders. Bar
backed this view, telling police commanders that “hilltop youth” outranked Arab
rioters as a threat—a fantasy with deadly consequences.
The agency’s refusal to shield settlers from Arab terror,
paired with its zeal to detain them without cause, tells a grim story. These
Jews, rooted in their biblical heartland, weren’t overlooked—they were hunted
by the entity meant to protect them. Bar turned the Shin Bet into a tool
against its own people, not their foes.
A Dismissal Well-Earned—And a Passover Parallel
The High Court may have delayed Bar’s ouster, but the
evidence is ironclad. The “shmucks” tape, Regavim’s data, and the Shin Bet’s
record under Bar reveal a rot that demanded removal. This wasn’t about
competence—it was about a hatred for settlers that corrupted an agency tasked
with Israel’s survival. Smotrich’s demand to fire Bar and “A” isn’t overreach; but
a call for justice.
As Regavim’s report nears release, the truth will be clear:
Bar’s Shin Bet betrayed its mission. His dismissal isn’t a setback—it’s a
chance to reclaim an agency meant to defend, not destroy, Israel’s citizens.
With Passover starting April 11—just two days away—this feels apt. As we scour
our homes of chametz, purging the leaven that corrupts, so must Israel’s
government cleanse its ranks of rot. Bar’s exit, though stalled, is a step
toward that renewal—a Pesach house-cleaning of the highest stakes. I stand with
Regavim in hailing this purge, as all Israelis should.
Residents of Efrat Concerned for their security say yes to only
Jewish and foreign workers
Interview with Stephanie Treger
Stephanie Treger is determined to keep her family safe by
keeping Arabs without Israeli citizenship out of Efrat where she lives. Here
in Efrat, in the heart of Judea, we know what happened on October 7th.
Regular Gazans stampeded that fence, alongside Hamas, and joined right in with
the slaughter.
From Treger’s point of view then, there is no choice. We
have to stop letting them in to clean our schools; build our homes; and fill
our prescriptions at the pharmacy. To be clear, “them” means non-Israeli Arabs.
As such, Stephanie Treger has sparked a modest grassroots effort
to explore the exclusive use of Jewish and foreign labor in her town. She began
by gathering the opinions and ideas of lots and lots of women. A petition was carefully
composed in language hopefully inoffensive to all, and circulated in both
Hebrew and English.
Will Treger succeed in her mission? Where are things going,
and how will it all play out? Will the residents of Efrat be forced to allow
the entry and use of non-Israeli Arab labor?
Stephanie Treger
A busy mother of eight, Stephanie gave graciously of her time
to answer my many questions about this initiative. As I always do with
interview subjects, I asked her for a few lines of biographical data from which
I would cobble together my intro. What she wrote was so cool, I’m quoting it
here verbatim:
My name is Stephanie Treger, I am 36 years old. I live in
Efrat, Gush Etzion, Israel, with my husband Brandon and our eight children. We
made aliyah seven years ago from South Africa, Cape Town. We own Power Coffeeworks, a
coffee roastery in Shuk Machane Yehuda in Jerusalem. We made aliyah based on
our Zionism and belief in the Jewish people, our past, present, and future.
Varda Epstein: You’re
one of the women at the forefront of the effort to bar non-Israeli workers from
Efrat. The petition has been up since December 7th, a full two
months after the October attacks. Why now? Were the attacks the impetus for
this effort or had you already been working on this?
Stephanie Treger: Correct, I am. It did take some time to
get the ball rolling to start this initiative. I believe the women who have
started this organisation together with me were in survival mode for some time after
7/10. Most of our husbands and partners are serving, which left us alone, and
once the true magnitude of the devastation became apparent, we got right on it.
It also took time to go public; even with a simple petition
it had to be done slowly, the wording of our letter needed to be politically
correct. We took opinions from many women at the start. This is a very large
issue, politically and emotionally. There are over 3 million Arabs living in Judea
and Samaria who need jobs, and who also fulfill jobs that keep our cities
running. Before the attacks on 7/10, this was a background issue for us all,
but we just carried on as normal, it was just too big to deal with.
Varda Epstein: Efrat
is a very modern town with many professionals among the residents. Are you
meeting any resistance to your campaign? Can you talk about that? What
percentage of Efrat residents would you say support allowing in only Jewish and
foreign workers?
Stephanie Treger: In all honesty, I am shocked at the lack
of support to date. At the same time, though we have not yet opened the tables
for discussion, we are at least not in argument with or meeting resistance from
non-supporters. Still, nearly two weeks after launching a simple petition, we
have only retrieved 650 odd signatures in a city of over 14,000 residents.
After the 7/10 massacre by thousands of non-Israeli Arabs, I
am surprised that this community, made up of extremely intelligent
professionals, would want to resume “the norm” and continue bringing in
non-Israeli Arab workers. At two months after 7/10, our eyes have been truly
opened, watching the videos and testimonies of the survivors as they are
released. We know how horrific this infiltration was and how it was planned. The
intelligence collected to launch such an attack took a certain kind of evil
genius. This was planned meticulously and we have proof of that from a variety
of sources.
How can we possibly stand by and say “Never again”? More
like “again” every few years, if we continue on in this way.
Varda Epstein: Some
would say the idea of barring entry to your town of a specific ethnic
demographic is racism. What would you say to them?
Stephanie Treger: I am a non-racist South African. I was
raised in a racist country, and this is not racism. This is not an issue of
color or ethnicity. This is an issue of protecting our families from a cult of
terrorists whose sole intention is to murder us. If that were not the case, we
would be living in peace. Simple.
We Jews cherish life. We want peace, we do not want war and
we do not want poverty, but sadly, until Hamas and the other terrorist cells
seize to exist, we have to protect our people.
Varda Epstein: Arab
workers can only enter and work in Efrat accompanied by a security guard. Why
is this measure not enough to keep the residents of Efrat safe?
Stephanie Treger: Since this rumor was brought to the fore,
I have documented many occasions where Israeli Arabs were not accompanied by
armed guards. So no, the measure is not enough to keep us safe.
The problem here is manpower and I don't personally blame
the municipality or the mayor as some do. We have a huge problem on our hands.
Our resources are low, we have zero manpower and I have no doubt that our local
government is trying to find solutions. But we also need to take responsibility
as a community.
We have to mobilize and work within the system to find
solutions. There are many residents in this community who do not work. These
residents could pull together and assist in cleaning the schools or work at
local cafes. There are ways to create solutions but we need all hands on deck.
Varda Epstein: What
types of work have Arab workers performed in Efrat, up until now?
Stephanie Treger: This exact question is what prompts my
concerns for our safety. The Arab workers who have previously worked in Efrat
have been able to cover every corner of our city possible. From cleaners in
homes, to cleaners in schools and emergency departments; from workers in our
cafes and restaurants to garbage disposal to street cleaners; and from handymen
to construction
workers.
There is an endless untold amount of intelligence that might
have been and probably was collected by Arab workers, endless over the passing
years. The workers are often unaccompanied by security, and safety checks are
lax, in my opinion.
Varda Epstein: Why would
a mostly right-wing populace hire Arabs to begin with? Why not Jews—their own
people?
Stephanie Treger: This seems to be the crux of our struggle.
We are not hiring Jews because Jews are more expensive. Jews need to shell out
for taxes, arnona, and pensions. At
the same time, the incomes of prospective Jewish employees are low because they
must pay the same taxes as their prospective (Jewish) employees.
Arabs, conversely, can charge below half-price; be paid in cash;
they have no amenity payments; and do not contribute to our society. This is
something that needs to be dealt with at government level. Government now has
this issue on its table. Cabinets are approving “no entry”. Now they need to
find the solutions to manage it.
Varda Epstein: The
petition appears to distinguish between Israeli and non-Israeli Arabs. Why? Are
only non-Israeli Arabs dangerous? You don’t want to keep out the others?
Stephanie Treger: Personally, I see no difference at
present. Even if Israeli Arab X doesn't want to be a terrorist, Hamas is
holding guns to the heads of X’s children. Should he refuse to comply with the
cult of Hamas, his entire family will be annihilated. I too, would surrender if
my children's lives were at risk.
I may want to keep them out, but it’s illegal to keep them
out. Israeli Arabs with ID cards cannot legally be held back from entering any part
of Israel.
Varda Epstein: This
campaign was started by women. Why do you think that is? Are men less concerned
with this issue?
Stephanie Treger: Men are at the forefront on the borders;
we women are at the forefront of our homes. It's pointless having the men
protect our borders if we are not doing the same in our communities. I live in a
35-year-old home. My doors are not secure, and my window frames are old. I do
not have a safe room. I am home alone, with 8 children under 13.
Gd forbid there was an infiltration of Efrat. I, as a woman,
armed or not, would not be able to protect my family. We women want to serve
and protect and it begins every time we wake up alive.
Varda Epstein: Is
there some kind of precedent that led to this effort? Are non-Israeli workers
known to attack their Jewish employers?
Stephanie Treger: My sister sat in her safe room for 23
hours with her baby and husband in Kibbutz Kfar Azza on 7/10, while her
sister-in-law, cousins, and friends were raped, beheaded, burnt alive, and brutally
murdered next door. Some taken hostage. My passion for this initiative is
personal. I also have a love for my people. Never again is NOW.
Varda Epstein: There are Arab
businesses that have cropped up right on Efrat’s doorstep, just outside the
northern gate, and many Efrat residents appear happy to frequent them. But recently,
a video was released showing one of these new business owners calling for
settlers to die. How do feel about that?
Stephanie Treger: When you see videos of neighboring Arabs
promote the death of "settlers" we naturally get concerned. Videos
such as those directed by Corey Gil-Shuster are eye-openers to us all. The
specific video I have in mind is of a man who lives adjacent to Efrat. His
property borders that of our beautiful coffee shop that we and our children
love to enjoy during the day and in the evenings.
In this man's driveway is a car wash and a laundromat which
until 7/10 were used by the Jews of Efrat. He was earning his living
from the Jews of Efrat. Since 7/10 he has closed his gate and is not earning a
salary to support his family. So to what extent do we believe that at some
point the consequences of poverty will kick in?
When will he get angry enough with the Jews of Efrat that
eventually he will fall in with a terrorist organisation to have revenge on the
people he hated before we even shut him down.
This new reality is sad but true. We Jews who live in Judea
are at risk for terror and we must not take risks in protecting our families
and our people.
Varda Epstein: Do you
think that there is a reluctance among the residents of Efrat, even after the
events of October 7, to adopt a general attitude of distrust toward non-Israeli
Arabs, especially those with whom they’ve formed casual relationships? Is there
a feeling of, “Oh, he’d never do something like that. He’s always polite and
friendly, and gives me good service.”
How would you
illustrate the dangers of this outlook, from your perspective?
Stephanie Treger: I would point them to the words of Professor
Arye Eldad, who headed the plastic surgery and burns unit at Hadassah Medical
Center, and is also a former member of Knesset:
I was instrumental in establishing the Israeli National Skin
Bank, which is the largest in the world. The National Skin Bank stores skin for
every day needs as well as for war time or mass casualty situations. This skin
bank is hosted at the Hadassah Ein Kerem University hospital in Jerusalem where
I was the chairman of plastic surgery. This is how I was asked to supply skin
for an Arab woman from Gaza, who was hospitalized in Soroka Hospital in
Beersheba after her family burned her. Usually, such atrocities happen among
Arab families when the women are suspected of having an affair. We supplied all
the needed Homografts for her treatment. She was successfully treated by my
friend and colleague Prof. Lior Rosenberg, and discharged to return to Gaza.
She was invited for regular follow up visits to the outpatient clinic in Beersheba.
One day she was caught at a border crossing wearing a suicide belt. She meant
to explode herself in the outpatient clinic of the hospital where they saved
her life. It seems that her family promised her that if she did that, they
would forgive her.
This is only one example of the war between Jews and Muslims
in the Land of Israel. It is not a territorial conflict. This is a
civilizational conflict.
Varda Epstein: Is
this campaign going to continue to be a local, Efrat phenomenon, or do you have
bigger plans for this—perhaps to take this national?
Stephanie Treger: We will see; we can't manage alone. We all
need to hold hands. We were lucky to see that it went to government last week.
We will take it day by day and do our best to succeed. It's all we can do
really.
ARIKAT: I have a quick question on Mr. Netanyahu’s speech at the United Nations at UNGA last Friday. He showed a map that completely erases the Palestinians. I wonder if you saw the map and I wonder if you have any comment on it.
MR MILLER: I did see it. I’m not going to get into any discussion about the map that the prime minister chose to use. I will say that the President has been clear, this administration has been clear that the United States will continue to support a two-state solution.
QUESTION: So it doesn’t bother you at all that the map shows the Palestinians just evaporated and so on? I mean, isn’t that like a cause for concern, a cause for saying “that’s our position and we state it very strongly; there will be no normalization without it or anything of such” – or just maybe a mishap on part of the prime minister?
MR MILLER: I did just state what our position is. In addition to my just stating what our position is, that we support a two-state solution
Whether the US or Palestinians like it, Israel still claims that Judea and Samaria are disputed territories, not occupied, and as such there is nothing wrong with an Israeli map including them as part of Israel before there is a peace agreement. (Admittedly, Gaza should not have been included in this map.)
His map of 1948 that showed an Israel that included the entire British Mandate could arguably include all of the territories because of the legal concept of uti possidetis juriswhich gave Israel, as the only state that existed after the 1948 war, the presumed borders of the entire Mandate.
But the PLO and the Palestinian Authority have, since 1993, consistently claimed that they accept a two state solution with Israel within what they call the "1967 borders."
Yet their maps consistently show a "Palestine" with no Israel.
Looking through recent photographs on Mahmoud Abbas' Facebook page, we see his receiving a report from the Palestinian Lands Authority which has a logo that erases Israel:
Here's Abbas lighting a torch to commemorate the anniversary of the PLO's founding, with the PLO logo that erases Israel:
If they accept the two state solution, and insist that their borders are the "pre-1967" borders and nothing beyond, than what is their excuse for consistently erasing Israel from their maps?
I would say that their hypocrisy is stunning, but it isn't. It is business as usual.
Buy the EoZ book, PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism today at Amazon!
Or order from your favorite bookseller, using ISBN 9798985708424.
More than 12,000 Palestinians with American citizenship residing in the West Bank have entered Israel in the past few weeks, since Israel was forced to ease travel restrictions for them in order to be accepted into the United States visa waiver program.
The estimate was provided by Israeli defense sources who believe that the number of Palestinians in the West Bank with American citizenship is in the tens of thousands.
The article goes on to say that there are also hundreds of American citizens living in Gaza.
This is far more US citizens living in the territories than I was aware of. With that number, it seems like many of them are living a regular Palestinian citizens with American passports, meaning that they receive the benefits of Palestinian citizenship - for example, medical benefits and public schools.
It is also a surprisingly high percentage of Palestinian Americans - perhaps as many as one in five Palestinian Americans live in the territories and not in the US.
But how many of them are considered "registered UNRWA refugees" and are receiving UNRWA benefits? How many live in UNRWA camps in the West Bank and Gaza? How many go to UNRWA schools and receive UNRWA medical benefits?
How many American citizens are considered "refugees" to UNRWA?
It could be that there is a whole other category of fake "refugees" that UNRWA provides benefits for - citizens of other countries (besides Jordan)!
Buy the EoZ book, PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism today at Amazon!
Or order from your favorite bookseller, using ISBN 9798985708424.
Today’s decision in the Knesset to repeal some articles of the 2005 Disengagement law concerning the Northern West Bank is counter-productive to de-escalation efforts, and hampers the possibility to pursue confidence building measures and create a political horizon for dialogue.
Israel has reaffirmed its commitment to efforts to reduce tensions just very recently, with the joint communiques of Aqaba (26 February) and Sharm al-Sheikh (19 March).
The EU considers settlements as illegal under international law. They constitute a major obstacle to peace and threaten the viability of the two-state solution. The Gaza Disengagement law of 2005, and its articles concerning Northern West Bank, was an important step towards a solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The decision of the Knesset is a clear step back.
We call on Israel to revoke this law and take actions that contribute to de-escalation of an already very tense situation.
The term "West Bank" wasn't capitalized until the 1970s, thousands of years after the area was named Judea and Samaria.
Now the EU has publicized a brand new place name: "Northern West Bank." I can only find one other place where it is capitalized as a place name - by the obsessively anti-Israel World Council of Churches.
But the EU is pretending that there is an Israeli law that specifies the "Northern West Bank." No, there isn't.
The Disengagement Plan that resulted in Israeli withdrawal from Gaza also included the depopulation of several Jewish towns in Samaria - which is referred to repeatedly in the Plan as "Northern Samaria."
The EU would rather adopt a new place name, Northern West Bank, than use what the area is actually called. And the only reason is to separate that area from its Biblical and Jewish roots.
That is not objectivity. That is propaganda to pre-judge the outcome of negotiations.
(h/t Irene)
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Bulldozers demolishing Jewish vineyard with illegally built mosque nearby, untouched
Here's a story that you won't ever see in the media.
From a press release by Regavim (received via email):
This morning, the Civil Administration uprooted a Jewish vineyard near Yitzhar, only 300 meters away from an illegal mosque for which demolition orders were issued 15 years ago.
The Civil Administration – under the auspices of the Ministry of Defense - uprooted a vineyard near the Yitzhar community this morning, following a petition submitted by Palestinian Arabs to Israel’s High Court of Justice. Despite the fact that no Arab ownership of the land on which the vineyard was planted, some four years ago, has ever been proven, the Jewish owners of the vineyard received a “Disruptive Land-Use Order.” This unique military order allows removal of agriculture, even when no conflicting claim of ownership is submitted or proven – and is used by the Civil Administration exclusively against Jews.
Only 300 meters away from the uprooted orchard, in Area C on the outskirts of the nearby Arab town Burin, stands an illegal mosque for which the Civil Administration issued a demolition order over 15 years ago. The Regavim Movement appealed to the High Court of Justice to force the Civil Administration to enforce the demolition order, and the government gave its solemn commitment to uphold the law – but the illegal mosque stands, undisturbed, to this very day - and dozens of additional illegal structures have been built around it in the interim.
Regavim’s spokesperson called upon Minister Betzalel Smotrich to tackle this absurdity on his very first full day in office: “The Disruptive Land-Use Order is a draconian measure that has been applied in a wildly discriminatory fashion, and should be struck down without delay. This was the conclusion reached years ago by the Special Commission headed by Justice Edmond Levy, and we call upon Minister Smotrich to take this long-overdue step.”
Moshe Shmueli, Regavim’s Field Coordinator for Judea and Samaria, added: “For 15 years, the Civil Administration has failed to enforce the law against nearby illegal Palestinian construction – despite its commitment to the High Court of Justice. On the other hand, it has taken swift, even brutal enforcement action and uprooted a Jewish vineyard, costing the owners hundreds of thousands of shekels in losses. The rule of law must be equal, or it cannot be called the rule of law. This morning’s demolition is one more example of how far off track the Civil Administration has strayed.”
Arabs will take over whatever non-claimed land they can find in Area C, often with EU support. But often when Jews try to do the exact same thing, the Israeli Civil Administration steps in.
Regavim is not an anti-Arab organization. They just want the laws to be applied equally.
Interestingly, Regavim has a decent chance to be heard in the new government - because its founder was Betzalel Smotrich. (h/t YMedad)
Buy the EoZ book, PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism today at Amazon!
Or order from your favorite bookseller, using ISBN 9798985708424.
It asked the ICJ to define how Israel’s practices affected the legal status of Israel’s “occupation” of territory over the pre-1967 lines, which would include the West Bank (Judea and Samaria), Gaza (from which Israel unilaterally withdrew in 2005) and east Jerusalem.
The UNGA resolution specifically included the “Holy City of Jerusalem” and referred to the Temple Mount, Judaism’s holiest site, only by its Muslim name of al-Haram al-Sharif.
When a preliminary vote on the request for an ICJ opinion was held in November, 98 countries voted in favor and only 17, including Israel, opposed it.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu credited the drop in support for the Palestinians’ position and the additional support for Israel to his efforts, along with those of President Isaac Herzog, the Foreign Ministry and UN Ambassador Gilad Erdan.
“This is once again a one-sided Palestinian move that undermines the basic principles for resolving the conflict and potentially harming any possibility for a future process. The Palestinians want to replace negotiations with unilateral measures. They are once again using the UN to attack Israel.”
Yair Lapid
Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh praised the UN vote as “a new victory for the Palestinians.” Hamas also welcomed the UN vote.
It is a dangerous move that is far from solving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and is likely to further inflame it, giving the Palestinians no incentive to sit down and negotiate in good faith.
Furthermore, the UN and ICJ are making a mockery of their own mandates and are being hijacked by the Palestinians. This is similar to the open-ended UN Commission of Inquiry into Israel headed by Navi Pillay.
The Palestinian push for the ICJ ruling is part of its ongoing lawfare against Israel. The court must avoid giving the impression of built-in bias against Israel when choosing the panel it appoints.
E., a resident of the Gaza Strip, talks to us from an apartment in greater Tel Aviv, where he has been residing for the past week, helped by friends, who have provided him with a roof over his head. E. has been put on Hamas' blacklist after he made several public statements and published posts, in which he dared to criticize Hamas' policy in Gaza. He attacked the Hamas leadership for violating human rights, criticized the discrimination against women in public areas, and expressed his infuriation with the way Hamas' security institutions handle anti-regime activists.
It is quite bizarre that the one who initially defended political prisoners, eventually became one himself. The Hamas' long arm found E. and he very quickly found himself subject to threats, intimidation, and physical and mental harassment.
"In the initial investigations I was severely beaten, with bruises all over my body; it was very brutal. Even animals are not treated this way. One investigator would walk past me, punch me, then another one would come and beat me mercilessly," says E. "In the later investigations, I suffered less physical torture, but more mental torture. They would offend me, curse my mother and father and threaten them. For example, on one occasion they threatened to kill me and told me, 'Tomorrow we will shoot you and throw you to the dogs, and tell everyone that you collaborated with Israel'."
Another time they wanted me to sign a document saying that after I was released I was forbidden from talking to anyone about what they did to me during the investigation, and not to share what I went through with human rights organizations. Each time after you are arrested and released, you have to take painkillers and rest for three to four days to physically get over what happened. Mentally, it stays with you. You can't forget. This is one of the things that made me leave Gaza."
A Journey in search of livelihood
Two years ago, E. was forced to leave the Gaza Strip following an investigation, during which it was made clear to him that the Hamas security forces had information about his plan to initiate mass demonstrations in Gaza. E. went to Egypt, tried to make a living from a restaurant business, and last August he managed to return to his family in Gaza. "I saw that I had returned to the same Gaza, with the same problems. There is no freedom, there are no jobs, and the jobs that are there are given to Hamas and their loyalists. There is no stability in life. The situation is bad and people live from hand to mouth. Everything I earn – it all goes, nothing is left.
"The children grow up, they have needs. You have to buy them clothes for the winter and heat the house. There are so many everyday needs, and then you ask yourself, 'what future awaits them and me? It makes you think, is this how I want to live? It doesn't make sense. The family eats fresh meat only once a week. Some people eat half portions just so that they can get through the day. Every house in Gaza has debts to the electricity corporation and people have to pay off loans that they took.
"It's getting to the point where residents are not using their cars unless there is something essential because they do not want to waste money on fuel. Many factories in Gaza are closed. Business owners are in and out of prison because of debts, but it's not just because of money. It's in almost every area of life. There is no infrastructure and no projects. People avoid going to hospitals because they don't trust the medical treatment there. Hamas doesn't provide services. There is no future."
The EU insists that Israel should abide by the Oslo Accords, as it still believes that within this area, a Palestinian state should be established within the framework of a comprehensive peace agreement. At the same time, according to the leaked document, it tries to strip Israel of its rights per that same agreement.
So that’s where humanitarian law comes in; the very set of laws that are supposed to help the EU circumvent Israel’s authority in Area C. This means that the EU has found a way to fund construction in Area C without violating the Oslo Accords, or so we are tricked to believe. The claim is that the construction is meant for humanitarian ends and is not politically motivated. Yet the EU construction takes place in locations that are highly sensitive, precisely for the sole purpose of creating new facts on the ground and preparing the area for a Palestinian takeover without any final peace agreement.
Many times the political motivation is obvious, as the construction is conducted without permits and in such places where Israel has no choice but to demolish it, for example, a school adjacent to a dangerous highway or other construction in places where there are no facilities and thus are not considered habitable environments. The political motivation becomes even more obvious when the document explicitly states the EU’s plan to curb Israel’s archeological activities in order to minimize the Jewish connection to the land.
Moreover, the EU does not seem to consider building in Area A and Area B where all they would need is a permit from the Palestinian Authority. Apparently, in those areas, there is no need for humanitarian aid at all.
Needless to say, the news of the leaked document hit Israel really hard. Subsequently, a letter signed by 40 Knesset members was sent to EU leaders.
The letter, initiated by Likud MK Amichai Chikli, reminds the EU of Europe’s past when it used to taunt Jews to “go to Palestine,” and now, in essence, claims that Jews are foreigners in their own homeland.
The letter continues to state that the leaked document “completely ignores our people’s historical affinity to our homeland and completely ignores the status of the State of Israel in Area C.” Furthermore, the letter points out that no nation turns its back on its own heritage and reminds the EU that we have not forgotten our history.
Finally, the letter ends by calling upon the EU to immediately cease its illegal construction, halt the damage being caused to heritage sites and the nature in Judea and Samaria, and immediately desist from funding delegitimizing organizations that promote antisemitic propaganda, including Israeli organizations that serve EU interests.
The letter is, in fact, a fitting response to the leaked document and the reasons are twofold. For one, the EU has no jurisdiction in any of those areas and secondly, it has clearly misused humanitarian law and thus violated international law in broad daylight.
Now that the EU’s intentions are exposed, it should reconsider its positions, stop masking its political positions with laws and put its cards on the table for an honest discussion that is, in reality, a political and moral debate and not primarily about the law. They should do that before EU-Israel relations deteriorate any further.
As for Israel, it should invest more time and energy in defending its rights and preempt such initiatives, whether it comes from the EU, the United Nations or elsewhere.
Our reforms are aimed at developing the area’s infrastructure, employment and economy for the benefit of all. This doesn’t entail changing the political or legal status of the area. If the Palestinian Authority decides to dedicate some of its time and energy to its citizens’ welfare rather than demonizing Jews and funding the murder of Israelis, it would find me a full partner in that endeavor.
Additionally, we seek to halt the execution of the Fayyad plan, a massive European Union-funded project to facilitate the Palestinian takeover of Area C, the one part of Judea and Samaria where Jews are currently permitted to live under the Oslo Accords. The authority is building housing, infrastructure and more in areas that are outside its jurisdiction to surround Jewish communities and other strategic locations in Area C in an attempt at de facto annexation. The EU contends its funding is purely humanitarian, but recent reporting has revealed this is not the case. This unrestrained usurpation poses mortal dangers to Israelis living there and risks significant damage to the natural environment and to historical sites. Among other measures, we will beef up enforcement of existing laws and agreements to stop this deliberate abuse.
Israel’s justice system also needs urgent reform to restore democratic balance, individual rights and public trust. In the U.S., elected politicians appoint federal judges, including Supreme Court justices, making the bench at least indirectly responsive to the people. In Israel, sitting Supreme Court justices have veto power over new appointments to the court.
Israel also lacks a written constitution, but in the 1990s the Supreme Court began striking down democratically enacted laws based on its own idea of what Israel’s constitution ought to be. This has created legal and economic uncertainty, precipitating a severe decline in the public’s trust in judicial and law-enforcement institutions. The Supreme Court ignores written law and, worse, invalidates government action even if it violates no law, but rather the court’s own notions of sound policy, or “reasonableness,” as it calls it. Moreover, the Israeli criminal-justice system also lacks basic procedural safeguards for defendants, such as the exclusionary rule, and there is no effective oversight on government prosecutors, who too often abuse their wide scope of authority.
Our emphasis on judicial reform is meant to bring Israel closer to the American political model with some limited checks to ensure the judicial system respects the law. We seek to appoint judges in Israel in a process similar to America’s; to define the attorney general’s scope of authority and relation to elected representatives in a manner similar to what’s set down in America; to develop effective oversight mechanisms for law enforcement to ensure they protect basic rights; and to restore the Knesset’s authority to define the fundamental values of the state and its emerging constitution.
All Americans should appreciate the wisdom and justice in these plans. They should shed their preconceptions and unite to support the resurgence of accountable government, prosperity, individual rights, and democracy in the Jewish homeland.
Israel has a long legislative process. To become law, bills must be passed seven times, four in the plenum and three in committee. The controversial laws already passed by the new Knesset are – of course – fair game for criticism, but the rest will take their time.
Plenty of governments never get around to passing even their core goals. The outgoing government intended to pass legislation that could have limited Netanyahu from running again but never completed the process. Leaders of all its coalition parties were willing to make significant changes to the Western Wall prayer site, but for various reasons, they did not.
The previous coalition had an anti-LGBT party in Ra’am (United Arab List), which had four seats in a coalition of 61 that ended up taking unprecedented steps to help the LGBT community.
This coalition has an anti-LGBT party in Noam, which has one seat out of 64. It has Israel’s first gay Knesset speaker in Amir Ohana and a prime minister in Netanyahu who has repeatedly promised to prevent any harm to the community.
If the past two months of infighting inside Israel’s right-wing bloc are any indication, the new government will be less homogeneous than previously thought. It will likely have trouble passing bills that most of the parties in the coalition agree on, amid fights over credit and disputes over which party is more hawkish than another.
The new government has come to power with one clear mandate: To improve the security of Israeli citizens. This is a relatively uncontroversial goal, and its success would improve the lives of Jewish, Christian and Muslim Israelis as well as Palestinians.
According to official IDF figures, in the month prior to the election, there were 382 terror attacks in the West Bank (Judea and Samaria) and Jerusalem alone. That number includes shootings, stabbings, explosives and Molotov cocktails.
There were three European countries where Far Right parties gained strength in recent elections. But in France, Italy and Sweden, there were nowhere near 382 terrorist attacks in the month prior to the election, so the rise of extremists there is arguably harder to justify.
But will those countries come under as much international scrutiny as Israel? Probably not.
To its credit, the Biden administration in the US has been careful to give the incoming Israeli government the benefit of the doubt until it takes steps it deems problematic and unacceptable.
The international media should consider following America’s lead.
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