The Jews are not “settlers” in their own ancestral heartland
Jewish communities, (villages and towns) in Judea and Samaria do not consist of “settlers.” The Jewish population consists of the descendants of the native and indigenous Jewish people in their own ancient land. A people have no need to “settle” what is already theirs by virtue of millennial physical and spiritual attachment. It is theirs and theirs alone.Why do US Jewish leaders remain silent on Israeli sovereignty?
Notice that as of this time of writing, Judea and Samaria have still not been annexed (I prefer the words, liberated or redeemed) at least not yet and the time to do so is well overdue – 2,000 years overdue. Will it happen this July, 2020 under Bibi Netanyahu’s watch or will there be another fabricated delay? These lands, after all, are the very warp and woof, the very fabric and fiber of Jewish history, both during and after Biblical times.
Simply put: The Jewish people do not “settle” land that already belongs to them. And the Jewish people cannot be called “settlers” in their very own ancestral, Biblical and native heartland.
Now if those facts are understood and hammered home again and again by every Israeli and every Jew in the Diaspora, think of the power and the glory that will illuminate the world as the veil of deception is finally torn from the same world’s eyes.
But it all will become meaningless if Israel’s leaders and politicians succumb yet again to a hostile world or to the Israeli Left, betray President Trump’s best chance for Jewish restoration in at least part of Judea and Samaria (its ancestral heartland), and instead delay for more endless years Israeli sovereignty throughout Eretz Yisrael.
There is simply no excuse to stand on the sidelines during this existential debate merely because the issue is "controversial."JPost Editorial: Netanyahu's circus of a trial delegitimizes democracy
It is said that during this time of coronavirus, major Jewish organizations are suffering due to decreased donations. The virus may well be responsible for a considerable decline in support, but another virus may be at play here as well. The virus of fear is also rampant: fear of offending one's donors, one's neighbors, one's friends and relatives by taking a position that is unpopular but morally and historically correct.
Perhaps American Jews have grown weary of supporting organizations that lack the courage to distinguish themselves one from another. Perhaps they are hungry for an organization that trusts Israelis to act in their own national interest just as citizens of other countries do. Where is such a major Jewish organization among the American landscape today?
At some point, Israel will extend sovereignty over the Jewish portions of the West Bank. The status quo cannot continue indefinitely until the Palestinians miraculously decide to live in peace next to the Jewish State, a fantasy progressives continue to cling to despite all evidence to the contrary. It is at long last time to face reality and move on.
As Rabbi Hillel wisely said: "If not now, when?"
The rowdy crowd took its cue from the beliefs of the person they had come to support – the prime minister. Netanyahu, who had attempted to avoid attending Sunday’s opening session, ended up grabbing the spotlight in every way possible, in an effort to dominate the headlines and coverage.
In a smart PR move, he had the Likud ministers bused to the courthouse to portray solidarity in a much-publicized photo taken without the court’s permission. As the Post’s Gil Hoffman wrote, media from around the world had gathered to report on the prime minister standing alone in a courtroom facing serious charges. The presence of the Likud ministers, as well as the cynical use of a group of Holocaust survivors who also pledged allegiance to the prime minister, helped to dull that sharp image.
Where things took a far more sinister turn was when Netanyahu gave a long statement to the media before the trial’s launch. First, he attempted to deflect the charges against him as an indictment against anyone in Israel with a right-wing political viewpoint.
“They are trying to topple me and the entire right wing,” he claimed, adding a who’s who of Israeli “leftists” who are out to get him. “The police, prosecution, press and the Left and the legal establishment joined together to bring me down....”
That doesn’t leave many people or institutions on the other side, as Netanyahu made sure to cover all the bases with his base statements. But as Hoffman astutely pointed out, the verdict in this trial, which is a watershed moment in Israeli history, is not going to be decided by partisan Likud voters or Israelis who distrust the legal establishment and the police. Rather, it is going to be ruled upon by the three judges, who will absorb all the evidence presented by both sides and make judgments based on the facts, not emotional appeals or demagogic tirades.
Netanyahu managed to shift the focus on this first day of his trial away from the image of a prime minister on trial to the image of a prime minister being lynched by a crooked system out to get him.
That attack on the democratic institutions of the country might have been effective in the short term, but when the court reconvenes in July and witnesses start taking the stand in the coming months (or even years), the focus will again shift to where it should be – on the charges, the defense and whether the prime minister is guilty or innocent.