IDF commanders to Left: annexation an asset – not burdenX

In a new ‘Victory Commanders Forum’ video released Sunday, former officials insist that Jewish settlement is an asset- not burden.

By Ido Ben Porat, INN 05/04/20 22:49

Yehuda Wagman

In a new “Victory Commanders Forum” video released Sunday by the “Middle East – Israel Forum”, former IDF officials express their professional opinion on the ‘Deal of the Century’ and the historic opportunity to turn Jewish settlement in Judea and Samaria from a burden into an asset.

The “Victory Commanders Forum” brings together former senior IDF commanders who have joined forces to turn the Israeli army into a fighting unit whose primary goal is the complete defeat of the enemy. Members include Maj. Gen. Gershon HaCohen, Brigadier General Zvika Vogel, Brigadier General Yossi Kuperwasser, Brigadier General Avigdor Kahalani, Col. Moshe Peled and others.

Following the publication of the Trump plan, which presents an innovative angle regarding Israel’s rights on a number of issues, members of the Victory Forum decided that the ideas presented in the plan should be strengthened, the [land-for-peace] equation reversed, and Jewish settlement should become an asset rather than burden.

For years, forums and former commander organizations have convinced the Israeli public of an existing consensus on the side of the security-professional establishment: two states for two peoples based on 1967 borders.

The video reply to calls from a left-wing NGO pressuring Blue and White leaders MK Gantz and MK Ashkenazi to oppose unilateral annexation of Judea and Samaria featured members of the Victory Command Forum: Gershon Cohen, Avigdor Kahalani, Aryeh Eldad and Yehuda Wagman. In the video, they present the professional-security angle from their perspective following decades of service in the IDF.

According to them, Jewish settlement in all parts of the country is an asset. Naveh Dromi, CEO of the Middle East Forum – Israel, said: “For years, an intensive campaign has convinced the Israeli public that senior security officials are strongly opposed to Jewish settlement [in Judea and Samaria]. The voices of senior officials who disagree are not even presented.”

“The Trump program is an opportunity to voice the professional opinion of those who have served in senior military positions for decades and strongly oppose the lax policies of left-wing commanders,” Dromi added.