This article appeared in Hebrew in this Friday’s Makor Rishon11/3/2016). Because of its utter importance Women in Green had it translated. Translated by Sally Zahav.
A Critical Year of National Consciousness
by Ariel Kahana
Only with the arrival of 2017 will the Obama-Netanyahu quarrels, like the one that happened this week over the cancelled meeting, come to an end. But then the really difficult war will begin, the war over national consciousness.
“The past actually happened, history is what someone wrote down”, the American comedian Whitney Brown once said. This pithy saying exactly describes the approaching critical year of national consciousness. Even at the beginning of the year 2016, all eyes are already set on 2017. During that year Israel, the Palestinians and everyone who is connected to the Jewish-Arab battle over the Land of Israel, will mark the one-hundred-year anniversary of the Balfour Declaration, seventy years of the partition, and fifty years since the Six Day War.
The battle over the world’s memory regarding these points in time will be almost as bitter and difficult as the wars that accompanied each one of them. Palestinians and their supporters, including self-hating Jews from Israel and the diaspora, have already begun preparations to undermine our rights to the Land in general and to Judea and Samaria in particular. Israel, perhaps thanks to a prime minister with an especially developed historical awareness, has also begun positive preparations. This is good.
Already during the last Jerusalem Day, the government determined that a ministerial committee would begin planning celebrations for the jubilee year of the city’s unification. The task was assigned to Minister Miri Regev and an inter-ministry committee was established, headed by Managing Director of the Ministry of Culture and Sport, Yossi Sharabi. On the next Jerusalem Day the government is expected to approve the plan and the events themselves are already expected to
begin. Simultaneously, Minister of Education Bennett announced that the academic year for 2017 will mark fifty years of the unification of the eternal capital of the Jewish People.
However, neither Netanyahu nor Bennett took advantage of their authority to sharpen the message which is no less important: the jubilee year of the return of the Jewish People to the historical tracts of the Land of Israel, meaning Judea and Samaria. One need not be a rightist in order celebrate the miracle of this war of salvation, and one need not be religious to claim that Elon- Moreh, Beit-El, Beit-Lehem and Hevron are the cradle of the Jewish People’s homeland.
There is, of course, a political dispute over the question of what to do in these tracts of land today, and it is clear that the educational system must not get involved in the bitter argument. But the past must be told. If not, others will come and rewrite history, and actually, they are already doing this.
The Palestinians have already succeeded for some time to penetrate the international consciousness with the lie that they are an ancient people that have, from time immemorial, lived in the land. They scream “It is all mine”, but are answered by our side with “okay, then we will divide it” and not “It is all mine”. It’s no wonder that many people, and not only the ignorant, are convinced that the State of Israel arose on the ruins of the state of Palestine, even though such a thing never existed.
Israel refrains from screaming about its fundamental rights in Judea and Samaria. And as long as it continues to do so, Israel can expect to suffer a crushing defeat in the battle for national consciousness since her claims are not convincing. The Palestinians in 2017 will scream “Fifty years of robbing us of our country and usurping our lands”. Israel, as it has through the years, will mumble that her actions stem from security needs. That is, she will say implicitly that the land indeed is Arab, but the occupation, the theft and the usurpation, are done in the name of Israel’s security. With such a message as this it is impossible to win. Just as it is impossible to settle in a neighbor’s home just because he is an irksome nudnik, it is also impossible to justify the theft of another people’s land on the grounds of national security. “Give them what is theirs, and solve the security problems in another way”, is the outsider’s expected response.
The Israeli hasbara system has not internalized this fundamental point. In the opinion of the hasbara people, the claims of history and rights are automatically connected to a contemporary political solution.
Therefore, it is preferred to obscure the past. Instead of differentiating between rights and an agreement that perhaps will exist in the future, both are treated equally. This is analogical to a lawyer not representing the reasons that the accused is not guilty because of misgivings that the judge will not be convinced, which might lead to him actually not being convinced. Like a dog that returns to its vomit, Israel goes back to her futile security claims and flees from the main question – the question of the right to the Land.
The only one in the Israeli system that has understood this concept is Deputy Foreign Minister Tzipi Hotovely. She had some time ago already formed a team and a plan to promote hasbara projects that emphasizes Israel’s rights in Judea and Samaria. The program includes a presentation that will move throughout the country to tell of the continuity of Jewish communities in the Land of Israel over the years, film clips and hasbara dossiers in Hebrew and English. But in order to implement it, the approval of the minister of the treasury, Moshe Kahlon, is required. “The idea is to emphasize the message of liberation and the return to the territories of the Land, rather than the term “occupation”, say those in Hotovely’s office.
The Yesha (Hebrew acronym for Judea, Samaria and Gaza) Council plans its own celebrations to mark the jubilee year of the return of the Jewish People to its historic inheritance. The question is why Prime Minister Netanyahu and head of HaBayit HaYehudi Bennett, who are polished public relations presenters and understand the matters at hand, stand on the sidelines. Why do these two leaders not also initiate celebrations and courses of action to send this essential message, which they both know so well: the historical miracle of the return of the Jewish People to the heart of its homeland.
” We Have Legal Grounds. ”
is good. possession is better, but we must make use of it.
@ Ted Belman:
Good post! Positive pro Israel advocacy. Israel never can have enough positive advocates.
A great example of real world constructive advocacy and actual work in Judah and Samaria is done by the “Women in Green”. There were loads of problems in politically and on the ground in establishing the State of Israel in 1948.
The same is true in expanding Israeli sovereignty to Judah/Samaria. Hard Progress is being made as about 750,000 Jews now live past the old green line. This is a little more than 12% of the Jewish population in Israel. So we have established some facts with a lot more work to accomplish.
I hope people who feel strongly and positively about Israel move to Israel and help in the work. Yes Israel is not perfect and neither are its politicians. The good news is that all is not yet done.
Women for Israel’s Tomorrow, popularly known as Women in Green, founded in Israel
in 1993 by Ruth and Michael Matar ,is a grassroots movement of women and men,
young and old, secular and religious, all bound together by a shared love and concern
for the Land of Israel. We are a registered Israeli non-profit organization with friends and
supporters in Israel and abroad.
We are dedicated to safeguarding our G-d given Biblical homeland. We act out of the
belief in the central role of the Land of Israel to the future of the Jewish People
“Eretz Yisrael Le’Am Yisrael” “The Land of Israel belongs to the People of Israel” is our
motto.
We are popularly known as “the Women in Green” because of the green hats we used
to wear in the nineties in our campaign explaining the dangers of the Oslo Accords
which called for the abandonment of large and central parts of our homeland and the
shrinking of Israel to the “Green Line”, the pre-1967 borders.
A- Safeguarding the Land in very practical ways.
· * We plant trees on Israeli state lands in Judea to safeguard the lands for future
generations.
* We hold educational agricultural camps for youth during school breaks and in the
summer where local youth both plant trees and hear educational lectures.
· * We returned a Jewish presence to the former Israeli army base of Shdema
overlooking the strategic highway between Jerusalem and Tekoa by holding weekly
educational and cultural activities there for years.
·
* Oz veGaon: On July 1st 2014, immediately after the murder of the 3 kidnapped boys
Gil-Ad, Eyal and Naftali hy”d, by Arab terrorists became known, we created a Jewish
presence in the forest near the Gush Etsion junction and called it the “Oz veGaon
Nature Reserve”. With the sense of fulfilling a Zionist mission we rolled up our
sleeves and developed the site as an active tourist and educational place. Over
20,000 youths have already come and together we cleaned the forest, stones have
been removed, wooden tables, benches and playgrounds have been built, paths
have been cleared. Every week we hold educational lectures at Oz veGaon with the
participation of tens of people.
· * Tisha b’Av Walk around the Walls of the Old City: For the past 20 years, we’ve
revived an ancient custom of encircling the gates of the Old City of Jerusalem on Tisha
B’Av eve to express our loyalty to Jerusalem, Israel’s undivided united capital.
B- THE SOVEREIGNTY CAMPAIGN- a revolution in consciousness
Women in Green is advancing a grassroots apolitical historical initiative to re-apply
Israeli sovereignty over Judea and Samaria with an extensive educational public
relations campaign the purpose of which is to bring about a revolution in the national
consciousness.
In 2012 we began to develop this educational-public relations campaign for the
application of Israeli sovereignty over Judea and Samaria. The objectives of this
campaign are
1) to fill the vacuum in Judea and Samaria (which is today under military rule)
2) to end the illusion that it will be possible to give up parts of the homeland and
establish another country within it
3) to say clearly and unequivocally that the Land of Israel belongs to the People of
Israel.
This educational-public relations campaign for the application of Israeli sovereignty
includes billboards, conferences, lectures, parlor meetings, publication of opinion
pieces, publishing the Sovereignty Journal, in Hebrew and English in hundreds of
thousands of copies. Included in the Sovereignty Journal are articles and interviews with
public figures and intellectuals who call for implementing the vision of sovereignty as the
vision of the State of Israel.
Lectures and events can be viewed on our youtube channel:
https://www.youtube.com/user/NashimBeYarok/videos?view=0
The latest issue of Sovereignty can be viewed and downloaded by clicking on
http://www.ribonut.co.il
·In the famous Biblical story of the spies sent by Moses to scout out the Jewish People’s
entry into the Land of Israel, a leader arose to dispel the fear and discouragement that
the spies sowed.
He proclaimed “Let us by all means go up, and we shall gain possession of it.” Our message and blessing to you is the same.
Jeff Daube who is the representative of the ZOA here in Israel, is working with Arlene Kushner to get Israel to embrace her legal rights.
There movement is called We Have Legal Grounds.
Jeff is in constant touch with Hotevely and they are sympatico.
Bear Klein Said:
CAUCUSING?????????????
Yup…. looks like a lot of talk ahead…. but nothing more. 🙁
Bear Klein Said:
to reach government one advocates and after that advocacy is worthless… only achievements are worth discussing….. just like with cuz and rubio…. advocates who achieve nothing.
the Foreign ministry should be calling in the diplomats and demanding that they cease libeling Jewish settlement, declaring the following official gov policy:
“JEWISH SETTLEMENT IN YS IS LEGAL AND LEGITIMATE”
even outside the euro designated ghetto boundaries of the major blocks…. even if Israel is coerced into not implementing the policy, the words should be declared as official policy. that cannot be done because it would interfere with BB’s goal to separate YS from Israel. What other reason could he have? After all, the pals dont get their goals right away but that does not stop them from declaring and demanding their rights and land.
A land satisfied with advocacy and no follow through ends up exactly in the mud that Israel is in. People will be so fed up with BB status quo that they will vote in the left… but before that I expect BB will want to feather his future bed as the great centrist that he will make a move that makes it impossible for Benett to continue with any dignity and then after Benett bolts BB will unite with Herzog to reinvent himself.
Shouldnt the FM be calling in foreign ambassadors and demanding they cease to libel Jewish settlement? Instead of running around YS with a carnival of hasbara barkers shouldn’t her gov stop the illegal euro building and declare them Persoan Non grata? Isnt this just a token cover up of everything substantial that BB does to obstruct Jewish settlement outside the ghetto boundaries? The foreign ministry should be dealing with the diplomats and their lies and Bennetts education Ministry should be dealing with educating Israelis.
Its all fluff, rubbish, tokens for fools. Everything already exists to change the situation if only the grand obstructor were removed….. but then without the grand obstructor there is no longer any real right wing leadership who will demand Jewish settlement in YS. The right wing is DEAD and dismembered in the most canny, brilliant and dishonest fashion… all done by BB…… and no one is left with the gonads to lead. Everyone else offers a version of what land to give away and Bennett has become a useless eunuch.. a non leader.
One has to give BB credit for his massacre.
http://www.timesofisrael.com/bennett-urges-israeli-annexation-of-west-bank/
Bennett has been advocating this for several years now. The writer is remiss in not pointing this out in her article. I do agree with the writer’s sense of frustration however. As I take her article as a push to constructive advocacy for our rights in Judah/Samaria.
what a pathetic collection of fool Jews!!!!!!!
BB already commissioned Levy… Benett is Education Minister….. an education campaign in the schools and by the media and TV on the facts is all required. Its absurd that the situation even exists where Jews in a Jewish homeland are clueless on the rights of Jews to settle, accept muslim anti semitism and abuse rather than deporting them, send their sons and daughters to die rather than bomb terrorists to hell, in order to protect the lives of terror civilians. Stockholm Syndrome coupled with a dishonest set of leaders is the answer to the question.
Waiting for Kahlons approval to let Jews know that:
“JEWISH SETTLEMENT IN YS IS LEGAL AND LEGITIMATE”
The same ones who shouted to the world, without evidence, that Jews burned a baby in Duma appear to choke on those simple words which should be a daily mantra in the Jewsih homeland and instead has become defacto taboo ….. even to utter the words.
If Israelis daily utter these words, en masse, I guarantee that things will change for the better, because afterwards they will demand more than words…. that is what the fake right wing PM is afraid of.
😛 😛 😛
so much historical awareness… and yet in the entire seven years of his fake right wing reign he has NEVER uttered these words to anyone whether to Diplomats, govs, or Israelis:
“JEWISH SETTLEMENT IN YS IS LEGAL AND LEGITIMATE”
Instead, he facilitates euro building for 7 years, obstructs Jewish building outside the euro designated ghetto boundaries of the major blocks, he incarcerates Jewish settlers with fake arson claims, there is more muslim anti semitism in Israel than in France…. etc etc etc
This article giving thanks to the fake right wing PM looks to celebrations and parties and ignores what is important. By not recognizing that the PM is the grand obstructor, intentionally, the error cannot be corrected.
Why beg the major obstructor for relief, DUH????????
Why indeed???? I’ll tell you why: BB is a fake, he conducts his reign under the table coming to secret agreements with the saudis, PA, Euros,etc and those agreements necessitate the removal of YS… but it will take time to accomplish the goal. As soon as folks wake up he will form a gov with Herzog and blame it on the right. BB has nuetered Bennett giving him a eunuch ministry where he has become irrelevant to any issue concerning YS…. even as Education Minister he cannot correct the ignorance of israelis as children growing up and as adults wallowing in ignorance… wrt the legal, historical and ethical rights of Jews to settle in YS.
It is not by accident that BB has refrained from saying these words for the entire seven years of his reign:
“JEWISH SETTLEMENT IN YS IS LEGAL AND LEGITIMATE”
I predict that BB will at some time in the future utter these words or a reasonable facsimile thereof….. when right wing Jews who elected him wake up and demand the answers…. but then he will do it in a way like his pretend tearing down of illegal euro structures built for 7 years…… when he tore down a couple of outhouses and a tent….. pretending to his dumb electorate that he is now doing or saying something. Every day I hear right wing wails from those who elected BB and I never cease to wonder why they just dont get it.
Its not the right to Judea and Samaria that Israel as a nation must revlaim, but the name of the People needs to be changed WORLDWIDE from Diaspora ‘Jews’, to Israeli Yehudim. People outside of the Arab world have no idea that Jews and Judea are related, even if in Arabic we are Yehudim! It is much harder to evict rightful owners of a property which is named after them.