By Ted Belman
The right in Israel rejects the creation of a Palestinian state, whether or not demilitarized, and supports settlement construction in Area C of Judea and Samaria as defined by the Oslo Accords. Israel’s current government does neither.
But it does say that now is not the time to create a Palestinian state. Big deal, so does the Zionist Union led by Isaac Herzog.
The key difference between the actions of the current government and the Unilateral Separation Plan of the Zionist Union is that the latter wants to build a barrier around the settlement blocks and to divide Jerusalem with a barrier in order to separate the Arabs from the Jews.
Both want to keep the IDF in place. Both are against building outside of the settlement blocs and both want the approval of the US to building inside the settlement blocs.
Yair Lapid, head of Yesh Atid, says Israel Must Accept Arab Peace Initiative as Basis for Talks
“Israel’s master strategy needs to be moving toward a regional arrangement that will enable a full normalization of relations with the Arab states and the establishment of a demilitarized Palestinian state alongside the State of Israel.”
Although the title to this article referred to the Arab Peace Initiative, Lapid himself referred to the Saudi Peace Plan which differs from the Arab Peace Initiative in that it does not stress the right of return for Palestinians refugees.
Thus opposition leaders, Lapid and Herzog, are prepared to negotiate based on the ’67 lines plus swaps, but not now. The same for Netanyahu.
Lapid recently said, “It was clear the Left would not be in power for the next 30 years.” Accordingly Lapid presents himself as a centrist.
“I come from a home with the legacy of the nationalist camp,” he said, noting that his father, former minister Yosef “Tommy” Lapid, was a follower of former Prime Minister Menachem Begin. “I am enthusiastically in favor of annexing the Golan. My principle says maximum Jews on maximum land with maximum security and with minimum Palestinians.”
Thus both Herzog and Lapid are pushing for separation. So is Netanyahu who keeps saying he is against a bi-national state.
On the question of the current terror attacks Lapid said on Walla News on October 11th that “whoever takes out a knife or a screwdriver– should be shot dead”. That puts him to the right of Netanyahu.
Lapid who is positioning himself to challenge Netanyahu for the premiership has also made moves to reconcile with Shas and UTJ saying only that he will work to convince them that it is in their interest to teach their children, math and English. Thus he is paving the way for them to be in his coalition.
Lapid is yet to support the NGO bill but he did announce his intention to introduce a Bill that would prevent Israeli nonprofits that “vilify” the state from being funded by organizations that support a boycott of Israel. He went on to single out Breaking the Silence.
“Criticism builds us as a society, but there is a fundamental difference between criticism and vilifying officers and IDF soldiers abroad. That is not criticism, but undermining the foundations of the state. Organizations like Breaking the Silence have crossed the red line from criticism into subversion.”
This places him again to the right of Netanyahu who has yet to make this distinction.
Avigdor Liberman, head of Yisrael Beiteinu (Our Israel Home), has positioned himself to the right of Netanyahu on all things. For instance, he is for capital punishment for terrorists, for allowing hunger strikers to die in prison, for destroying Hamas, for not releasing terrorist prisoners, for killing on the spot, any terrorist who comes to kill a Jew, for enabling the Knesset to over-rule the Supreme Court and so on. He complains that Netanyahu gave away Hebron and supported Sharon’s disengagement until the last moment. He, on the other hand, opposed it and was kicked out of the government for so doing.
As for his trial balloon floated a number of years ago about swapping the area known as the Triangle–which encompasses Palestinian villages like Umm al-Fahm and Taibeh in exchange for parts of Judea and Samaria, I am advised that he has moved on from that suggestion.
When Isaac Herzog delivered his speech calling for separation, he burnished his security credentials by going to the right of the current government in its treatment of Hamas. He went on to say:
“They will have no immunity and for every attack they’ll pay a heavy price. This won’t mean dummy bombings of empty areas. We’ll employ an effective iron fist and shut down their radio and TV stations. After that they won’t have internet or mobile phone services. They won’t be able to transmit instructions to terrorists. We’ll take harsh and severe steps, including ones directed at their leaders.”
As for the terror tunnels Hamas is building, he said,
”The political leadership must provide a clear public answer to the citizens. [It must] stop hesitating…. They must instruct the IDF to bomb the tunnels and destroy this threat”.
In response to this, Haaretz published an article titled, Herzog passes Netanyahu on the right.
Back to our so-called right-wing government.
Bayit Yehudit (Jewish Home), the most right-wing party in the government is no longer demanding a lifting of the building freeze, thought it would like it lifted.
Its leader, Naftali Bennett, in his capacity of Minister of Education, has been working to improve Arab education, so much so, that Haaretz published an article last June, calling him an Unlikely Champion of Arab Education. Shortly thereafter he announced that Arab children would start to learn Hebrew in kindergarten saying “Improvement of Hebrew among Arab students will result in their ability to more easily integrate into the Israeli workforce, and economy and society at large”. In December he announced the creation of the first dedicated academic college for Arab Israelis saying “There is no doubt that the Arab public lacks an academic institution of excellence, which is suited to the demand and will advance equality within Israeli society.” and further “The aim of establishing a college, over and above the equality issue, is to prevent Arab citizens from studying in institutions in Arab countries or in Hebron.”
This is beyond my comprehension. Israel has a serious problem with Arab “resistance”, which takes the form of daily riots and terrorist acts. This resistance is promoted by the Palestinian Authority, the Arab schools and the Mosques. Why would Israel want to add to this indoctrination by creating an Arab University? The entrance requirements to Israel’s Universities is the same as for Jews and Arabs. In fact 20% of the Hebrew University students are Arab, the same percentage as in the population itself.
So Bennett not only wants to position himself and his party as a bridge between the religious and the secular but also between the Arabs and the Jews.
Bennett, at least, is pushing the Zionist enterprise in other ways.
He is dedicated to inculcating traditional religious-Zionist values in the nation’s youth. To this end he has revised the civics text book by adding these values and announced that this year would be the year of United Jerusalem. The left is outraged. It wants the text book to stress democratic values rather than Zionist values.
Ayelet Shaked, also of Jewish Home, as Justice Minister, is doing her part to push for legislation which strengthens Israel as a Jewish state such as the NGO Transparency Bill which applies solely to non-profits that receive more than half their funding from foreign governments, the Nation-state Bill which would enshrine as a Basic Law the concept that Israel is the nation-state of the Jewish people and sets out that all Israeli law must be interpreted according to this principle, the Bill to allow 90 MKs to suspend a fellow lawmaker for “inappropriate behavior” and two Bills; one bill to allow the Knesset to override a court decision striking down its legislation, and the other to change the judicial selection process by diluting the power of sitting Supreme Court justices on the panel.
She is meeting great resistance but is undaunted. Obviously many in the so-called right-wing government are either against this legislation or in favor of watering it down. Accordingly, the government is not as right wing as the right want it to be.
Herzog says the Jewish nation-state bill puts the country at risk of losing its character as a “democratic and egalitarian” country.
While Lapid, Herzog and Lieberman keep pushing for separation, the government keeps pushing for integration. You would think it’s the other way around. In this vein the government is doubling work permits for Arabs, investing NIS 15 billion in Arab municipalities, is releasing NIS 500 million to the PA of the taxes collected by Israel for them but withheld until now.
As far back as June of last year Evelyn Gordon wrote Israel’s ‘Hardline’ Government Unveils Major Benefits for Israeli Arabs in which she described revolutionary moves by the government to improve Arab housing and to boost funding for Arab schools by a billion shekels (about $260 million) over 5 years.
Could it be that Netanyahu and Bennett are looking to garner Arab votes for their parties? Or have they simply accepted the idea that we are doomed to live together and might as well make the best of it.
During the last Gaza war, Netanyahu rejected ceasefires proposed by Pres Obama which involved enabling a role for Qatar and Turkey, two arch enemies of Israel, choosing instead to combine with Egypt in pushing for the ceasefire they both wanted. Turkey, at the moment has no diplomatic relations with Israel and is a supporter of Hamas which is dedicated to destroying Israel and killing all Jews.
Nevertheless, Israel subsequently gave Qatar a role in Gaza to manage the reconstruction of Gaza and is currently negotiating with Turkey to afford them a role in Gaza too. Turkey wants the blockade lifted and a port to be approved. It also wants to be contracted to build the port. Although the government denies that they are in discussions for a port, its denials are not credible. Surprisingly, Minister Uri Ariel, also of Jewish Home, is in favor of building such a port arguing we must give them economic freedom but not military freedom. Bennett is vehemently opposed.
This government is also wobbly on the EU. The EU is actively working against any right wing policies regarding Judea and Samaria. They went so far as to require all products produced by Jews in Judea and Samaria (West Bank) to be labeled accordingly. Israel retaliated by shutting them out of any peace process but this hardline was quickly abandoned for a small concession.
The EU continues to finance illegal Arab construction in Area C, to finance an illegal road through Area C to the Dead Sea and to finance subversive NGO’s. (The Oslo Accords created Area C and gave Israel full jurisdiction over it.) Our so-called right-wing government accepts this with hardly a whimper.
Obviously the government’s policy is to manage the status quo by taking small steps toward accommodation. It wants to lessen the friction and to enable both sides accept the other. It believes that, sometime way in the future, the two-state solution will come into being. Either that or that the terms of Oslo will become permanent.
Critics complain that Netanyahu is all reaction and no action.
Perhaps the government’s action or lack of it is more sinister than that.
David Bedein accuses Israel of being complicit in the EU take-over of Judea and Samaria. According to him Israel made a quiet agreement with the EU in 2005 to permit the EU to take-over Judea and Samaria. What you see now is proof of the pudding.
A real right–wing government should be basing its policies on ultimately extending Israeli sovereignty to all or part of the Judea and Samaria. The current government offers no sign of that. Quite the opposite.
http://www.economist.com/node/2721072
Netanyahu’s profile has been robustly exposed by several of us for years. Our profiling of the subject coincides with the descriptions advanced in this Blog by most participants.
He is at the top of the heap of deceitful, treacherous, duplicitous, false, conniving and far worse operators against Jewish National interests. Peres would the top at that.
His gruesome contortions to hide his real line during “disengagement” is classical Netanyahu.
Further. His speecherism as policy came to full fruition in the Iranian stunt he pulled. The miserable charlatan used cardboard props and color markers, idiotic appeals to “the world” as he intentionally allowed Iran to complete its plans.
His “folding”, well coordinated with his Oslo generals in every war with enemies are also a matter of record. Netanyahu pretending to be willing to attack Iran and again “folding” was another one by the speechster.
His leading role into freezing to this day construction for Jews was and remains a well coordinated act. His claim again is that it is due to “pressure”…
The whole structure as it is must be taken down and the people must freely, OUTSIDE the precooked combina, select a new government system and representatives.
The general staff removed from the roots and new, vetted military officers presented to New Jewish National Assembly for approval.
Judges, all of them, must be set aside and FREE elections with the NJNA final say, must set in place new Judges.
Police also must be reformatted as above.
Etc.
@ Bear Klein:
He stayed in the government and voted for the pullout as a senior member of Sharon’s government and voting against would have gotten him fired which Sharon who hated BB would have done with glee. BB the stinking lowlife opportunist he is waited until the pullout was a fait acompli and then quit to give himself credit as in opposition. He played both sides and it was so transparent it would either make you laugh or be sick at his callousness and duplicity…. BB is a real piece of Sh*t I really hate programed partisan rrevisionist history…. Problem is I was there and knew what he was doing as did most in the country but the brain dead so called right cheered him instead of condeming him.
@ bernard ross:
Glad you have been convinced that I have been right about BB all along 😛
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/08/07/AR2005080700308.html
Keli-A Said:
I agree.. and I beleive that if Israel enacted a zero tolerance set of laws on anti semitism which made confiscation of property and deportation mandatory that under this over time many of them, especially the worst can be deported without violating international law. I say this because nations have laws on racism and anti semitism just not as harsh. Therefore they can only bawl at it being cruel and unusual punishment, but not a war crime. Certainly everyone would expect that the Jewish homeland would have the harshest such laws. Its based on behavior not ethnics. EG if a parent sent his children to a school knowingly which teaches jews are sons of apes and pigs the school would be closed and confiscated, the principle and imam deported and their property c onfiscated… the parent would be deported or his children taken away for commiting this heinous crime. Saudi and pakistan chop heads for blasphemy.
Keli-A Said:
I dont undersatnd this and even wonder if its done on purpose to get larger military budgets. If what they say is true it seems to me that they have to try to devaste lebanon in one to a few days and first by jamming all electronic systems with a pre emptive strike…
Keli-A Said:
This sounds to me like a case of treason
bernard ross Said:
Only real deterrent but tranfer is the only real cure. Still we lose site of the real threat that’s Hezbollah with their rockets and by now some chemically armeed and Iran down the not so far road….. Israel has developed since OSLO a conflict avoidence senior military cadre even to the point of capitualtion to our enemies and appeasement mainly to American diktats….. America rules Israel first thru leverage on key institutional Israel and then thru our security agecy’s and IDF senior officer corp. BB even if he were so inclined would never buck the IDF, Shabak and to a lesser degree the Mossad…The Putch they exercized against BB and Barak a few years ago to Nix an attack against Iran case in point
The established sequence is:
Bloviate.
Equivocate.
Capitulate.
Rinse and repeat.
So, what’s BB’s plan, other than talk? Why not confiscate those funds or subtract the pal customs that amount…… certainly something more than talk should be expected from BB once in a while? If he is always going to talk, or threaten and then cancel….. why not say nothing and just let it all happen, less drama to get to the same place.
See, killing the enemy is the best deterrent.
babushka Said:
try to avoid the hysteria, it casts a cloud on your credibility
(have you ever heard of poetic license?)
All due credit for consistency.
You also advocate that America needs a Robert Mugabe.
Israel needs a robert mugabe to deal with the honor killers like he dealt with the euros.
@ bernard ross:
Netanyahu voted consistently in favor of “disengagement” and those of us in the Likud then knew that Netanyahu would have bolted with Sharon. Livni, Olmert and the rest of the ghastly trash that planned and managed the high treason act called “disengagement”.
But after Sharon’s exit Netanyahu may have been guided… to stay in the “likud” and follow the libretto.
Netanyahu is the worst person ever to gain top level.
“Unity”… with Livni and Hertzog was all along a foregone conclusion. That is where he belongs since day one. I venture to say that even Meretz is akin to him.
And I will say it again. Netanyahu fabricated his TV shows while he allowed Iran to advance their plans. So did Dagan. Dagan was specifically selected by Sharon.
Believing a single word emanating from either specimen is suicidal.
I would not give an anti semite one inch of the jewish homeland as a reward for his anti semitism….. which is what many plans here propose. If you cannot live in peace then it is you who must leave my home. but the Jews in Israel are not even sure who’s home it is…. shouldnt Bennet remedy that oversight as Minister of Education?
@ SHmuel HaLevi 2:
before the election I gave BB the benefit of the doubt although I was suspicious. the election, and observation of his actions has made it clear that BB operates with an agenda of deceit and keeps hidden that which causes him to operate with deceit and in opposition to a true right wing agenda. My view is that he has under the table understandings with the arabs and the euros and that the rest is a drama put on to obscure those understandings. He might beleive that what he is doing deceitfully is good for Israel, but I have no doubt he is operating illegally and deceitfully.
Notice how every day the platform of BB and Herzog converge. In my view it only remains for the right to bolt for the unity gov with the left to emerge.
Bear Klein Said:
they have had decades of residency as citizens… and it is not working out… the proof of the pudding is in the eating and the pudding has already been eaten and proven… why avoid the truth?
Bear Klein Said:
what is interesting to me is that I never read from Israelis that a history or behavior of anti semitism should disqualify someone from residency or citizenship. It is almost absurd that it appears irrelevant in Israel, of all places.
The elephant in the room is the serial,chronic, congenital, pathological anti semitism of arabs which renders any consideration of a real and full peace ludicrous AND inviting anti semites to live in your home is only a narrative that a Jew would consider…. every other people would have too much self esteem to even imagine such a concept. Until Israelis recognize and acknowledge the reality it is just a bunch of ignorant stockholm syndrome dhimmis chatting foolishness. Instead they grasp at every straw to avoid it…. if an arab does not seek to murder a jew today, they blow it up into a magnificent “peace” scenario.
Outlaw with zero tolerance and severe penalties, ALL anti semitism in Israel and then things will change, including world respect. If this is too much then the whole thing is hopeless and will fall apart. Remember, the only time the Jews got respect is when they totally destroyed the arabs in the 6 day war…. that is how the human race operates…. no respect is garnered for appeasement and weakness.
@ bernard ross:
Precisely. Further. Anyone still trying to insert another “insider” into leading is making it impossible to rid of the vermin in there.
The whole enchilada must be tossed out.
NEW and vetted outsiders must be elected by the people to replace the trash.
If the Jews have difficulty expelling anti semites from their homeland then all these plans are worthless. No other population would have this dilemma and suffer this abuse. It is absurd to fight wars only to have the Odeh’s and Zoabi’s in your home inciting their kin to murder Jews… one anti semitic word or act should have their properties confiscated, loss of citizenship and residence rights and their deportation. No one respects a people who accept this situation in their home…. they would suspect, and rightly so, that such people are themselves enablers of the pathology.
here is another sneaky fraud by BB, the usual MO… lots of noise to show he is right wing and then when things calm down he quietly and deceitfully gives in to the enemy. And make no mistake that in spite of the cooperation in their own self interest the bulk of their population are Jew haters: pals, Jordan, egypt.
See how he did that, no one hardly noticed.
and this is what it was designed to expose, which they continue with the facilitation of BB:
I suggest that a major deterrent and mechanism of transfer would be a zero tolerance policy against anti semitism in Israel which carries the penalty of banning from immigration AND deportation of those in Israel with a history of anti semitism. that means that every mosque, school, teacher, org, politician can become subject to deportation. Start in Israel and then later do the same in a and b to thin out the anti semites. This can ultimately transfer over 3/4 of the anti semites.
How can anyone fight it? Modern Israel was created to be a haven against anti semitism, it can be said to be the driving force of its creation. Who could dispute that Jews in their homeland have a right to keep it free of anti semites. They would have a choice to cease and desist or leave. also, their properties should be confiscated under those laws….. this includes the BDS churches. If you teach your children that Jews are sons of apes and pigs then you, your school, your mosque, your imam would have property confiscated and be deported. It would also prevent unification immigration of relatives of Israeli arabs. Its what I call stealth transfer but it is the right thing to do… no jew should be subject to anti semitism in Israel…. for that they can stay in europe.
100 years of this! Where is Meir Kahane when you need him? No one leader in the Knesset who would actually appeal to mainstream Israel and get rid of the hostile (terrorist Arabs) and their supporters!
Nir Barkat the Mayor of Jerusalem is a potential Prime Minister he just joined the Likud. Could he be the unifier of Israelis and do the right thing for the people of Israel?
YouTube video of Naftali Bennett’s Stability Plan for Israel
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n1oFOEY_6lM
Bennett if you look at his plan divides the Land one one side Israel will annex Area C of Judah & Samaria. Areas A/B are Palestinian autonomous as now basically except there will be financial incentives to the Arabs there plus roads will be built to make the area contiguous.
This would be permanent and the IDF stays and provides military control. The Palestinians have municipal style control.
It is a unilateral Israel plan with NO withdrawals with a carrot to the Arabs to go along with it. He says the plan is flexible to amendment.
Since in reality no one is actually working on getting rid of the Arabs in large numbers via payment or expulsion of terrorists (and supporters). This is the best of the current new paradigms.
No Jew is moved from their home and the Jewish Towns become permanent. The idea just like the Golan people over time will get used to the idea. Perhaps over a long time if no Pal state is on the table the violence will go down. If not perhaps a leader will arise to expel the terrorists and their supporters who is not consulting with the Attorney General but acting!
It is the lowest risk of the ideas.
The annexation can be down in Stages starting with Settlements Blocks or all the Jewish Towns and Cities in Area C. The Areas with Arab Towns can be down much more slowly. This would need a detailed plan so we do not end up letting Arab terrorists get Israeli I.D. cards allowing them to travel all over Israel. Perhaps someone will try buying out complete Arab villages near Jewish Towns and paying the residents to leave (just a vision at this point and not a reality yet).
I would suggest the following basic points as the outline of the plan:
Annex Area C.
Help the Arabs there emigrate.
Register the people there. Ask do you want to stay and demonstrate loyalty to the Jewish Democratic State of Israel.
This will require learning Hebrew; your children will be required to provide civil national service at age 18 to 20.
You will be required to inform on anyone planning terrorist acts including family members. This will be a condition of residency!
If after 10 years of residency they wish to apply for citizenship they may.
There then will be at least a two year period to investigate if they have successfully fulfilled the requirements of residency prior to bestowing citizenship. If they and their immediate family have met the conditions citizenship can be bestowed upon them.