Acknowledgement of the disaster that is a Palestinian state is clear today even on the Left, but the question of the timing for the application of sovereignty still deters many. The opposite is true. Now is an opportunity to initiate a change in the rules of the game.
For years we have heard countless times the phrase “this is not the time to apply Israeli sovereignty over Judea and Samaria,” and in recent months more than ever. This serial excuse against sovereignty is heard again along with the learned rationales: America, Europe, sanctions, the Hague, Ramadan, existential war, and more and more reasons whose objective is one – to remove the sovereignty vision from public discourse.
To all these, a new claim has been added, which also seeks to discourage. Hamas attacked a sovereign territory, Hezbollah fires on Israeli sovereign territory, so what good is sovereignty?
To counter all these, we must start by answering one big fundamental question: Why is Israel at war?
Our enemies waged war against us simply because Israel’s sovereignty in its land is anathema to them. From their perspective, the entire land, from the river to the sea, belongs to them, and Israel has no right to exist.
Even in the Israeli Left, the well-known historical fact, which is also recognized worldwide, is known: the heartland of Israel, Judea and Samaria, belongs to the people of Israel on the basis of a divine promise. Our ancestors walked in the hills of Judea and Samaria, our prophets prophesied, our Tabernacles and Temples were built, and there we battled and dreamed. Nevertheless, they say, perhaps it is worth it to take the chance, to relinquish Judea and Samaria and perhaps tranquility will come. The Arabs will be “there”, and we will be “here”, and between us, a fortified partition will be erected.
The objective of this perception is postponement of the end. It is the thought that if we ignore the Arabs' demand for the entire land, restrain ourselves and cave in to some of their demands, perhaps we can acquire a bit more calm. Indeed, the concept of buying calm has been effective for some time. On the surface, relative calm was preserved over the years except for occasional rounds of fighting, while beneath the surface, the Arab enemy grew stronger, armed, incited, agitated, trained, mobilized forces, preparing to inflict the blow that came upon us on the morning of Simhat Torah after a period of purchased calm that blinded us.
In the spirit of that concept, there are those among us who call to perpetuate it. We will gain more calm for a few more years in exchange for a Palestinian state rising in Judea and Samaria and spare us the headache of ruling over Gaza they say. Let us leave the results of the fortification of enemy forces for future generations.
Even opponents of the Palestinian state, who well understand its dangers to the existence of the State of Israel, fear application of Israeli sovereignty over Judea and Samaria and claim that the timing when the United States arms us wartime is not the right timing to initiate a move so opposed to the perception of the current administration in the White House.
Contrary to all these, our perception in the Sovereignty Movement is the diametric opposite. We believe that the harsh and terrible reality in which we find ourselves since the morning of Simhat Torah on October 7th is the result of the failure to apply Israeli sovereignty over Judea, Samaria, the Jordan Valley, and the Gaza Strip. Failure to apply sovereignty is interpreted as the Jewish people’s denial of its past, a lack of faith in the righteousness of its path, and all these are a destructive impetus for our enemies’ attacks. Victory over the enemy will come when Israel will initiate the just and moral step of applying sovereignty to its land. In that way, the possibility of the enemy establishing a state in our land will be eradicated.
Initiating sovereignty is indeed a challenging political step, but its chances of success are good if implemented properly. Sovereignty will bring about a clear shift in consciousness, for us, our enemies, and the entire world, which will finally make clear to whom this land belongs, prove that terror does not pay, ensure Israel’s strategic depth, enable regional stability, preserve the ecology in the land, provide a horizon for economic and real estate development, and many other benefits, whose headline is: a strategic vision for Israel’s centennial year, when there will be at least twenty million inhabitants living here west of the Jordan river.
The issue of the status of the Arabs of Judea and Samaria on the day after sovereignty is the most challenging of all. The answer we promote is granting residency status, i.e full rights except for Knesset voting rights to those Arabs in Judea and Samaria who will not accept the proposal of voluntary emigration that will be submitted to them together with generous compensation. Residency status will be granted to those Arabs who wish to stay under Israeli sovereignty once they prove they do not seek to undermine the basis of the Jewish State as the nation state of the Jewish People.
We opened with the question of timing and will continue with the issue of timing. Precisely at this time of war in the south, the former American ambassador to Israel, David Friedman, published a systematic plan for the initiation of Israeli sovereignty over all of Judea and Samaria based on the biblical promise and the obligation to ensure Israel's security.
The Sovereignty Movement views the timing of the war as a historic opportunity, an event that will change the political and regional rules of the game, and it is specifically in its wake that the time has come to clarify to whom this land belongs, and it is we who must be the ones to clarify this. If we do not do so, the world will decide for us on the basis of its interests.
Throughout the brief history of the State of Israel it has been proven that when we are strong, the world respects us. So it was after the establishment of the State of Israel, despite all the enemies lying in wait to destroy it; so it was after the victory in the Six Day War; so it was after liberating the hostages from Entebbe; and so it was after the bombing of the nuclear reactor in Iraq, not always with the approval of the United States. The world recognizes determination, belief in our moral righteousness, and strength, and takes a stand supporting us.
In summary: This is the time for the application of Sovereignty! Israel should begin with the Jordan Valley as a first and necessary step to secure the eastern border of Israel based on the broad national consensus that exists in this area. This is the right time to implement it. This is the time to establish a strong Zionist vision, which is based, as it has been since the beginning of practical Zionism, on three pillars – security, settlement, and aliya. A determined people with a clear vision can overcome any enemy.
“Only with the compass of vision in our hands will we find our way in the stormy waves of our turbulent times” (David Ben-Gurion)