Sovereignty Now!

Here in Israel we've been living in a dangerous absurdity for over fifty 50 years.

In June, 1967, against all odds and predictions, not only did the State of Israel survive the war which began with vicious threats of annihilation from Egypt's Gamal Nasser, who had galvanized the Arab world and easily got the United Nations to withdraw its Peacekeeping Forces, but when the dust settled after battles on three fronts, lasting less than a week, Israel was victorious.

In all honesty, to say that "Israel was victorious" is an understatement. Not only did the State of Israel defeat the three neighboring countries which had attacked, Egypt, Syria and Jordan, but the IDF Israel Defense Forces liberated land on all three fronts.

On the Egyptian front, the unpopulated Sinai desert and Gaza fell into Israeli hands, as the Egyptian soldiers rapidly fled back to Egypt. On the northern front with Syria, Israel succeeded in pushing the Syrians out of the Golan Heights, which has drastically improved the security of northern Israel, most notably the agricultural communities which had suffered greatly from Syrian attacks over the years. And most significant was that Jordan lost what they had referred to as the "west bank," land they had illegally occupied and didn't develop since the 1949 ceasefire. In the UN Partition Plan, that area was supposed to be an additional invented* Arab state.

Davka, the land liberated from Jordan is the Biblical Land of Israel, where most of Ancient Jewish History had taken place. Besides Beersheva, which Israel has held and developed since the establishment of the State of of Israel, the other main Biblical cities, Shechem, Hebron, Shiloh and Walled Jerusalem were all liberated from the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan in June, 1967.

For some inexplicable, fokokt reason, instead of annexing and declaring full sovereignty over all of that miraculously liberated Land, like any normal country would do, Israeli leaders decided to hold it to use as "payment" for "peace" with our enemies. On the whole, our enemies haven't taken the bribe.

Egypt, under Nasser's successor Sadaat, did accept the Sinai sans Gaza in exchange for what could be called a "cold peace." The price for Israel was extremely high, since it involved the destruction of Jewish communities and the forced exile of their Jewish residents.

The Golan, where there are many Jewish communities, can't be given away without endangering northern Israel. And considering the instability and violence in Syria, the truth is that not even the Arabs in the area really want change.

For some totally mystifying reason, Israeli politicians have been claiming that it's possible to allow a "State of Palestine," sic to established in some of Judea Samaria without causing danger to the State of Israel and the Jewish communities which would be "permitted" to remain. This questionable policy, which is now supported by people all over the world, has caused a dangerous instability and uncertainty among the local Arabs. It has davka pushed them into allying with Arab terrorists. That's because  it's clear to them that if Israel, Gd forbid, leaves, the terrorists will rule.

Sorry Charlie, as the saying goes, but without a strong Israeli presence, not only will Arab terror rage and rule, but the State of Israel would be in serious danger. And obviously, Israel can't buy peace for Land.

The only way we can start on the road to peace is by imposing Israeli Sovereignty on all of the Land Israel controls, including what had been given to the PA-Palestinian Authority.

Sovereignty Now!

Shiloh, Israel

This is my new facebook cover photo, which I produced for 52Frames "Hello From..." challenge. Following is what I wrote:

"Shiloh, Israel"
One of the downsides of being a longtime member of 52Frames is finding a new angle to this challenge. That's why instead of using a picture I took of our iconic Tabernacle Synagogue, based on the Biblical Tabernacle which stood here in Shiloh for almost four hundred years, or the area of the Biblical Shiloh, I looked for a different view. I shot east from the archeological site, but I wasn't fully satisfied with the photo. Then today I was in Jerusalem and photographed an Israeli flag, flying outside a store. Yes, I used the double exposure tool in snapseed to combine a picture of western Shiloh with an Israeli flag. It may be kitschy, but I like it. Sometimes patriotism is kitschy at times, but it's not a crime. Modern Shiloh is celebrating forty-one years this week, perfect timing.

*To this day, there has never been a history of unity, peoplehood among those Arabs living west of the Jordan river. To be perfectly honest, until Great Britain brought the Hashemites in to occupy and rule Transjordan, east of the Jordan River, there had never been an independent country, society, culture, people etc there either.