War Musings #75: The War is The Result of Dangerously Incorrect Israeli Policies Since Our 1967 Victory

The Land is all ours in terms of History and 1967 Victory, but successive governments have failed to declare Israeli Sovereignty which has caused our enemies to get stronger and more confident. That's why we are forced to fight successive wars for our very survival.

The Land is all ours in terms of History and 1967 Victory...

Europe's and many other countries' policy as reported here, EU moving toward implementing sanctions on Israeli West Bank settlements, ambassador confirms, is the price of Israel's waffling on our rights to all the Land, Judea, Samaria, Jordan Valley and Sinai which were liberated 59 years ago this week in the Six Days 1967 War. If the government of the time had proudly and confidently declared full Israeli Sovereignty ריבונות over every inch/centimeter of it, the world would have understood it and accepted it. But The State of Israel responded with shocked embarrassment and even "disgust." With few exceptions, making a better straighter road between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv and expanding the Jerusalem borders to include the Old City, Mount Scopus and Neve Yaakov, which had a lot of Jewish owned land, nothing else was made officially Israel.

Farms, agricultural communities mostly for export were begun in the Golan, Jordan Valley and northern Sinai, but Israel didn't declare sovereignty there. Our misguided successive governments just kept offering to return the land in exchange for peace. Menachem Begin foolishly followed Labor policy and gave away the Sinai, Israel's perfect buffer zone, to Egypt. Arik Sharon and his followers used that precedent to justify his Disengagement, destruction of Gush Katif. And all it did was to increase the attacks on Israel. Yes, that was after no more Israelis were in Gaza. Their hatred and aggression, as you must know, only got worse after Israel's withdrawal, because they saw Israel's weakness and lack of self loyalty.

I was 18 on the outbreak of the Six Days War, and I remember how awed the world was at our miraculous victory. It was squandered by successive Israeli governments. When will we ever learn....?

Hamas/Gaza War Musings #65: I'm Terrified of The Next Round of The War

 

I guess this is a continuation of the previous Hamas/Gaza War Musings post, #64: Nu? Where's The Victory? Has It Flown Away?

The "ceasefire" is endangering Israel. All it's doing is giving more time and opportunities for our enemies, all over, to rearm and train to attack even more of Israel. Here's a recent headline In One Day: Hamas Terrorists Violate Ceasefire Three Times.

Please remember:

CEASEFIRE ISN'T PEACE

Any study of world history will make it clear, that a total, absolute undeniable VICTORY, meaning that the enemy has surrendered, there won't be peace. The aim of Hamas, Fatah, Hizbolla and their international backers is the total destruction, Gd forbid, of the State of Israel. If you think that I'm exaggerating, then what do you think they mean by "from the river to the sea..." They've fantasized and invented a totally false perverse history and narrative of this part of the world. 

Unfortunately, most Israelis, including the government, are plagued with what's called "Ghetto Mentality." They fear complete Jewish sovereignty here in Israel. Close to sixty, yes 60, years ago when we miraculously defeated three neighboring countries, Egypt, Syria and Jordan, in the 1967 Six Days War, we didn't react as strong proud, sovereign victors. 

Instead of happily and proudly expanding our borders to the very defensive ceasefire lines, as any normal country would do, the government of the time sent messages to the defeated enemies that we'd be willing to return the vast majority of the Land for peace. Immediately after the Six Days War, the Arabs recognized us as strong victors, but those messages made Egypt and Syria think they had a chance to destroy us and attacked on Yom Kippur, 1973. The United States was involved, knew about it and lied to Israel about suspicious activity on the Egyptian border. Read Bruce Brill's Deceit of an Ally. It was only because Arik Sharon refused to obey government orders that we were victorious in 1973. Yes, he saved the State of Israel. 

When Menachem Begin of the Cherut Party, of the pre-state Etzel, became Prime Minister they feared a stronger Israel. After Begin's enthusiastic embrace of American leadership and the Camp David Accords. Yup. Menachem Begin made a deal with Egypt's Sadat, destroyed the nascent Jewish communities in the Sinai and handed it over to Egypt. The Arabs saw how weak aka Ghetto Mentality, we are, and things have just gotten progressively worse. Long time serving Prime Minister Binyamin Bibi Netanyahu is even weaker than any other prime minister. He likes talking tough, but he has never won a war. There have been many attacks on Israel since he took office, and all he does is get things to quiet down a bit, until the next attack. I don't understand how people can trust him.

Also, Israel still hasn't declared full Israeli Sovereignty on the Land liberated in that very just, defensive war, the 1967 Six Days War.

I'm disgusted and frightened. To me this isn't history. I remember all of this happening. I graduated high school in June, 1967. I was already and Zionist and mentally packing my bags. We made aliyah only three years later.

In recent years, especially since retiring, I've been studying Tanach/Bible. One thing repeated many times is that we're not to trust foreign leaders. Only trust Gd. 

Gd gave us Free Will, and we're not puppets. When we do the right thing, Gd helps.

Hamas/Gaza War Musings #64: Nu? Where's The Victory? Has It Flown Away?

 

I had used this photo for the 52frames Fluid album. 

At the time of the terrible surprise attack on October 7, 2023, all the murders, perversions, kidnappings done to innocent Israelis, visitors and foreign workers, Israel was totally unprepared, militarily and emotionally. That must be especially said of many of the victims and southern communities, who had been proudly in the "peace camp," believing that their kindness and generosity to local Arabs, especially including Gazans, trying to prove that we had nothing to fear from those Arabs. What a shock to them when many of those very Arabs came proudly as Hamas terrorists, joining enthusiastically in the murderous terror. Some of the attacked communities didn't even have weapons for self-defense. They didn't think such a thing necessary.

To make matters worse, it took much longer than it should have for the IDF to get its act together and begin the difficult defensive war for Israel's very survival. Israel's leaders, too, have been hypnotized/brainwashed by the misconception that we weren't in danger from the south, from Gaza. I have my theories on why that happened, but it's not for now.

Since Hamas began the war against Israel on October 7, 2023, over a thousand IDF soldiers and police have been killed, besides the approximately 1,200 murdered by Hamas Gazans in the various attacks/pogroms/massacres on that first black day. 

Within a few months, miraculously for sure, it looked like we were on the way to an amazing victory, but then... things changed, and instead of being strong confident victors Prime Minister Binyamin Bibi Netanyahu began looking rather pathetic trying to get approval and praise from foreign leaders who had been growing more critical and demanding with every concession he made. 

While groups of Israelis organized returns to their former homes in Gaza, Bibi pledged in the United Nations and the United States Congress that we had no plans of settling in Gaza. To show his seriousness, every few months he'd destroy Jewish communities in Judea/Samaria. If someone counted all the Jewish homes he has destroyed in his close to twenty years as Prime Minister, it probably rivals those Menachem Begin and Arik Sharon destroyed. Yes, in case you're wondering, all were elected on the Likud slate as Prime Minister. It makes you wonder; doesn't it?

And how has been going for Israel militarily? At one point it was looking good, but instead of fighting to victory, Bibi did his usual... nothing. Simply put, negotiation isn't his strong point. Bibi specializes in hypnotizing oratory. 

After almost twenty years as Prime Minister, too many Israelis can't imagine anyone else in the role. Yes, even those who agree that the situation is terrible, and that Israel has made many mistakes are terrified of losing Netanyahu. I just don't understand them. We've all heard:

The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over expecting different results.

Do they really think that continuing with the same leader will improve things? I also like to remind people of what US President Harry Truman liked to say:

The Buck Stops Here!

Bibi can only blame himself, and we Israelis -Right, Left and Center- must admit that for us to see a true, total VICTORY, which we need for our very survival, we need new leadership, from top to bottom, from Right to Left and Left to Right. The Opposition is no more competent than the Government. They haven't proposed anything that will help. They just want to destroy Netanyahu. I wish they'd use their power and enthusiasm against Hamas, against our enemies. They are worse than the Likud. They haven't proposed VICTORY any more frequently than Bibi.

You're probably asking whom do I propose can take over... for that please wait, though you're welcome to propose people in the comments.

Twenty Years Since Disengagement- Deja Vu- The Elephant in The Room

From my blog post Opening Old Wounds, Disengagement, Part 1

There have been so many articles and youtube videos about Disengagement in the media. They mention all aspects of it, and I didn't notice any claiming that it had been a good policy decision. Thank Gd for that. 

I wrote a "letter to the editor" to the Jerusalem Post concerning the articles I had read in the paper and the magazine. This post is based on that letter which, as of today, hadn't been published. 

I was very pleased/impressed by the great variety and quantity of articles in last Friday's paper about twenty years since Disengagement, but maybe I missed something. It's a very big elephant in the room, especially for someone who has lived in Israel since 1970. I'm referring to Menachem Begin's "Camp David Accords," which is to blame for Israel's withdrawal from the Sinai and the total destruction of all Israeli communities, Yamit and others there. Disengagement was clearly modeled on it, and both Begin and Arik Sharon were Prime Ministers from the Likud. Yes, just like the Likud elections slogan: "Only the Likud Can Do It." Voluntarily destroying Jewish communities, especially agricultural ones, had been a "red line" for the Labor Party. 

Close to a half century after Menachem Begin proudly announced his "achievement," I still consider it the most insanely dangerous decision in Israeli history. As we've seen since then, Israel doesn't know how to negotiate wisely. Why didn't he insist on keeping all of the moshavim and towns in Sinai as proof of peace?

Menachem Begin, Ariel Sharon and Binyamin Bibi Netanyahu were/are plagued/cursed with a desire to show the world that they're reasonable moderates and as a result they do what they consider "diplomatic," generous endangering the security and existence of the State of Israel. 

I'll never forget Begin's speech afterward the withdrawal/destruction of Jewish communities in which he claimed that the remaining and new Israeli communities in Gaza and nearby would be forever, fully recognized forever by the world as part of Israel. 

Gush Katif was to be the replacement of the Sinai for Jewish settlement. For example, Neve Dekalim was named for the destroyed Moshav Dikla. 

Twenty plus years ago, I was incredulous that the anti-Disengagement organizers didn't use Begin's speech in the campaign. I tried to contact them about it but failed.

Tzachi Hanegbi, whose mother Geula Cohen left the Likud over the withdrawal, described the agreement as the precedent for legitimizing Disengagement.

For many of us, the scars of Begin's Sinai withdrawal have only gotten more prominent with Disengagement and Bibi's unending destruction of Jewish communities throughout Judea and Samaria.

Hamas/Gaza War Musings #50: Deja Vu, Yet Again-- Will Israel Ever Learn?

This post is based on my last night's "Gnite" on Facebook. That's a message I write most nights before going to sleep. Sometimes I haven't a clue what my fingers are going to type out, and sometimes I find myself elaborating on what has been filling my head, generally something to do with the WAR.

I think it's extremely important to remember that Israel's WAR FOR SURVIVAL has a number of fronts. From what I understand, the northern front is now quiet. But what does that mean? Did our enemies surrender?

Just a few weeks ago Israel decided that the time had come to try to destroy Iran's nuclear development, which seemed impossible, since we don't have strong enough bombs to go deeply enough. Also Iran immediately began bombing Israeli cities, and our Iron Dome and other defensive "machinery" only partially prevented destruction and death in Israeli cities. After the USA completed the bombing of Iran's nuclear development center, utilizing the damage that Israel had accomplished. This front also quieted down without anything that could be called a surrender by Iran.

Now Israel has returned to fighting in Gaza, Deja Vu.

Early in the war, I'd read in the newspapers and internet interviews with IDF reservists on the southern front who'd say it's the second, third or fourth time ... or more, they've battled and taken over the same sections of Gaza. After each of the previous wars, Bibi who was usually (or always) Prime Minister at the time, would declare that we "won," and the Gazans/Hamas/or whatever you want to call them had been stopped and "know that we're stronger." Then we'd leave, the terrorists would return and within a year or two or three, they'd attack us yet again.

Of course 20 years ago, when Arik Sharon ordered Disengagement, we were told that if the Arabs dared to attack us ... we'd be back. Obviously that was a very empty threat.

In the past twenty years, since the Israeli Government destroyed Gush Katif and turned thousands of hardworking Israelis into refugees, destroyed homes and successful businesses, we've been attacked, bombed, suffered rocket attacks and then the perverse, violent, murderous massacre and kidnapping on October 7, 2023. Arik's Disengagement failed completely.

How many wars and how many dead Israelis will it take for Bibi to get/comprehend the message? We need a TOTAL VICTORY. The enemy must surrender. It's suicidal to make a "deal" with those terrorists. And he's not even demanding that every single solitary hostage alive and dead be returned before he'd even "talk." Bibi Netanyahu doesn't know how to negotiate. He just surrenders.

I know that this may sound "cruel," but someone ought to tell the yellow "bring them out at any cost" crowd two simple things:

    1- their campaign is showing the terrorists how to break us. Just kidnap Israelis and Israel will fold.

    2- Bibi and the IDF aren't holding the hostages. They should have focused their demonstrations on the Red Cross, who've never even visited the hostages.

There won't be peace until we fight to win, to destroy the enemy and to do this we must stop the woke "humanitarian aid" and the ridiculous counterproductive "warnings" which undermine the effectiveness of our fighting and endangers our precious soldiers.

OK, I said it. I could say more... maybe next week. Gd willing...

Hamas/Gaza War Musings #39: Bibi Makes Arik Sharon Look Good

 

I wrote a version of this the other night on Facebook before I went to sleep. Many of you already know that I write a "Gnite" post before going to sleep. 

This war is driving me crazy. It seems like we'll be at war forever...

We have a government that's afraid to win. Yes, they're trying "appeasement," which doesn't give security, doesn't give a victory.

Bibi won't do anything without the permission of the USA, and that was even when anti-Israel Democrat Joe Biden was the president. Now he wants Trump's permission/support.

Bibi Netanyahu has given up our sovereignty, Israeli independence.

Deja vu to those of us who study the Tanach/Bible. One of the most repeated messages from the Nevi'im, Prophets is not to depend on foreign countries; then that meant Assyria and Egypt. Now it's the USA. Gd will only help us if we only go to Him and not to foreigners.

That's how we won so quickly and resoundingly in 1967; we had no foreign ally. In 1973 we almost lost, but then Arik Sharon, in his life's greatest action:

Sharon replied, "You don't know? We will cross the Suez Canal and the war will end over there." Sharon arrived at the front, to participate in his fourth war, in a civilian car.[44] His forces did not engage the Egyptian Army immediately, despite his requests. Under cover of darkness, Sharon's forces moved to a point on the Suez Canal that had been prepared before the war. In a move that again thwarted the commands of his superiors, Sharon's division crossed the Suez, effectively winning the war for Israel.[17] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ariel_Sharon....

Today we don't have an Arik Sharon, who later destroyed his good name by initiating Disengagement, removing the IDF and Israeli citizens, dead and alive from the Gaza Strip. It was his undoing, and we're paying the price decades later.

When he was good, he was very, very good, but when he was bad, he was HORRID!

The Leftist, American trained mafia which has been running the Israeli defense establishment in recent decades promotes yes-men, and a military leader like Arik Sharon would have been retired young and not welcomed as a reservist in recent decades. Remember that the Yom Kippur War was over half a century ago.

In recent years, decades maybe, potential IDF top officers are sent for training and instructions from the USA. Please remember that the USA has never fought a war in the USA, for its survival. Its specialty is fleeing under fire, leaving its soldiers to be captured and die. That's how it has left foreign countries in recent decades. Israel copied it in Lebanon. I wish is was a "joke;" it's the truth.

Yes, very depressing

Very dangerous

Israel is a tiny country with many enemies and no reliable human and diplomatic allies.

Gd won't help when we do what we've been doing... I keep reading this warning in the Bible, Isaiah, Jeremiah and more...

Israel must produce its own weapons, made from Israeli parts. Military industries will bring money into our coffers. The USA has a rule, that if any part of a weapon is from the states, we can't market the weapon without American permission. Over decades they've offered us "parts" to destroy our industries and economy, to make Israel depended on them. They don't give us anything from the goodness of their hearts. It's to tie us up.

I don't see Binyamin Bibi Netanyahu as strong enough to change any of this. Think about it. He's not new to the position as Prime Minister. Actually, he's the longest serving Prime Minister in the history of the State of Israel. You should know what that means...

There's no one to blame for this mess other than Bibi and the Left he has been afraid to act against. Pay attention. Listen carefully. Bibi's oratory is on the Right, but his policies are firmly Left. Arik Sharon in his good days built up the Land of Israel, including the very neighborhood I live in. Bibi can't compete with Arik, doesn't come close.

The Likud's Time Bomb

Likud-Wikipedia

It's very deja vu hearing all of the complaints frustrations from veteran, loyal Likud MKs once they recognize that yet again there are hardly any senior positions remaining for them. Those who've worked hard and shown their loyalty to Binyamin Bibi Netanyahu and the Likud, some for decades, have had to accept low-ranking or made-up positions, or none at all, as the good stuff has not only gone to coalition partners but also new and relatively inexperienced Likud MKs. At the same time they're not getting any younger. OK, they're not as old as the newly crowned King Charles of England who's barely a year older than Bibi himself.

Charles always knew that as long as he outlived his mother he'd get the crown, but it's not so simple in politics.

Please look at that chart above, which I copied from Wikipedia. Party leadership usually lasts about a decade. OK, yes, I know that Menachem Begin had been a party leader much longer, first Cherut, then GaHa"L and then finally a decade in the Likud. But the Likud party was cobbled together for the 1973/4 elections, and four years later was Begin's first victory and term as Prime Minister. He resigned/retired in 1983 and was replaced by Yitzchak Shamir who was party head for ten years, and then Netanyahu took over. 

Besides the six years of Arik Sharon seriously marred by his notorious Disengagement Plan, for most of that time and until today Binyamin Bibi Netanyahu has been leader of the Likud and Prime Minister of Israel. He was young when he took over the party, all of fourty-four 44 in October of 1993, and now there are many, many talented and aging Likud MKs younger and waiting in the wings for their chance to head the party. It doesn't look like they'll ever get the opportunity. Instead of competing against each other for leadership, there's Bibi holding onto those reins. He first grabbed them when they were still in school.

Anger and frustration are bubbling close to the surface. And it's not healthy for the party to have one leader for thirty years. It reminds me of, if you'll excuse the expression, dictatorships.  OK, I said it. What do you think?

Waiting to Hear That USA Won't Interfere in Foreign Elections

Yesterday I heard part of the press briefing by Sarah Sanders. In it she discussed the allegations of foreign interference in American elections, most notably the 2016 presidential elections. Of course she condemned any interference very firmly.

But I was waiting for her to say that she also condemns American interference in foreign elections. Especially during Obama's reign and even before, American officials backed Israel's Left wing parties in an attempt to get the Likud out of office.

That's how Labor led by Ehud Barak won in 1999. They unseated Likud and Binyamin Bibi Netanyahu with the help of American campaign experts. The wording of Barak's slogan about leaving Southern Lebanon was very familiar... And the damage the fleeing from Lebanon did was horrendous.

It took ten years for Netanyahu to return to power, and those ten years were among the most notorious in the History of the State of Israel. Arik Sharon's inexplicable turn Left to Disengagement, which placed Gaza in the firmly in the hands of Hamas terrorists who are at present burning Souther Israel with their incendiary balloons/kites etc, then Ehud Olmert who was tried and convicted for corruption.  Since then, the Israeli public has made it clear that although Netanyahu may not be perfect, they prefer him, head of Likud, as Prime Minister. But that didn't stop Barack Hussein Obama, during his presidency from supporting Bibi's opponents.

According to the U.S. Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations (PSI), the State Department gave $349,276 in U.S. taxpayer-funded grants to a political group in Israel to build a campaign operation, which subsequently was used to try to influence Israelis to vote against conservative Benjamin Netanyahu in the March 2015 election for prime minister.
In the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations report about the State Department’s action, Chairman Bob Portman (R-Ohio) said, “It is completely unacceptable that U.S. taxpayer dollars were used to build a political campaign infrastructure that was deployed — immediately after the grant ended — against the leader [Netanyahu] of our closest ally in the Middle East.  American resources should be used to help our allies in the region, not undermine them.” 

Of course, this hand nothing to do with Donald Trump, but it still would have been nice for him to admit that Americans have done the forbidden and he promises that under his leadership it won't happen again.

Disengagement Part 2, Something Unexpected

Here's Part 2 of my Disengagement series. See Opening Old Wounds, Disengagement, Part 1.

Nitzan, Gush Katif Memorial, The "price" of Disengagement

Last Friday, early during my visit with Menachem Begin Heritage Center employees to the Gush Katif Visitors Center in Nitzan, suddenly something hit me. I hadn't thought of it before at all.

I'll never forget how during the horribly tense times before the forced evacuation of Jewish communities and homes actually happened, I corrected those saying that it was a matter of 8,000 (whatever the exact number) families. I kept saying that we had to stop the precedent of Disengagement to protect Jewish life in Judea, Samaria, the Golan and Jordan Valley, even later on the rest of the State of Israel.

It was just too clear to me that a successful sic destruction would whet the appetite of those who were against Jewish life/communities in all of these places to destroy even more. And in the first flush of Disengagement, during the rule of Ehud Olmert, if I remember correctly, there was an announcement that the new maps had been drawn, and lists of the next communities to go...

Yes, I remember a government official/minister on television, looking drunk with the power of life & death happily announcing that more of the Land of Israel would be judenrein very shortly. And that included Shiloh, which then was considered small, unimportant and isolated.

But here we are over a decade later thriving. Gush Shiloh has grown enormously, as have most other Jewish towns, communities and cities in Judea/Samaria.

Despite the precision/efficiency of the army in dragging people from their homes, packing their possessions and bulldozing the houses, schools and more, the country was ripped apart and in pain by the sight of IDF solders crying and obviously traumatized by their cruel orders.

The government had put more effort into planning the destruction of Gush Katif and the Northern Shomron yishuvim included in Disengagement, than in the "day after." There were prefabricated homes set up for only a small fraction of the families. Others were crowded into small hotel rooms and rented apartments. And don't forget that the Arab terrorists in Gaza reacted to the proclamation of Disengagement, the destruction of Gush Katif by launching rockets at Israel's south. This had been going on from before the actual destruction.

Over time, as the victims of Disengagement, slowly and painfully tried to rebuild their lives, talk of destroying mine and my neighbors got softer and softer. The true price of Disengagement was/is a lot higher than the State of Israel had ever imagined it could be.

Some of the Left still pays lip service to the idea that our communities can be easily destroyed for a "peace sic agreement," but as second and even third generation Jews in Judea/Samaria build homes here reality mocks their plans.

It becomes clearer every day that Disengagement was a cruel, evil mistake. It certainly didn't bring peace, and it may have kept Arik Sharon out of "jail." But Gd then took away his power in a stroke to remind us all Who's really in charge. Davka, the ramifications in terms of Jewish life in Judea and Samaria are something else. Disengagement showed the State of Israel that we aren't chess pieces that can be easily manipulated.

My biggest complaint about the "message" from the Gush Katif Visitors Center is that when they listed communities where people moved to, they leave out the Netzarim group in Ariel and all of the many in various yishuvim of Judea/Samaria. That inaccuracy makes it very clear that the leadership didn't and don't see us all as one group with the same needs, but that would be another blog post, not as upbeat. 

Opening Old Wounds, Disengagement, Part 1

On Friday as part of the program I participated in with the Menachem Begin Heritage Center, we visited Nitzan, where there is a visitor's center which attempts to explain Disengagement. I wasn't the only English language blogger there. Click to read what Ilana wrote.

Notice that I wrote "which attempts to explain Disengagement." That's because that entire chapter of Israeli History is so awful and so inexplicable and can't be logically explained, certainly not in a nice way.

The area marked in Green is Gush Katif

One of the younger participants in the tour, which was for Begin Center employees, volunteers, retirees and their families, asked the perfect question. I can't remember her exact wording, but this is the gist of it:

"What was the reason for Disengagement?"

Our guide couldn't give an answer, so I just had to raise my hand. I prefaced my answer by saying that I'm probably the oldest person present, which wasn't countered by anyone. My husband, who is older than me, had decided to stay in the hotel and not join us.

With few exceptions, the other participants were a generation or two younger than me, so I began with a bit of history. After the 1967 Six Days War, besides Jerusalem, the only parts of the Land liberated which were settled by government decree were the Golan Heights, the Jordan Valley and Northern Sinai, which actually included what was later called Gush Katif. All of those areas/communities were for agriculture, not for Biblical, historic sentiment.

And in those days, when the Labor Party ruled, the business end of agriculture was a monopoly. Exports were only via Agrexco, which was closely entwined with the Labor Party. The big attraction of Northern Sinai and the Jordan Valley was their climates. Summer fruits and vegetables can grow there in the winter, a potentially very big money maker, especially since Israel is much closer to Europe than the competing agricultural countries in the Southern Hemisphere.

After the surprise 1977 change in the party ruling the government, when Menachem Begin's Likud took over, there were many economic changes. One of them the was end of the monopoly. Agrexco had competition, and the Left/Labor Party was not happy about it at all. The agricultural communities in Gush Katif were doing very well. As our guide told us, 10% of Israel's exports were from Gush Katif, and the numbers were growing.

That was the gist of my theory, and the guide listened and said she hadn't thought about it quite like that.

To continue with what happened here in Israel:

Apparently, the Left had something over Prime Minister Arik Sharon, and like the famous line in The Godfather, it was an offer he "couldn't refuse."

Sharon, the Bulldozer, announced that his government would destroy Gush Katif and hand the land over to the Arabs ruling Gaza. The campaign the residents and Moetzet YESHA organized was totally ineffective. 

Anti-Disengagement protests

Sharon even left the Likud with most of his ministers when the Likud's members voted against Disengagement in a referendum, which he had promised to obey.

The scars of the גירוש Girush, Uprooting, banishment, displacement, exile or whatever you want to use as a translation, are still very painful, even though most of the families have done their best to establish new lives and homes.

Most of the families, if I'm not mistaken, are now living in communities  with their former neighbors. I considered this a mistake then and haven't changed my mind.

Disengagement is in the same awful category of Israeli self-made tragedies, when the government pitted Jew against Jew, Israeli against Israeli as the horrendous Altalena Affair.

I have more to write about this, including a new idea that hit me when I was at Nitzan.

In the meantime, I'd like your reactions to this article. Please feel free to tell me in the comments, thanks.

Only the Likud Can... רק הליכוד יכול

רק הליכוד יכול

Rak HaLikud Yachol

Only the Likud Can

PERSONAL SECURITY
TRUE PEACE
FREE ENTERPRISE/MARKET
Only The Likud Can
Nationalist Camp
Jabotinsky Institute

Even when the Likud campaign staff came up with that catchy tune and phrase the unintended negative implications of the words resounded to us pragmatic cynics still reeling from Menachem Begin's surprise Sinai withdrawal, destruction of Yamit and numerous smaller communities. Davka, he the supposed extreme Right wing politician, had crossed every red line the Labor Party never dared to contemplate.

Don't forget that Arik Sharon was the Likud's Prime Minister when he announced the horrendous Disengagement Plan that unilaterally destroyed more Jewish communities and gave their Land to the Hamas Arab terrorists in Gaza.

Amona's 2006 house destruction and traumatizing police violence was  while Ehud Olmert ruled Israel in the name of the then comatose Arik Sharon. At that specific time, they called themselves the Kadima Party, but both had reached power as members of the Likud.

And here we are, deja vu, again with pastoral Amona in the sites of the Leftist Israeli Supreme Court. This time, they are out to destroy it. Families have been forced out of the homes they've lived in for years, schools and businesses shut by the government.

Netanyahu as Prime Minister and Ayelet Shaked (Jewish Home) as Minister of Justice haven't broken the hold of the Israeli Courts, which although they aren't elected by the people, somehow have been given the right, legal status that allows them to override the laws created by our elected officials, Members of the Knesset. To me this is not a true democracy, and it's immoral.

Arutz 7

At least Bibi had the decency to instruct the police to leave the horses and "special units" in their stables.

i24news

If Filipino’s Duterte had Just Left Out the “Curse”

CNN

As an Israeli and Jew I wish I’d hear our Prime Ministers say:

"I am no American puppet. I am the president of a sovereign country and I am not answerable to anyone except the Israeli/Jewish people..."

"I do not have any master except the Israeli and Jewish people, nobody but nobody. You must be respectful.” 

Sigh...

There's a big international diplomatic hullabaloo over what Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte said about American President Barack Hussein Obama, because he included a Filipino curse meaning "son a bitch" to the statement about his having no master but the Filipino people.

As a Jew and Israeli I cringe, and also cry inside and rant on my blogs, whenever I hear our Prime Ministers -yes in plural, since it happens so often- kowtow so respectively to foreign leaders and diplomats at the expense of our security and sovereignty and dignity as a nation and people.

And davka just at the same time as the Duterte-Obama controversy, David Bedein has an article in the Arutz 7 news site on the true reason that Arik Sharon declared and acted on his horrendous Disengagement policy.

Sharon gave a clear answer to the rabbi: “This is what the US is demanding that I do and I must do it.”

When will we ever learn...

The Ten Commandments' Havel Havelim, Parshat Yitro

Blog Carnival

jewish-israel blog carnival aka havel ha

archives | submit post

Havel Havelim is the veteran weekly Jewish blog carnival.  It floats from blog to blog coordinated on our facebook page.  You can submit your articles via blog carnival. Next week and the following week it will be hosted by  A Jewish Israel.  Please share, link, read, comment and join our community.

On this Shabbat, Parshat Yitro, we read the Ten Commandments.  It's customary for everyone to stand while it's being read, as we stood at Mount Sinai all those thousands of years ago, when in the greatest sound and light show ever, G-d proclaimed the basis of Judaism.  I'm going to stick to my recent custom of not identifying the blog, but I'm making a special Parshat Shavua Category.

Preparing for God
AT MOUNT SINAI

And here are the rest of the posts.  Please read, enjoy and share, thanks:

Write Kids' Books! Make dreams come true.: Interview with author / illustrator Ann D. Koffsky.
Memories
Selling boutique beer: Mission Impossible?
Thirty
Moshe Ya'alon, A Pawn or Player?
J Street's Pro is a No
Picture of the Day
Yitro vs. John Kerry – Advice vs. “Advice”
Yair Lapid vs. Israel's Chief Rabbis: Any Bets?
The religious thing
Two lives touched by the same nightmare
Tu B’Shvat, Jerusalem Transitions

Seder tu b'Shvat
36 Years of Renewed Jewish Life in Ancient Shiloh
Don't Call Me Shirley
“Palestinians” Really Do Need to be Treated like Human Beings
Write Kids' Books! Make dreams come true.: Interview with author / illustrator Ann D. Koffsky
deMOCKratic Free Speech in Israel gets Chipped Away Even Further
Today's Google Doodle - Chaim Nachman Bialik
Jewish Israel updates and announcements
Same Old Arab Rhetoric Needs an Authentically Jewish Response!
My Glorious Washing Station and Why You Should All Be Envious

Ariel Arik Sharon Memorial Section

And What are The Jewish Bloggers Saying about The Late Ariel (Arik) Sharon?
Warrior: Ariel Sharon, 1928 – 2014
That Surprisingly Small and Quiet Funeral Just Proves That Sharon's Sons and Loyalists Don't Comprehend The Sin of Disengagement
Assessing Ariel Sharon's Life
Ariel Sharon's Funeral
If Arik Had Been Healthy...
Moshiach ben Yosef and Sharon in Torah Code

In case you're not yet familiar with it, there's a fourth Jewish blog carnival.  It's monthly and focuses on reviews of Jewish books.  Here's the latest at  Needle in the Bookstack.

And don't forget that the Adar Aleph  Kosher Cooking Carnival will be hosted by  Foodiscovery  for the first time.  So please get your links to her via blog carnival.  We also coordinate on facebook.

That concludes this edition. Submit your blog article to the next edition of jewish-israel blog carnival aka havel havelim using our carnival submission form. Past posts and future hosts can be found on our blog carnival index page.

Share |

Technorati tags: jewish-israel blog carnival aka havel ha, blog carnival.

Cross-posted on me-ander

And What are The Jewish Bloggers Saying about The Late Ariel (Arik) Sharon?

A big reason I started blogging was because I wanted to get my message out, and the mainstream Israeli media couldn't be relied on.  An op-ed editor of a paper that had published a few of my articles over the years told me that I was certainly invited to send in my articles, but I should know that they could take a week or more (one article was published months after I had submitted it) to decide whether or not they'd use it.  And after they rejected it (not that they actually call up with the news) I could send it someplace else. Of course, by then the op-ed would be too old to be of any interest or monetary value. So I figured that the best thing would be for me to just take charge and blog.  I'm the owner, editor and chief blogger.  There are others who can blog on my blog, and I give them free access.

Many of us bloggers have rather uncompromising principles, and that's why the mainstream media or even slightly Right of Center doesn't give us free access to their papers and sites.  There have been many blog posts written about Ariel Sharon, and I'll link just a few of them here.

I'll start with Daniel Pinner's uncensored article, which appeared in the full on Tomer Devorah.

In Memoriam: Ariel Sharon 5688 - 5774

Esser Agaroth:

Assessing Ariel Sharon's Life

Israel Matzav

Video: Ariel Sharon's handiwork

Yeranen Yaakov

Ariel Sharon's Legacy

On Love of the Land

When Assessing Sharon’s Complex Legacy

No doubt there will be more in the next Havel Havelim here after Shabbat, G-d willing.