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....?

War Musings #74: Only Our TOTAL VICTORY and ISRAELI SOVEREIGNTY Will Bring Us Peace

 

Shiloh Cemetery, Yom Zikaron 2026 תשפ"ז
#במותםציוולנוניצחון 
Their Deaths Command Us to Be VICTORIOUS

The first time I stood in an Israeli cemetery to bury a friend killed by Arabs was in 1973, Yom Kippur War. Our Betar friends from New York lost two members in that war, one in the very early days and a second after the ceasefire... Hmmm maybe that's one of the reasons I'm so cynical about ceasefires...

In the more than half a century since we made aliyah, I've been in many cemeteries, many funerals and memorial gatherings. Some of the dead were victims of Arab terror or Arab soldiers, while others died from accidents, illness or old age.

There isn't much you can do to prevent illness and old age... they're a natural part of living. Most accidents can probably be prevented, but the babies, children, young mothers and brave soldiers who've been murdered-- victims of Arab terror and cruelty-- and I stress the word MURDERED. In recent years, especially since the horrendously cruel, perverse murderous attack on innocent Israelis of all religions and levels of religious observance, plus some unfortunate guests on October 7, 2023 most of the world, diplomats, media, academics, celebrities and ordinary people have been cheering on and supporting the aggressors--the terrorists and condemning the victims, their families, international Jewry and the State of Israel. This is worse than when Nazis attempted to murder all the Jews (and others they had considered "undesirables") in Europe. 

This may confuse some people... It takes more than a military victory to create peace. That's what Israel showed after the totally miraculous military victory in 1967, The Six Day War. We won the military part of the war, but we lost the peace by not acting as victors, by not taking advantage of the power and gifts that Gd gave us. 

On paper, according to the amount of arms, soldiers, tanks, allies etc. there was absolutely no way that Israel could win in the spring of 1967. Egypt's Abdel Nasser had been leading the verbal charge of threats:

"We'll throw Israel into the sea!"

Syria had been attacking the small agricultural communities and towns in northern Israel from day one of its short nineteen 19 year existance. During Israel's War for Independence Jordan swept westward occupying what the United Nations had planned as a third country, a second Arab state in the Palestine Mandate, leaving Israel with a zigzagging border that defied topography, logic for something defensible. Yes, they, too, or should I say "three" periodically attacked the struggling State of Israel. 

I remember those weeks of threats against Israel very well. They corresponded with my final weeks of high school before graduation. One thing that stood out and I can't forget. Israel had no real allies. Its faux friends sat tsktsking, twiddling their thumbs, quietly expecting Israel's defeat and not wanting to get hurt or find themselves on the "bad side" of the Arabs. In a sense it was a replay of our War for Independence which took place just a few months after the United Nations vote approving statehood. It has always been clear to me that most of the countries that voted in favor of a Jewish State did it only because they expected the Arabs to defeat the Zionists. By voting "yes," they could claim to be kind to the Jews after the Holocaust. Post World War Two it was bad form to be obviously antisemitic. Please remember that the Allies fought Nazi Germany to save/rescue European countries, not to save Jewish lives.

Back to 1967...  Timing's everything in war. With Gd's help, Israel moved first and destroyed enough enemy aircraft to cripple the enemy. Within just six, yes, 6 days, the Arab countries which had threatened Israel and then attacked it all surrendered. After that Israel squandered the victory in a dangerously woke policy. If offered "land for peace." Very little of the Holy Land liberated in the war became part of Israel. If I'm not mistaken, the only area that was transferred to Israeli sovereignty was sections of Jerusalem, the Old City and other areas, which had been Jewish owned before the establishment of the state, like Neve Yaakov, Mount Scopus. In addition the borders were "rounded out" to make the city more viable. 

The Golan Heights were quickly populated with agricultural communities to protect the Jewish kibbutzim and moshavim which had been attacked by Syria before the war. More agricultural communities were established in the Jordan Valley and northern Sinai, because Agrexco wanted to take advantage of their warm climate grow summer fruit for export in the winter. Our ancient Biblical cities, even those which had a long history, even in the 20th century, of Jewish Life were totally ignored. The anti-religious secular leaders had no feeling for Biblical connections and assumed that the Arabs would be willing to trade "land for peace," as I mentioned before.

The great victory of 1967 was sabotaged by the secular Left ruling Israel, and we're still suffering from this terrible policy. The Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria were established despite government policy, against the will of the government, even the Likud. When Netanyahu announces "new Jewish communities," he's distorting the facts. The truth is that he's offering to finally recognize a few communities which have existed for years, sometimes even decades.

There are two things that must come as a package to bring us true peace. They are TOTAL VICTORY and ISRAELI SOVEREIGNTY over all Judea, Samaria, the Jordan Valley and Gaza, too. So many of our soldiers died to clear it of terror, and also many innocent civilians. Emptying it of Jews did not give peace. We must settle our Holy Land, act not only as victors, but even more so as the true owners, Gd willing.

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.

Houses on the Road to Amichai

Amichai!

Yesterday on my way home to Shiloh, I could see the caravillot, temporary homes on their way to Amichai, the new town just southeast of Shiloh.

https://a7.org/media/a7radio/misc/video/18/feb/AMICHAY21-2.mp4

Priority for living there is being given to those who had been thrown out of Amona, which was on a hill right next to Ofra. The residents of Amona had undergone two very traumatic destructions. One was partial, and the most recent totally leveled their peaceful community, making all residents homeless. As compensation, the government decided to build a new community for them, Amichai.

Amichai is southeast of Shiloh, south of Shvut Rachel, near a number of small hilltop farming communities and has been allocated land for growth. It is a beautiful area. It is a short distance from the Alon Road which goes north-south in the Jordan Valley. The children who had lived in Amona and whose parents agreed to move to Amichai have been bussed to the Shiloh elementary schools this year.

We, in Gush Shiloh, the bloc of communities surrounding Shiloh, are very excited about the establishment of the new town, although we are very upset that Amona had been destroyed. Why does it always take death, murder and destruction to galvanize the Israeli government to build new towns and communities?

Jerusalem Day: Reflecting on 49 Years

For Jews of my generation and older, the 1967 Six Days War was a watershed event, unforgettable and inspiring. For many Jews it was life-changing, too.

There were two major results of the Six Days War:

• Israel miraculously survived and completely defeated three enemy Arab armies, Egypt, Syria and Jordan.
• Israel liberated the illegally occupied Jordan Valley, Judea, Samaria and the eastern parts of Jerusalem including the Walled City and Temple Mount, along with the Sinai and Golan Heights.

All three aggressor countries lost land as a result of the war. If you look at World History, in every single war in which an aggressor loses land in defeat, the land is then part of the victorious country. But here, almost a half a century later, Israel is under all sorts of attacks, diplomatic and terror/military to cede land fairly won to its enemies or a new invented "country." 

It would be nice if I could blame our enemies and faux friends for Israel's problems. But the sad and tragic truth is that it was the State of Israel that is the cause of today's security/terrorist problem and the awful diplomatic pressures we suffer.

Even before the dust had settled, while the world looked on in complete awe, the State of Israel should have immediately and unconditionally annexed all of the Land we liberated, from the northern tip of the Golan until the Suez Canal to the east at the Jordan River. All remnants of the "green line" should have been erased, ground to dust. Not only should the barriers that had been scarring Jerusalem been taken down, but Jews should have been allowed and encouraged to live in every single neighborhood, not just what became known as the "Jewish Quarter" of the Old City. Not only the wonderful and thriving Jewish neighborhoods which were built, like Ramat Eshkol, Gilo, Ramot etc. but housing for Jews should have been built in Shuafat, Beit Hanina, Beit Jalla etc. That anti-Jewish apartheid we still suffer should never have been allowed to continue. 

Judea and Samaria should have had been open for Jewish communities just like the Golan and the Jordan Valley were. And of course we should never have returned the key to Har Habayit, the Temple Mount to the Wakf. A synagogue should have had been built for Jews to pray with full religious rights on the Temple Mount. 

If the Israeli Government had annexed and opened all of the newly liberated Land, the world would have accepted it, even more Jews than the masses who did make aliyah in the euphoric post-Six Days War era would have arrived and the Moshiach/Messiah would be here, too.

Gd gave the Jewish People and Jewish State a great miracle, a military victory in 1967, and our government spit in Gd's face. For that we are suffering to this day, and we must find a way to correct this awful sin. Only then will there be true peace!!

The Dangers of Selling Our National Soul to The U.S.A.

It seems pretty obvious that United States Secretary of State Kerry got a new speechwriter and was coached in how to speak, or not to speak to the State of Israel and its elected leaders politicians.  His new style is a bit nicer and more sympathetic.  Obviously he was warned not to threaten us again with another intifada.  It made him seem much too much like a terrorist flunky.

He was coached and trained to show sympathy to our security vulnerability, something he had been ignoring. But what's the solution he's offering?

WE SHOULD NOT SELL OUR SOUL, SOVEREIGNTY AND SECURITY TO THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA and let them "protect sic us."

That would not be a good idea at all!  As Ruthie Blum writes in Israel Hayom, I, too, don't trust Kerry or his boss Barack Hussein Obama.

Emerging from his morning meeting with Netanyahu, Kerry called Israel's security "fundamental." He also pointed to Allen's role as that of "assessing the potential threats to Israel, to the region and ensuring that security arrangements we might contemplate in the context of the process will provide for greater security for Israel."Netanyahu stressed that under any agreement with the Palestinians, "Israel must be able to defend itself by itself with its own forces."What the latter means is that Netanyahu is insisting on the right to send Israeli troops into Palestinian territory if and when necessary -- which, of course, it will be, since no deal with the Palestinians has ever included peace with Israel.The former means that the United States will engage in "assessing" and "contemplating."

Giving the United States authority over our security needs isn't good or safe for the State of Israel. Their solution isn't a solution.  It will only cause more and more serious irreparable problems.

Kerry said multiple US government, intelligence and military agencies were working with Israelis and Palestinians on security -- which he billed as a make or break issue for his long-running initiative to broker peace between the two sides.

The USA has absolutely no experience with the sort of dangers Israel is in now, and no country has ever survived anything like what Obama and Kerry are proposing Israel to do.

photo credit

According to Caroline Glick in the Jerusalem Post, the Kerry proposals are even worse:

US Secretary of State John Kerry arrived in Israel on Wednesday to put additional pressure on Israel to make more concessions in land and political rights to the PLO in Judea and Samaria. To advance his current effort, Kerry brought along retired US Marine Gen. John Allen.According to media reports, Allen presented a proposal to address Israel’s security concerns and so enabled the talks about Israeli land giveaways to proceed apace. The proposal involved, among other things, American security guarantees, a pledge to deploy US forces along the Jordan River and additional US military assistance to the IDF.

Having foreign troops certainly won't protect the State of Israel from Arab attacks.  They'll be as effective as the United Nations Peacekeeping Forces were in June, 1967, when they slunk away when Egypt's Nasser announced that he was going to attack Israel and destroy it.

During two tense days from 16 to 18 May 1967, the Secretary-General did all he could to persuade Egypt not to request the withdrawal of UNEF and to persuade Israel to accept the Force on its side of the border. But neither Government agreed to cooperate. In such circumstances, the Secretary-General could have brought the matter before the Security Council by invoking Article 99 of the Charter, but he chose not to do so because he knew that with the United States and the Soviet Union firmly on opposing sides of the question, no action could be taken by the Council.
The fundamental fact is that United Nations peacekeeping operations are based on the principle of consent. To maintain UNEF in Egypt against the will of the Egyptian Government, even if it had been possible to do so, which was not the case, would have created a dangerous precedent which would have deterred potential host Governments from accepting future United Nations peacekeeping operations on their soil.

Buffers don't work.  And the Americans certainly won't win any wars for the State of Israel.

Negotiations do not bring peace.  There is no way to make peace with a group of people who want to destroy you.  You can't rehabilitate sociopaths and psychopaths. Arab terrorists and their supporters are no "peace partners." They are dangerous enemies of the State of Israel.  This simple fact must be recognized and dealt with.  Kerry and his staff should be sent packing and told not to return.

We Israelis must take full responsibility for our security and defense.  We must be sovereign in all of the Land we hold, from the Mediterranean Ocean to the Jordan River.  That will bring us peace. That's the only way!

Murder in the Jordan Valley

The Jordan Valley is east of Judea and Samaria, just east of Shiloh and Shevut Rachel.  It extends from the southeast of Jerusalem all the way up north to Beit She'an.

After the 1967 Six Days War it was one of the priority areas the government chose for Jews to live and work.  And the work was to be agriculture.  It's very warm there and was perfect fertile ground for agriculture, especially the very profitable for export summer crops in the winter.  There were three areas of the land liberated in 1967 that the government quickly planned for settlement, the Golan, the Jordan Valley and Northern Sinai.  When Prime Minister Menachem Begin gave Egypt's Sadat the Sinai he destroyed the Jewish agriculture in the Northern Sinai.  The Golan is a success and still very Jewish, but the Jordan Valley has more problems.  And the Arab terrorists are a big danger to the Jews there.

Last night there was a murder.  Residents heard noise, went out and were attacked.  The man was murdered and the woman escaped.

The IDF is searching the Jordan Valley for Palestinian Authority terrorists who murdered a Jewish man and lightly wounded his wife shortly after midnight Thursday.
Photo Credit: Flash 90 (Jewish Press)

As usual, "peace talks" raise the confidence of Arab terrorists.  Add that to the recent release of convicted Arab terrorists including murderers, and you have a recipe for disaster. This must stop. There's no way that negotiations can bring true and lasting peace.  We must execute all Arab terrorists involved with attempts to murder Jews.

The name of the victim hasn't yet been released.

Baruch Dayan Ha'emet

HaMakom yenachem