Turning Words into Action

by Ze'ev Kam, Public "Kan" Radio Commentator and BeSheva Contributor, translated by Hillel Fendel.

Between Declaring Support for Yesha – and Eternalizing it in Israel's Code of Law

This past July, we were witness to an unusual occurrence in the Israeli Knesset: No fewer than 68 MKs united around one cause and voted as one in favor of a declaration opposing a Palestinian state. And this does not mean that "only" 68 MKs feel that way; many of the other 52 are quite opposed to a Palestinian state, but for political reasons had to absent themselves for the vote.

Prime Minister Netanyahu has cited this vote since then many times, in announcements that he distributed to the media and also in his speeches. "The Knesset united as one with a great majority," he declared, "against the attempt to dictate to us the establishment of a Palestinian state" – something that would endanger the very existence of the Jewish state.

Behind the scenes, what's fascinating about this is that the vote has absolutely no legal or practical ramifications. The declaration against a PLO state is not an official decision by the State of Israel, and has only symbolic significance. Still, however, it will not be long before Netanyahu and many others in the coalition government, as well as those from the opposition who voted for the declaration, will be tested as to how seriously they meant what they voted for.

Many of are mistakenly inclined believe that if one day, the State of Israel decides to cede parts of Judea and Samaria (Yesha) and give them to an Arab entity, unilaterally or by mutual agreement, the government will be obligated to hold a popular referendum to ascertain if this is the will of the people. After all, it is Israeli law that a referendum must be held in the event that the government wishes to cede territory.

But those many of us are mistaken. This is because the existing law does not pertain at all to Judea and Samaria, but only to areas that are under total Israeli sovereignty. Judea and Samaria – as opposed to Jerusalem and the Golan Heights – are still under IDF administrative control, and have not yet been upgraded to full Israeli status. It's true that in the past, the assumption was that any agreement having to do with Yesha would involve an exchange of territory, meaning that actual parts of Israel would be given up in exchange for the areas of the Yesha settlement blocs, and that this would then obligate a referendum.

But there is yet another caveat. As PM Netanyahu explained in 2013 when the Cabinet approved the draft bill, "Any agreement, if it is achieved in negotiations, will be brought as a referendum. It is important that every citizen directly vote on fateful decisions like these." That is, unilateral withdrawals, such as occurred in 2005 from Gush Katif, need not be brought for a referendum.

Who can guarantee that we won't see a future intiatiative to withdraw unilaterally from some part or other of Yesha? In such a case, no referendum will be needed! Not to mention areas that are already under some sort of Palestinian Authority control; ceding them, despite the tremendous security and other ramifications that will result, will require no popular vote!

Precisely for that reason, the three co-chairmen of the Land of Israel lobby in the Knesset – MKs Yuli Edelstein, Simcha Rotman, and Limor Sohn Har-Melekh – have decided to advance a bill requiring a referendum in the events listed above. And in order to speed the process along, they decided not to take the regular, long, winding legislative route of a "private bill" sponsored by individual MKs. Rather, they arranged for the the Knesset Law Committee to sponsor it. As such, the Ministerial Committee for Legislation will not have to review the bill and determine whether the Government supports it or not, and it can be submitted to the Knesset immediately for its first reading.

For it is clear that a bill of this nature will attract unwanted international pressures, just as the bill to outlaw UNRWA – a full participant in the atrocities of Oct. 7^th – recently did. Although the UNRWA bill passed and is about to be implemented in full, who's to say that the Yesha referendum bill will have the same success? Speed is therefore of the essence.

In one of the preparatory Law Committee sessions for this bill, one of the supportive MKs, Yulia Malinovsky (Yisrael Beiteinu), said with a sting, "I just hope that the coalition will vote for this bill, given the people involved. I also hope that the Prime Minister won't block it, but if he does, he should at least do so in his voice and not via some emissary." A short time after this session, a senior member of the coalition announced that certain hareidi party leaders were demanding that the topic be discussed at the next coalition meeting. This was not the first time that hareidi representatives take the old Diaspora approach of, "What will the goyim say?"

But the three Land of Israel heads – Edelstein, Rotman, and Sohn Har-Melekh – say that they're going ahead with the bill until someone actively tries to stop them. It's actually a form of a dare, to see the Prime Minister, or the leader of any coalition party, would be brazen enough to say that "now is not the time for this bill." This was actually the very real fear when the above-mentioned declaration against a PLO state was voted on. Up to the very last hours before the vote, everyone involved was anxious about some foreign intervention that might suddenly happen in the form of a phone call from abroad, or that someone from the Prime Minister's office, or the Prime Minister himself, would abruptly appear saying that because of Biden, or a feared arms embargo, or the UN Security Council, or whatever, the vote has to be pushed off.

Of course, in the end, the declaration passed by a large majority, including even several opposition MKs.

The idea now is to turn that very declaration into practical law, with real teeth – something that will truly make history.

The Trump Opportunity: Let's Not Bungle It

by Emanuel Shilo, editor of the weekly BeSheva newspaper, translated by Hillel Fendel.

Although reports are that a deal for the exchange of some of the hostages now, and possibly the rest at a later date, is close to finalization, "it's not over until it's over" - and this is one of the reasons why the following article by the editor of the weekly BeSheva newspaper is still very relevant.

1. In only six days from now, a good friend of Israel, Donald J. Trump, will again become the President of the United States. In the two years that remain until the end of the current Netanyahu government, Trump will enjoy a majority (albeit narrow) in both the Senate and the House, as well as a supporting backwind from the Supreme Court and its clear conservative majority. Hopefully we are smart enough to utilize this special window of opportunity, by presenting the incoming Administration our clear goals and plans of action for the Middle East, and making clear our requests and expectations from our best friends. If so, these two years could be dreamlike, extricating us from the current quagmire and guaranteeing a better long-term future for Israel.

2. Pres.-elect Trump has already promised to totally remove all vestiges of the arms embargo that the Biden Administration partially imposed on Israel. The IDF can expect to receive from his administration generous helpings of weapons, and can even hope for the top-quality bunker busters that we so sorely need in order to attack the Iranian nuclear project. Trump's people are already exerting pressure on the International Criminal Court at The Hague so as to thwart future moves against Israel, and even to water down or retract previous anti-Israel decisions – beginning with the arrest warrants (!) issued against Prime Minister Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Galant.

Our requests from the U.S. in the near future are expected to fall on open ears and hearts. We must correctly prioritize our objectives and prove to the new Administration that we will know how to use whatever aid we receive to fulfill them. If we continue to wallow in the mire and drag out the war, our impatient friend in the White House is liable to lose interest in us.

3. Our two most important goals for which we must strive at this time are to, at long last, end the war in Gaza and fulfill its goals – the destruction of Hamas and the release of our captives – and also to uproot and destroy the Iranian nuclear threat.

Trump is clearly committed to the release of the hostages, having stated that if Hamas does not release them by the time he takes office, "all hell will break out." We must see this as a promise from the United States to Israel and its hostages. No longer should we look towards the brutal, murderous leaders of Hamas and hope that they will sign some kind of disastrous deal with us. Instead, we must get ready to "help" along the new policy by opening the incinerators of hellfire and waging an absolutely major assault on Gaza: three or four divisions that will completely occupy the Strip, rescue as many hostages as possible, and destroy Hamas. We can absolutely not accept Hamas administrative control of the population, and we must arrest or eliminate Hamas officials involved in this. Even more importantly, we must stop the "humanitarian aid" that always ends up in Hamas hands and essentially perpetuates the war by keeping Hamas alive.

The entire concept that has driven the war so far must be eradicated. We can no longer implement the wasteful and failed approach led by Chief of Staff HaLevy by which we conquer cities in Gaza such as Jebalya and Beit Hanoun, then withdraw and allow the terrorists to regroup and re-arm themselves, then go and lose soldiers as we conquer them again, and again, etc. Every area that we conquer must be totally cleansed of terrorists and then must remain in our hands! To some of these places, a carefully-screened civilian population can be allowed to return and live under an IDF military administration. The gates of Gaza must also be opened for mass emigration for whoever wants, such as refugees who want a better future for their families. This will also help alleviate the crowded conditions – which are certainly one of the reasons why Gaza became such a dangerous hotbed of terrorism.

At the same time, the IDF must initiate more military operations to release captives! It has been seven months since the famous Operation Arnon, in which four hostages were heroically freed by our forces. But since then – nothing. We can simply not accept this intelligence and operational failure of the first order. Renewing such operations must be part of the general war effort, causing the Gazan population and Hamas terrorists in particular to realize that their end is near, and that the most they can hope for is a safe escape route in exchange for the release of the hostages.

All this must be done within a short time, because the incoming President is not known for his forbearance and patience. Yes, he wants us to win the war, but he also wants to see the war end – quickly.

4. Is Lt.-Gen. Hertzy HaLevi the right man to lead the IDF to this critical and quick battle and decisive victory? Doubtful. He has many merits, including having led Israel's war on seven different fronts simultaneously (!) – but it is quite clear that the responsibility for what happened on Oct. 7^th is mainly his. He is the one who received the intelligence just hours before the attack and decided, with his senior colleagues in a late-night consultation, to take a chance and do nothing, without even taking the trouble to inform his bosses in the government. Despite this, he was not removed from his position, and instead received humongous resources in every form to wage war against Hamas – which, despite some impressive successes, simply did not succeed.

His troubled relations with the government – which was forced to accept his appointment scandalously dictated to it by the Lapid-Gantz-Bennett transitional government – add to the question marks regarding his ability to seize the golden opportunity and achieve the war's goals: the release of the hostages and the decisive defeat of Hamas.

5. And back to the golden opportunity that begins next week: No one truly knows why Israel did not take advantage of its successful airstrikes in Iran to finally rid the world of Iran's nuclear abilities and aspirations. It was likely because of the Biden administration, and also perhaps because of Netanyahu's characteristic hesitancy. But it can now be hoped that with Trump's taking up residence in the White House, there will be no more excuses.

Netanyahu must know that this is most likely his last term as Prime Minister, and if he wants to leave with a good taste in our mouths, he would be advised to carry out what he has long defined as his major goal: the destruction of the Iranian nuclear threat. (The same is also essentially true for the liquidation of Hamas and the freeing of the hostages.) If not now, with the help of the friendliest American administration we can conceive of, then when?