Thinking Big: Seven-Fold Growth in the Shomron by 2050

based on an article by Haggai Huberman, Israeli journalist and author (written for the religious zionist periodical - Matzav Haruach), translated by Hillel Fendel.

Generally we report here on the establishment - or the announcement of the establishment - of new communities, housing starts, neighborhoods, or outposts in the hills of Judea and Samaria. This time, however, given that such reports have happily become commonplace of late, the real news is this: The public response to the news of the 18 new communities about to be built in the northern Shomron has been of unprecedented proportions!

The Shomron Regional Council's campaign, together with the Amanah Settlement Movement, to recruit families to join in building these pioneer communities has seen more than 3,000 families request to join up!

The current program involves the reestablishment – which has already begun – of the four northern Shomron communities that were destroyed in the Disengagement of 2005: Ganim, Kadim, Sa-nur, and Chomesh. The other 14 will be built, beginning in the coming weeks and months, in strategic locations throughout the northern Shomron. For information's sake, current well-known communities in the northern Shomron include Elon Moreh, Shavei Shomron, Kedumim, Maskiyot, and more.

The released statistics show that nearly 30% of the interested parties consider themselves secular or traditional, while the rest self-define as national-religious. Half of them already live in Judea and Samaria, another 15-20% are from central Israel, and slightly less than that hail from Jerusalem. There have also been 12 requests from families currently living abroad, including from Miami and Cincinnati in the U.S., Cyprus, Great Britain, Canada, and Switzerland. New immigrants from France and Ukraine have also filed applications.

Half of the families who are considering taking part in the challenge of Making the Shomron Great Again are young couples in their 20's, and some 20% are over age 60. The applicants from a diverse range of occupations: About 40% of them work in education and therapy, 25% in engineering, high-tech, and liberal professions, and the rest in construction, agriculture, and manual labor.

The emerging picture shows that the nuclear pioneer groups for the "Big Four" - Kadim, Homesh, Sa-Nur, and Ganim – as well as for the new town of Noa are already full, with only a few spots remaining. The first pioneers of Har Eval moved to the new site just this very week, alongside a branch of the Elon Moreh Yeshiva that is already operating at the site.

The new-old community of Ganim will be initially established by families of graduates from the Eli Yeshiva, just north of Shilo; families of graduates from Tel Aviv's Yeshivat Maaleh Eliyahu are set to kick off Kadim; and in Emek Dotan, a branch of the Bruchin Yeshiva will be established with families from Tiberias, Lod, and Bruchin.

Other communities in the formation stages are Shalem (near Itamar), Maayanot, and Merom Gilboa, all expected to move with their already-full core groups right after the High Holidays.

The establishment of the 18 towns – a program that has been termed the Connection Plan, in contrast to the Disengagement that destroyed Gush Katif in Gaza and the above four Shomron towns 21 years ago – is a fulfillment of a Cabinet decision led by Finance Minister Betzalel Smotrich and Defense Minister Yisrael Katz.

It is also part of a broader plan to increase the Shomron's Jewish population to more than one million (!) by the year 2050. Though this population currently stands at approximately 150,000, this brainchild program of Shomron Council head Yossi Dagan has been developed based on natural growth, high-rise construction, and more. Geographic engineers and a broad team of professionals in various disciplines worked, and are working, together on the program.

The program, of course, does not even include the new community of Zibda that was announced just this week – because this will be established in the Yesha area south of Shomron, not far from Modiin. Its goal is to help strengthen the seam-line area of western Binyamin. The new families are in the process of preparing their ascent to the land.

Other plans for the Shomron include a new city, currently known as East Rosh HaAyin, designed to house over 130,000 residents on what is currently agricultural land in the western Samaria highlands. Rosh HaAyin itself has a population nearing 81,000. The new city is being promoted as a security belt and strategic buffer for central Israel. In addition, the western Shomron community of Karnei Shomron, with a population over 11,200, is slated to triple in size with the addition of 6,000 new homes.

At the same time, a community "envelope" is being planned, including a branch of the Bnei David pre-military Yeshiva academy (main branch in Eli), and other and yeshiva and pre-military institutions as well.

Shomron Council head Dagan – who himself, with his family, was expelled from Sa-nur during the Disengagement, moved to Shavei Shomron, and now lives once again in the "new" Sa-nur – says: "The numbers warm our hearts and speak for themselves. They prove that the People of Israel has not forgotten its roots. The Connection Plan aims to reconnect our People with itself, its values, its roots – and with the fundamental values of the State of Israel."

From Hevron to Shomron: Quietly, Gradually, and Tediously, the Deed is Done

by Adi Mintz, former Director-General of the Yesha Council of Jewish Communities in Judea and Samaria, translated by Hillel Fendel.

A dream is coming true in the city of Hevron these days: Far from the spotlights, the roofing project in the Cave of the Patriarchs (Me'arat HaMachpelah) is advancing rapidly. The area often used for Jewish prayer services (weather permitting, which it generally does not, especially in boiling summer heat and cold rainy winter days) will be fitted, for the first time in history, with a roof being manufactured in a specialized factory, while tractors and heavy engineering vehicles prepare the access routes on the site for the cranes and trucks to complete the job.

For the more than 700,000 Jewish worshipers who visit the site annually (nearly 100,000 more than the amount of Muslims), this is the realization of a long-held dream: the ability to pray in the site's central courtyard, between the tombs of Avraham and Sarah on the right and Yaakov and Leah on the left, protected from the elements. New electrical infrastructure, air conditioning, drainage, and lighting will be installed as well.

The logic behind this secrecy is obvious. In today's complex international political context of Yesha (Judea and Samaria), every bombastic declaration or untimely publication is liable to mean the end of a project. To its credit, the Religious Zionism party, headed by Finance Minister Betzalel Smotrich, understands that the way to make the long-overdue vital strategic changes in the demographics of Yesha is precisely the opposite of a PR approach. It is rather found in the tedious maze of governmental apparatuses. 

The most recent move led by Smotrich and his party colleague, Settlement Affairs Minister Orit Strook, illustrates this perfectly: the passage of a dramatic cabinet decision that transfers all urban planning authorities in Area H2 (the part of Hevron that was allocated for Jewish settlement under by the 1997 Hebron Agreement) to Israeli planning authorities. With this quiet administrative step, a primary millstone of the Hebron Agreement was effectively removed, and the zoning barriers that had blocked Jewish settlement in Hebron for nearly three decades were eliminated. 

But, as significant as this project is, it is only an example – a major one, granted – of the consistent, systematic modus operandi that has led, during the nearly four years of the current Israeli government, to an unprecedented revolution in the entire Judea and Samaria settlement enterprise. This is a strategy based on acting quietly and discreetly, with painstaking, tiny-step by tiny-step work to dismantle bureaucratic and legal obstacles while trying to avoid headlines and flaunt achievements. This is of course not the usual manner in which projects like this are carried out… 

The process wondrously mimics how a sapling becomes a tree. In its first years, the sapling is lovingly and modestly irrigated and protected from dangerous elements; its fruits, if there are any, are orlah and may not be eaten. Only in the fourth year may they be consumed, with certain restrictions, and then in the fifth year, after years of quiet work, the fruits sprout forth in full bloom, to be heartily partaken of.

Similarly in the administrative/legal sphere in Yesha. Minister Smotrich and his colleagues stubbornly waged a long political struggle for the establishment of a new "Settlement Administration" in the Defense Ministry (which has overall responsibility for Judea and Samaria), with Yehuda Eliyahu at its helm. After it was put together, it was no simple matter to contend with then-Defense Minister Yoav Galant – who has since been replaced by the much more sympathetic Yisrael Katz – over the boundaries of its authorities. The structural changes that were made with the establishment of the new Administration included the appointment of a Deputy Administration head for Civilian Matters, and the transfer of broad authorities from the head of the IDF's Civil Administration and the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) to civilian hands. One of the most significant changes was the transfer of the authorities of the Legal Counsel's Office of Yesha to the Defense Ministry Legal Counsel, who reports directly to the new Administration. For years these authorities had been governed by the Chief IDF Prosecution, headed most recently by the now-disgraced Tomer Yerushalmi. This effectively neutralized one of the primary legal barriers that long blocked and delayed Jewish development in Yesha.

For many long months, the new Settlement Administration operated below the radar. It fundamentally changed the methods of supervision over and enforcement of laws against illegal Arab construction, and brought about a dramatic revolution in the workings of the Supreme Planning Council, the top planning and zoning body in the Civil Administration. It also led to the declaration of many thousands of dunams (1,000-square-meter tracts of land) as State Land, amidst very close cooperation with the IDF Central Command. 

At the same time, Finance Minister Smotrich allocated the necessary resources and budgetary sums for this civilian revolution; the faction's MKs led the way to pass the historic legislation nullifying the 2005 Disengagement Law from northern Shomron; and Settlement Minister Strook led the ongoing Agricultural Farms enterprise – hundreds of strategic points throughout Judea and Samaria that watch over and preserve our national lands. 

Speak Little, Do Much

This quiet, calculated activity began to ripen significantly only in the last year and a half. Suddenly, whoever travels in Judea and Samaria today immediately notices the changes in the landscape. The construction momentum, the paving of roads, the new, white light-construction houses dotting the hills, and the establishment of new outposts are all now "facts on the ground." We learned this lesson of speaking little and doing much from our Patriarch Avraham: When the angels arrived at his tent, he promised them, "I will fetch [you] a morsel of bread" - but in practice, he rushed to bring them flour cakes, cattle, and a variety of delicacies. 

The European Union, the American administration, and even the extreme left-wing organizations in Israel did not recognize the scale of the structural change in time, because it was done behind the scenes, in dry legal discussions and administrative orders. They panicked and began to exert political pressure only when they discovered the final result, when the revolution had already taken shape and became irreversible.

Editor's Note: Peace Now released a 65-page report this week summing up, very satisfactorily in nationalist eyes, the progress made in Judea and Samaria from 2023 to 2025. It states that 185 new Jewish outposts were established during this period; plans for 40,064 housing units were advanced (two-thirds of these during 2025 alone), and 102 new communities were approved. Nearly 26,000 dunams were declared state lands – almost 50% of the entire amount declared as state lands ever since the Oslo Agreements were signed. At least 223 kilometers of new roads were paved.

Israeli Hasbara is Dead, Long Live American Hasbara for Israel!

by Boaz Lieberman, Strategic Crisis Management Advisor, translated by Hillel Fendel.

Over the past years we have grown accustomed to analyze American politics via "sides:" Trump or Biden? Republicans or Democrats? Israel supporters or opponents?

But behind the daily headlines hides a much more complex reality than that, and whoever doesn't understand this is liable to wake up in a few years and find that Israeli-American relations stand upon weaker foundations than they thought – and dangerously so.

The biggest mistake that Israel can make today is to believe that our strategic relationship with the U.S. is guaranteed forever, simply because of inertia. This is not at all certain; the relationship requires maintenance, investment, and deep understanding of the changes that American politics is undergoing.

For years, the Democratic party has been in a clear process of distancing itself from some of its traditional policies towards Israel. A new generation of activists, Congressmen, and media personalities is now adopting positions that view the Israeli-Palestinian conflict through the glasses of balance of power, colonialism, and ethnic identities. For them, Israel is no longer a small country fighting for its survival, but a strong state that they see as part of the network of Western powers.

On the other hand, there is certainly no need to eulogize Democratic support for Israel. Many parts of the Democratic establishment still see Israel as a vital American ally. They may be using different terminology and even tones, but they are not all enemies of Israel.

At the same time, within the Republican Party too, a deep change is taking place. The conservative right of Ronald Reagan was an international, activist right that was very willing to activate American force around the world when necessary. The movement that Donald Trump is leading is not the same thing; though not necessarily isolationist, it does make sure to constantly ask before every decision: Does this directly serve American interests?

This is where two names come into the picture – the two most significant figures in the post-Trump era: Marco Rubio and JD Vance.

Secretary of State Rubio represents the more traditional conservative viewpoint. He sees Israel as a strategic asset of the first degree in the struggle against Iran, China, Islamic terrorism, and anti-Western axes.

Vice President Vance, on the other hand – 13 years younger than Rubio – is a man of the new generation of Republicans. He is not anti-Israel, but views the world from the vantage point of the typical middle-class American, and primarily wants to know what he or she would like.

Israel cannot afford to take sides in this succession struggle.

With Rubio, we must speak the language of national security, technology, intelligence, and the struggle against Iran. With Vance, we must speak an entirely different language, and present the position that Israel is not a burden on the United States, but rather an asset that saves it from fighting wars, losing soldiers, and spending money. Israel does not ask for American troops, but rather fights on its own against forces that threaten, inter alia, American interests.

Yet alongside the political challenge, Israel also faces an even greater trial: the loss of influence in the arena of public opinion. And this brings us to the part that Israel still refuses to understand: The old-style Israeli Hasbara (PR and image-building) is dead.

For years, we thought the way to convince the world was to send a spokesperson to a studio, present a map, show a video, and explain why we are right. This method worked in the era of institutionalized media, when the public received information through a limited number of television channels and newspapers. The world of 2026 looks completely different. America's Gen Z does not learn about Israel via CNN or Fox news, but rather through TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, and podcasts. They don't listen to official spokesmen, but rather to people they trust from social media.

Israel must therefore shift away from traditional Hasbara, to "diplomacy of influence."

Instead of sending Israelis with perfect English to talk on TV, we must invest in forming a broad coalition of Americans who will speak for Israel, in American. No longer must there be Israeli hasbarah; there must be American hasbarah for Israel!

The voices that should lead this campaign need not necessarily be Israeli ambassadors or politicians. They must rather be former American combat soldiers or officers, influential conservatives, Evangelical leaders, hi-tech personalities, parents who are concerned about campus anti-Semitism, professors, conservative Hispanics, and moderate Democrats.

When an American explains to another American why Israel is important for U.S. security, the message is heard ten times louder than when an Israeli explains this.

And our second mistake is this: focusing on Washington, D.C. exclusively.

The real battle for the future of Israeli-U.S. relations is taking place today on university campuses: at Harvard, Columbia, Berkeley, the University of Pennsylvania, and the like. It is there, and not in "traditional American support for Israel," that the consciousness of the coming decade's journalists, judges, members of Congress, and governors is being shaped.

If Israel does not invest its efforts there now, this year, it will discover in ten years that the problem is not who sits in the White House, but what the American public itself thinks.

For this reason, a new pro-Israel strategy is required, based on three principles: strengthening bipartisan support for Israel, among both Democrats and Republicans; building a deep "network of influence" within American society in its entirety and not just in the political system; and replacing traditional Hasbara sources with authentic American voices.

Israel need not choose between Vance and Rubio, or between Republicans and Democrats. It must simply choose America – all of it. Maintaining that broad alliance with America in general was historically one of Israel’s greatest strategic successes ever since its establishment. In the current polarized, raucous, and rapidly changing world, our strategy for the decades to come must be the return to that comprehensive approach.

Learning from Zelensky to Stand Up for Ourselves and Restore Trump's Respect

by Leonid Baratz, Investigative journalist and Middle Eastern correspondent for the Ukrainian media, translated by Hillel Fendel.

It's always easier to pressure allies than enemies, as the United States continually proves. This is especially true with a president who tends to operate based on instincts that appear to change quickly. In Israel's current situation, it would do well to remember the lesson taught by Ukrainian President Zelensky when he faced American anger. 

Many remember the awkward, difficult scene that played out in the Oval Office in February 2025, when U.S. President Trump and Vice President Vance castigated Zelensky before the cameras of the entire world. They essentially "advised" him to show gratitude to the U.S. and allow it to determine the terms of a ceasefire with Russia. "You don't have the cards," Trump told him sharply. "We have all the cards, and without us, you have nothing." Zelensky did not cave in, and paid a heavy diplomatic price for a few weeks.

And here we are now, less than 18 months later, and the ones without the cards are none other than the Russians. The world sees Russian fuel tanks explode into the sky and dozens of Russian refineries knocked out of action, leading to long lines of people waiting for fuel throughout Russia and even the Crimean peninsula. It's Moscow, not Kiev, that is now asking for various kinds of truces, with Ukraine largely on the offensive. A year ago, Ukraine carried out the unprecedented Operation Pautina, which had been painstakingly planned for a year and a half, in which drones hidden inside portable wooden houses were smuggled on civilian trucks deep into Russian territory. At the designated moment, the roofs were opened remotely and the drones soared towards Russian nuclear sites located thousands of kilometers from the front line.

Interestingly, less than two weeks later, Israel attacked Iran in the 12-Day War known as Operation Rising Lion, which was also based on deep and patient intelligence penetration into enemy territory. It is difficult not to recognize in the Ukrainian offensive a familiar fingerprint of Israeli combat doctrine, which immediately raises the question of whether Kiev may have served as an initial testing ground for the implementation of these unique tactics. We may not know for many years whether Israel and Ukraine were working with some sort of cooperation, or whether this was just a coincidental case of "great minds thinking alike…"

In any event, Zelensky rebounded well following the White House dressing down, to the point where this month, at the G-7 summit in France, Trump himself admitted that the Ukranians are currently winning the war with Russia. Trump then surprised his allies when he announced the restoration of sharp sanctions against the Russian oil sector. Kiev's impressive military accomplishments would have been of no significance without an aggressive, ongoing diplomatic push, that was able to translate the situation at the front into the language of international interests.

This is precisely the lesson that Israel must learn and internalize at this point. It is well-known that the Americans are wielding a heavy pressure crush on PM Netanyahu and the government in Jerusalem to withdraw from the buffer zone in southern Lebanon, or at least to cease responding to murderous Hizbullah attacks such as those that have killed five Israeli soldiers in recent days. We must not blame our own government; on the contrary, it is our duty as a public to provide our leaders with our resolute support so that they can repel these foreign dictates, and certainly not succumb to the winds of concession blowing from many of our own television studios.

Caving to U.S. Would be an Iranian Victory

We in Israel, and the Americans as well, should have no trouble seeing who would profit from and rejoice at an Israeli withdrawal. Israel's historic task in the Middle East never relied only on its military strength, but chiefly on its image as the only regional player who can contain the Iranian axis – an image upon which the Abraham Accords is largely predicated. But the moment that the President of the United States declares that Israel is unable to complete its mission in Lebanon, and suggests that the job be passed to Turkish-influenced Syria, this image suffers a death blow.

Every time that Damascus or Ankara are perceived as being able to do what Jerusalem can't do, or is being stopped from doing, this rocks the very foundations on which Israel's position stands. It is therefore no coincidence that precisely the Qatar-Turkey axis are the main beneficiaries of a scenario in which we cede security responsibility in southern Lebanon.

Israel simply cannot afford to allow itself to retreat and thus gladden Iran, Qatar, and Turkey. We must therefore learn from the Ukrainian paradigm. From a historical perspective, it appears that Zelensky has emerged as a "Jewish" or "Israeli"-type leader much more than expected – and we have no reason to be embarrassed to take an example from him.

We must complete the operational cleanup of Hizbullah's stronghold in southern Lebanon, without leaving this task to outsiders. Iran must be shown with unmistakable force who controls the scene. Only then, just as happened with Ukraine, will President Trump's temporary anger be turned into renewed affection and respect - for ultimately he respects only results, not begging.

It was just a year ago that we started a war against those whom we called the modern-day Amalek – with very impressive results, including the elimination of the Ayatollah Khamenei and the weakening of Iran's military infrastructures. However, once we started the job, we must complete it, in the spirit of the Biblical injunction to totally wipe out Amalek. Amalek cannot be left half-wounded, we cannot stop the war in the middle, and we must certainly not endanger our very existence with transient surrender agreements. Even top officials in the US defense establishment and the Republican Party acknowledge that the current agreement is shameful and defeatist.

Most dangerously, the Iranian regime justifiably interprets the international pressure upon Israel as a green light to continue its multi-front war against us.  This not only endangers world stability and direct American interests, it also encourages the fanatical Iranian leadership to continue to pursue its nuclear program. Iran seems to have learned in the recent past that its strategies have been successful in forcing the West's hand and even bringing it close to its knees.

We know that our interests and those of the United States do not always overlap. That's OK. We must remind the Americans, however, that unfair accusations and threats against us are very harmful to Israel's attempts to ensure our international legitimacy, and even fuel anti-Semitism across the world.

We must learn from Zelensky, and from many of our own leaders in the recent and far-off past, that true security does not come from blind adherence to our allies, as strong as they may be. A nation that knows how to stand up for its own interests on the battlefield, and in the international arena, needs no outside confirmation to know that it is truly independent and strong.

Israel's Northern Border Must Remain Israeli!

All eyes are on the Israel-Lebanon border because of Israel's defensive war against Hizbullah. Under no scenario can Israel afford to leave it.

by Orit Strook, Israeli Cabinet Minister, translated by Hillel Fendel.

Throughout the last weeks (with a small hiatus ever since the US and Iran signed their controversial "memo of understanding"), wherever I have been in Israel, and whatever I may be engaged in doing, my heart finds itself drawn to the north. Occupying my thoughts are the northern towns of Metulah, Zar'it, Admit and Avivit, Misgav Am and Manara, and all those places situated on and protecting our northern border, yet forced to live with daily bomb sirens. The residents are impelled to look heavenward umpteen times a day to check if bomb-laden drones are on their way over. And each time they do, they also have to ask themselves (and me, via text messages or phone calls): Is the IDF staying in place to do the work, or Heaven forbid, clearing out?

Our northern compatriots know quite well what the IDF is doing in Lebanon, and what existential threat they are busy saving us from, day in and day out. For many years it was they who cried and warned about what was happening on the other side of the border: the digging of tunnels, lookouts on Israeli civilian and military positions, Iranian money flowing uninterruptedly to Lebanese villages, and the tremendous extent to which Hizbullah positions were being built up amidst the villagers. For 17 years they tried to wake up the security and government echelons – but these were 17 years of relative quiet, and who wanted to hear about war and tunnels and stark reality when they could so easily be ignored? It was truly a case of, "Quiet – we're arming."

And now, this terrible truth is being revealed in its full frightening danger: kilometer after kilometer of tunnels dozens of meters underground, with thousands of weapons, innocent-looking houses that are actually military outposts, and invasion plans that wouldn't shame the 7^th of October. And now our dedicated soldiers are combing the area, kilometer after kilometer, destroying the destruction machine the terrorists were building for us under the guise of the 17-year quiet – under the unsuspecting noses and closed eyes of those who were supposed to be in charge of preventing terrorism from within Lebanon: UNIFIL and the Lebanese Army.

UN Security Council Resolution 1701, adopted at the end of the Second Lebanon War, entrusted – abandoned, more correctly – our security to the flimsy UN force called UNIFIL, and to the Lebanese army, a third of whose soldiers belong to the Shia community. Bound by that wretched resolution, we did not act to remove the threat growing on our border under the apathetic eyes of these two "forces."

Thanks to G-d's mercies, our northern border did not see an Oct. 7^th-like infiltration and massacre. This is truly a tremendous miracle, which we cannot take for granted. But the threat still exists, in the form of the infrastructures that were built there, ready and waiting for Hizbullah orders to "Start the attack!" A fair proportion of the tunnels and outposts have been destroyed, and many terrorists have been killed - but under American pressure, the job is far from over.

The ceasefire outline agreed upon in the past included a clause that the IDF is permitted to continue destroying any emerging threat across the border - and indeed the IDF and our other security agencies invested immense efforts in these counter-activities. But as time passed, the picture became increasingly clear: It is impossible to thwart terrorism solely from the outside, from the other side of the border – especially when we are supposed to count on help from other bodies, which never comes. Everyone now knows that the past plans for Lebanon have failed, and we may and must not return to them.

This is why what we have been doing for the past few weeks is so important – and why we must continue to do so, no matter what agreement President Trump and the Iranians come to regarding our future. We must continue operating within southern Lebanon, by ourselves, to destroy the terrorist monster growing there against us. The IDF now controls over 600 square kilometers (some 230 square miles) of southern Lebanon - Hizbullah territory, where no Muslim civilians now live - and it is being cleaned out of terrorist infrastructures such as tunnels, bunkers, and weapon stockpiles. It must be done, for the future of Israel's security.

We may not allow ourselves to stop this work, or to be forced into withdrawing and trying to secure ourselves only from within Israel; this has failed, cannot succeed, and may not be tried again.

I paid a shiva (consolation) visit to the family of fallen soldier Ohad Yaari last week; he was one of six IDF soldiers killed in southern Lebanon in the first half of this month (six more have been killed since then). His father Dudu pleaded with me: "Don't stop, don't give in, we're counting on you." I promised that we would not.

Ohad's family also asked me one more thing: to publicize on the eve of the Sabbath their call to "strengthen the light and kindness" in memory of their son: to light an extra Sabbath candle in each home and to commit to doing one extra good deed, so as to enter the holy Sabbath with an uplifted spirit and having added light and loving-kindness to the world in loving memory of Ohad, may G-d avenge his blood.

Can Small Numbers of Women Replace Hundreds of Male Tank Core Members?

Courageous IDF commanders must take a public stand. Op-ed.

by Emmanuel Shilo, editor of the Besheva weekly, translated by Hillel Fendel.

The announcement by first a dozen Hesder yeshiva heads, then another dozen, and now a full half of the Yeshivot Hesder in Israel – followed even by several army preparatory academies – that they will not send their students to serve in the IDF's Armored Corps is a resounding wake-up call and a bright red warning light to the IDF top brass.

Declarations of that nature are not issued easily from yeshivot whose students are a primary and high-quality component of the army's field forces. A glorious combat heritage of Hesder tank soldiers, beginning over 50 years ago, is now threatened with extinction, due to a feminist cause that childishly cares for nothing other than to smash glass ceilings. The problem continues to fester because of the irresponsible cowardice of senior IDF officials who fear confronting it and setting boundaries.

In the Artillery Corps, it's already a lost cause. The hesder yeshivot stopped sending their students to serve there a while ago, given that it became a totally mixed service corps in which the gender boundaries set by Jewish Law can simply not be observed. This has led to a major lack in Artillery reserves personnel, as male students who would have served in the reserves for years afterwards have been replaced by females who, for various predictable reasons, invariably do not show up to serve in the reserves. This is the problem that the Armored Corps, too, will soon face, if nothing is done to stop the introduction of girls into tanks.

It must be emphasized that the deployment of females into the Armored Corps has nothing to do with a lack of manpower. There is no such shortage, because the number of tank soldiers is limited in any event by the amount of tanks in the IDF. At present this number has been reduced, for various reasons; but even if it again rises, there will be no shortage of male soldiers to man them – on condition that the relatively few women are removed and the large number of yeshiva students can return.

From an operational standpoint, the integration of female combat soldiers into the Armored Corps primarily creates unnecessary difficulties. The pilot programs conducted so far have not been a success story. It is no coincidence that the females who were qualified to serve as tank crew members were specifically deployed in non-maneuvering battalions. And although the actions of the female 'Pere' company on October 7 were effective and even saved lives, their battle was not exactly Avigdor Kahalani's battle in the Yom Kippur War. In fact, they were later not permitted to fight inside Gaza.

The current decision to begin training female tank crew members for maneuvering battalions does not address any operational need, but rather only ideological feminist desires. The General Staff orders state unequivocally the right of every religious soldier to demand gender-combat combat service. During this past and ongoing war, it happened many times that troops had to remain locked inside their armored vehicles for days at a time. It goes without saying that it is impossible to maintain basic standards of modesty between men and women under such conditions. Single-gender tank crews do not offer a sufficient solution, because of overnight stays in a building or in defense encampments. Even separate battalions for female soldiers would not be effective, because tank battalions are split into smaller units and attached to infantry and combat engineering battalions and brigades.

And we have not even touched on the expected drop in operational abilities. The idea of ignoring or overlooking physical differences and abilities between the genders is simply dangerous. As several of the Yeshiva heads have said, "The army's main goal is to win, and that critical value is being shunted aside in the drive to satisfy feminist whims."

Where Do the Hareidim Fit In?

Good question. The "lack of consideration," to say the least, for the religious soldiers doesn't exactly encourage hareidi boys to enlist in the army. The hareidi public looks on and says to itself, "If the IDF refuses to take the religious-Zionist public's needs into account, after all the human losses it suffered, just because of a few girls, then why should we believe that they will fulfill their promises to us in the long term?"

This problem must be solved, and quickly. If the IDF commanders don't wake up and explain to the Supreme Court that their latest decision demanding an introductory trial of recruiting women into the Armored Corps this coming November – and we all know that such "trials" quickly become the norm – is simply unworkable, the Prime Minister and Defense Minister will have no choice but to intervene. If not, the military ramifications, as well as those caused by breaking apart the delicate fabric of our society, will become much too dangerous for the State of Israel to safely absorb.

Note 1: In Israel's over 70 Hesder yeshivot, students undergo a five-year program combining Yeshiva study and army service. Yeshiva preparatory academies (mechinot) provide a one-year yeshiva program for students who then go on to serve in the army for three years.

Note 2: After the publication of this article IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Eyal Zamir decided that the "pilot" program to integrate female soldiers in the Armed Corps will not be held as planned in November.

Confusing the Ally for the Enemy

by Michael Puah, Director-General of the Jewish Leadership movement, translated by Hillel Fendel.

The massacre of Oct. 7^th should have taught us a basic lesson: Our enemy is not the settlers, those who work the land, or those building small new Jewish farms in Judea and Samaria (Yesha). The actual enemy is Palestinian terrorism, the goal of which is to banish Jews from their land – not just parts of it, but all of it, including Tel Aviv and elsewhere – and to destabilize the very existence of the State of Israel.

But it seems that despite the so-heavy price that we paid then, some members of our security apparatus are still caught in the old and dangerous conceptions. Instead of seeing those who build the farms as a pioneering force that buttresses the Israeli hold on our only homeland and strengthens our security, they all too frequently treat them as if they were the enemy. Large IDF and police forces are deployed to evacuate the outposts, clash with young Jewish pioneers, and destroy their structures, while not far away our real enemies are engaged in terrorist activity, agricultural theft, illegal takeovers of lands, and violent riots.

The message that this gives over to the Palestinians is destructive. When they see the IDF investing such efforts against the Jewish settlement enterprise, it fills them with motivation. They feel that the State of Israel itself is unsure about Jewish rights to live in and settle their land. Instead of deterring their terrorism, this policy encourages the Arabs to believe that their pressure and violence and hatred are working!

It's not only unfair to the settlers, it is also a very grave security miscalculation. The farms and outposts in Yesha have proven time and again their importance in the campaign to safeguard state lands, to prevent hostile take-overs, and to create an Israeli presence in strategic areas. Many of those involved in building the outposts and farms serve in the IDF reserves, in stints of weeks and months at a time. When they are treated as if they don't have basic human rights, let alone civilian rights, this impairs not only their dignity, but also the basic trust between the public they represent and the state institutions.

Whoever reads the news know that this also brings to the fore a basic contradiction: For long months we have been hearing from the IDF and the media of the grave shortage of IDF manpower, and that all the hareidim must be drafted in order to ease the load on the reservists – yet behold, when there is a "need" to destroy a farm or settlers' hilltop shacks, we suddenly see that dozens and sometimes even hundreds of fighters and Border Guardsmen and women are recruited for the mission.

If there really is a manpower shortage in the army, these forces should be deployed not to destroy Jewish settlement points, but to protect the roads from rock-throwers and worse, thwart terrorism, confiscate arms, and arrest hostile elements busy building more and more illegal Arab houses. The answer must be demanded: Is there a manpower shortage, or not?

The problem is not only operational, but also conceptual. For years, the settlers and Yesha residents have warned of the erosion of anti-terrorism deterrence. But instead of listening to them, the opposite was done: extensive efforts were invested in monitoring, restricting, and arresting them. The Simchat Torah slaughter showed in the most brutal way what happens when those who identify dangers and warn against them are treated as the enemies themselves.

The responsibility is not only upon the commanders in the field, for they are instruments of the policies and instructions they receive from above. The responsibility lies, first and foremost, with the top IDF echelons, which determine the order of priorities. They have clearly decided that the pioneer settlers are not acting in consonance with the conceptions in which many of our civil and military leadership is trapped.

The destruction of settlement points is very reminiscent of what happened prior to Oct. 7^th, when the radio equipment that was used to learn of and transmit reports of Hamas movements was confiscated. It can also be likened to when civilian patrol and defense units in the Gaza envelope were dismantled.

But even above this level of command stands our government. Defense Minister Yisrael Katz may not simply suffice with receiving reports retroactively. He must constantly examine whether the policies applied "on the ground" serve Israel's security needs – or harm them. When IDF troops are allocated to face off against Jewish pioneers instead of to fight terrorism, it is his duty to intervene and demand a change.

This is the clear responsibility of the Israeli government, led by Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu. The nationalist public voted for a government that pledged to strengthen and secure the 550,000-strong Jewish population in Yesha, and change failed military policies – and not to target those who work tirelessly to support them and enhance their growth.

The State of Israel has to wake up and clearly distinguish between its enemies and those who love and support it. The IDF must concentrate its efforts on fighting terrorism, protecting Israeli citizens, and supporting our grasp on the Land. The Prime Minister and Defense Minister must make absolutely sure that the policies being carried out match the lessons learned so dearly since October '23.

We call for an end to confusion: Targeting and destroying the new farms and farmers encourages the hopes of those who wish to throw us out of our Land!

The Ceasefires Are Too Dangerous!

by Omer ben-Hamu, Deputy Director of the "Victory Generation Reservists Movement", translated by Hillel Fendel.

The situation in southern Lebanon cannot be allowed to continue. The last several weeks of explosive drones killing a soldier or two every week are intolerable. Ceasefires are agreed upon between Tehran and Washington, instead of in Jerusalem, and northern Israel is paralyzed and bleeding.

How did we reach this situation, and what can be done now?

Over a year ago, the IDF initiated an offensive, in the wake of the successful beeper operation against Hizbullah in September 2024. The offensive saw the practically-crippled terrorist organization running for its life, leaving behind equipment and installations worth tens of millions of dollars; IDF troops uncovered valuable military stockpiles in every abandoned village they reached.

This should have marked an unquestionable Israeli victory. We eliminated Hizbullah's charismatic leader Nasrallah and nearly all of its entire leadership, the large majority of its field military commanders were wounded from the beeper operation, and the entire population of southern Lebanon – strong Hizbullah supporters, based on what our soldiers found in their homes – had left on its own for the north.

But instead, as has happened so often in the past, we did not take advantage of the military momentum, and our government decided on a "stalemate" devoid of both logic and self-respect.

Israel signed an agreement that everyone knew in real-time was worthless. Our forces were to withdraw from all the territory (except for a small area with five military bases) we had captured, at a great cost in lives; the Lebanese citizens were to be allowed to return; and the Lebanese government committed to disarm Hizbullah – even though there was no dispute that it had neither the will nor the capability of doing so.

The breathing-room that this fake agreement gave Hizbullah enabled the terrorists not only to avoid being disarmed, but also to renew its stockpiles and armaments, rehabilitate its chain of command, and acquire hundreds of fiber-optic-guided FPV's (First-Person View, i.e., an operator can see a video of exactly what the drone "sees"). Because these can carry several kilometers of extremely thin optical fiber that connect them back to their base, they are not easily jammed or stopped, as in the past.

When Hizbullah later attacked us following the campaign against Iran, we responded again with many of the same mistakes: Instead of setting up for a short but powerful offensive, with full-scale recruitment and utilization of the element of surprise to capture southern Lebanon, the IDF – which admittedly was focused mainly on Iran – crawled around from village to village. And when the ceasefires in Iran and Lebanon were forced upon us, we found ourselves far from the Litani River (except in the east), not protected naturally by the river but rather by an imaginary "yellow" line that was easily infiltrated by terrorists.

In addition, our "consent" to the ceasefire meant that our forces were stuck mostly inside buildings, tracked and observed by Hizbullah. The terrorists had time to recover, stopped retreating, and began attacking our vulnerable soldiers with their new drones.

Contrary to what many talking-heads say, the great failure was not that we weren't prepared for the drone threat. The Russians, Ukrainians, and even the Americans were also not ready for it, even though their bases were attacked dozens of times. Rather, the problem was that we didn't finish the job when we had the chance; we weakly accepted these ceasefires that enabled the enemy time and again to regroup and start over.

The situation is creating considerable frustration among our forces. Not only are the campaigns prolonged, thereby creating manpower crises, but the ground forces are not clear on what their missions are. Are they supposed to advance and occupy territory up to the Litani? Are they supposed to destroy Hizbullah? Are they supposed to defend the Yellow Line? Are they supposed to wait and see what Trump decides?

Soldiers must know what their mission is, and reservists' families need to understand the goals of the fighting for which their loved ones are once again leaving home for the unknown.

Of course, not all is lost.
Israel is still the strongest and most dominant player in the Middle East. But what has to be done now is, firstly, to make sure not to repeat past mistakes. We relied too heavily on the Iron Dome anti-rocket system and underground tunnel-blocking methods; we cannot now rely once again just on our technological genius to come up with an anti-drone system. The drones are not our enemy, and neither were the tunnels in Gaza; the enemy is Hamas and Hizbullah. We didn't seem to realize this in Gaza, and at this rate, neither have we grasped this in Lebanon.

Secondly, the IDF must mobilize large-scale reserves for a short, decisive campaign. It has to occupy territory in Lebanon equivalent to the length of the optical fiber that guides the drones, whether it be 30 kilometers or even twice that, well beyond the Litani River.

Next, we must make it clear to the Lebanese public that Hizbullah is destroying Lebanon and causing it to lose its land. It must be distinctly established – despite Trump's temper tantrum this week – that every Hizbullah rocket or drone launch will be met with destroyed buildings in Hizbullah headquarters in Beirut and deep damage to infrastructure.

If children in Kiryat Shmona cannot take a bus to school safely, then no one in the Dahiya district and throughout southern Lebanon will find a single functioning gas station. Infrastructure that serves both Hizbullah and the Shiite population must be struck, including electricity and water, thus that Hizbullah will be blamed and pressured to disarm.

And finally, we must declare unequivocally that what has been will no longer be. For years, our enemies have grown accustomed to the cycle wherein they attack, we respond, and then a ceasefire kicks in, leaving the map more or less as it was. It must be made clear that from now on, an attack upon us will cost them a lack of sovereignty, permanently. Israel must announce formally that it will adopt the Golan Heights approach: Just as we never withdrew from the Golan, we will never retreat from Lebanon south of the Litani. Our enemies must be made to realize that attacking Israel will cost them in territory, for generations. And just to fill out the picture, Israel must add that we will retain the area north of the Litani as well if Lebanon does not disarm Hizbullah, as it promised.

This decisive, brisk approach will not only push back the threat of fiber-optic drones, but will also finally end the "cycle of violence:" Whoever starts a war against Israel will pay, on their own land, a price they simply cannot afford.

To-Do List About Gaza

by Adi Mintz, former Director-General of the Yesha Council of Jewish Communities in Judea and Samaria, translated by Hillel Fendel.

“You cannot build a future with armed groups running the streets, hiding in tunnels and stockpiling weapons." So declared last week Nikolay Mladenov, chairman of the “Peace Council” appointed last year by U.S. President Donald Trump. Mladenov, who repeated these remarks at the Munich Security Conference and in his meetings in Jerusalem, effectively stated unequivocally: The disarmament of Hamas is not open to negotiation.

That is, even senior figures in the American “Peace Council” understand what some among us still refuse to accept: There is no chance of dismantling the Hamas terror monster peacefully. Victory will be achieved only through force of arms.

This is not to say that Mladenov has become a Zionist. He still believes that Hamas can compete in national Palestinian elections if it disavows armed activity. But he insisted that it is "not negotiable [to have] armed factions or militias with their own military command and control systems, with their own arsenals or tunnel networks, existing alongside a transitional Palestinian authority.”

Sadly, the Knesset opposition in Israel, together with some of our popular media, engage in systematically minimizing the IDF’s achievements. The situation on the ground, however, tells a completely different story: In recent months the State of Israel carried out a series of strategic operations that has changed the face of the Gaza Strip.

First of all, a thorough and unprecedented cleansing of terrorist infrastructure was carried out in the Gaza areas under our control - from drilling and locating deep tunnels, to the systematic destruction of command compounds. 

Secondly, and most importantly, the IDF gradually and consistently expanded its territorial zone of control. The “yellow line” dividing Hamas and Israeli forces moved westward, towards the Mediterranean – and Israel now fully controls roughly 60% of the Gaza Strip. Combine this with our intelligence capability to carry out precise, surgical targeted killings - such as last week's elimination of the Sinwar brothers' successor as Hamas chieftain arch-terrorist Izz a-Din al-Haddad – and the result is a bottom line of tremendous achievements.

Despite this, opposition leaders in Israel, motivated by narrow political considerations, insist on proclaiming time and again how poorly we have fared and are faring in Gaza. They ignore our achievements there, choosing rather to create headlines about supposed "Hamas empowerment." They don't seem to mind that along the way, the combat morale of our soldiers in the field suffers. 

In the past, Yichye Sinwar – Hamas leader and architect of the Simchat Torah/Oct. 7th massacre – would emerge from the tunnels after an Israeli strike, sit among the ruins, and announce: "We won!" But today, most shamefully, some of our own politicians and "experts" do Sinwar's work for him, by sitting in the TV studios and declaring, "We lost!" 

I'm not suggesting that Hamas is not dangerous; the recent bitter past has taught us that all too well. But the facts are clear: During the recent Israeli-U.S. military operation "The Lion's Roar," Hamas sat paralyzed on the side. Nor did it dare to try anything, even if only to distract Israel, when the IDF was engaged (and still is) in attacking and wiping out Hizbullah capabilities. Hamas was simply too weak to do so, and Israeli deterrence is too strong. 

The Five Steps Needed for Total Victory

Now is precisely the opportunity that Israel cannot allow itself to miss. In light of the international recognition that Hamas has sorely violated the ceasefire agreements of seven months ago, the Israeli government must take the following five strategic steps in order to completely dismantle Hamas. 

• The logistics faucet must be closed immediately: The number of trucks with "humanitarian aid" entering Gaza must be reduced to the absolute minimum. Currently, 650 (!) trucks enter each day, and many of them are stocked with luxury items or dual-use products. Reducing the daily number of trucks to 150 would ensure that there is no famine in Gaza, while also preventing Hamas from ruthlessly controlling the resources arriving there. 

• Not a trace of Hamas sovereignty may remain. Air strikes must destroy every sign of the Hamas regime in areas that have not yet been conquered. Anyone bearing arms, every local policeman, and any semi-governmental building must be legitimate targets, in order to shake and weaken the Hamas foothold among the populace.

• Hamas territory must be constantly eroded. The "yellow line" must keep on shifting westward, so that Israeli control will be expanded and terrorist expanses will be narrowed.

• Intelligence capabilities must be increased: The Shabak and IDF Intelligence Wing must be more firmly and deeply emplaced in Gaza, in order to more precisely prepare for a future IDF ground-forces entry to completely dismantle the terrorist infrastructures.

• Willful emigration from Hamas must be encouraged. Efforts to do so have been underway to one extent or another, but an official body totally dedicated to this end has not yet been formed. 

We must emphasize that there are no shortcuts to dismantling Hamas. The IDF’s attempts to cultivate “local militias” or armed clans as an alternative governing authority are a form of playing with fire. Predictably, in the long term, these weapons will inevitably be turned against us.

Defeating Hamas will not be achieved by transferring control to other gangs - but rather through decisive Israeli security control, territorial firmness, and stripping the Gaza Strip of any governing capacity and terrorist capabilities.

Editor’s Note: It is important to note the all-but-forgotten promises by President Trump to disarm Hamas. As Dr. Aaron Lerner of IMRA has noted repeatedly, President Trump told reporters last October that Hamas "said they were going to disarm - and if they don't disarm, we will disarm them. It will happen quickly and perhaps violently. But they will disarm, do you understand me?" 

Earlier this year, Trump wrote on Truth Social, "Hamas must IMMEDIATELY honor its commitments… and proceed without delay to full Demilitarization. As I have said before, they can do this the easy way, or the hard way." 

Meanwhile, BBC reported last month that Hamas rejected the latest Trump-administration disarmament proposals. Lerner notes that Trump and his team are "stone-silent regarding this development… Iran and Hezbollah, not to mention China and others, are taking notes. If President Trump willingly ignores an inconvenient reality regarding Hamas, why should they take him seriously in substantially more challenging situations?"

Breakthrough in the Settlement Enterprise: Bet El Is Set to Become a City

After years of delays, the land reserves of the community of Bet El have finally been legally regulated — a move that opens the door for the construction of thousands of housing units.

A dramatic development has taken place in Bet El after a long and complex legal process regarding land ownership and planning was completed. The move removes longstanding restrictions that had blocked large-scale construction projects for years.

As a first stage, plans are already advancing for approximately 1,200 housing units, with the broader vision of transforming Bet El into a city. The project is expected to significantly increase the population of the area.

The expansion also includes major transportation upgrades, particularly widening the access road to the community in preparation for increased traffic and improved accessibility.

Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich welcomed the development, describing it as a “moral and national obligation” and saying the government is continuing to strengthen Jewish presence in the area through building and development.

Local council officials said the move will allow younger generations to remain in Bet El and establish their homes there, while turning the community into a major urban center in the Binyamin region over the coming years.