The strategic importance of bolstering Israel's settlements - by Gershon HaCohen

Israel’s attitude towards its presence in a temporary space—an attitude that has us waiting for an agreement and eventual withdrawal—is what gives hope to terrorism.

Gershon HaCohen..
JNS.org..
15 December '18..

The terror attacks that took place on Highway 60 near Ofra this week demand examination on both the tactical and strategic level.

From a tactical perspective, we must urgently focus on the question as to what elements of defense are required to secure the settlements and the traffic on the roads. From a strategic perspective, the Israeli government and Israeli society must re-examine the fundamental yet controversial question: “What are we doing there?”

As far as the tactical security response is concerned, the Israel Defense Forces and the security forces must find appropriate solutions. Strategically speaking, an Israeli leadership is required that will examine the national interests that guide Israel’s presence in Judea and Samaria.

It would be wise to return to the fundamental conventions that guided Israel’s leaders up until the turning point of the 1993 Oslo Accords.

(Continue to Full Column)

Updates throughout the day at http://calevbenyefuneh.blogspot.com. If you enjoy "Love of the Land", please be a subscriber. Just put your email address in the "Subscribe" box on the upper right-hand corner of the page.Twitter updates at LoveoftheLand as well as our Love of the Land page at Facebook which has additional pieces of interest besides that which is posted on the blog. Also check-out This Ongoing War by Frimet and Arnold Roth. An excellent blog, very important work. 

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A frustrating event that left a feeling that it was all for nothing - by Mati Tuchfeld

..."If the disengagement from Gaza contributed anything to history, it did so by proving that terrorism has nothing to do with the settlement enterprise, but there was no such advantage in northern Samaria. There was no advantage to this eviction. None. Zero. Nothing has changed for the better there. It had no added value to security or to anything else. It was a frustrating event that left a feeling that it was all for nothing."

Mati Tuchfeld..
Israel Hayom..
16 June '17..

Maj. Gen. (ret.) Yair Naveh retired from the Israel Defense Forces nearly three years ago. His last role was as IDF deputy chief of staff, but he is most remembered for his role as the GOC Central Command who was involved in the disengagement from the Gaza Strip in 2005.

In the unilateral disengagement from the coastal enclave, Israel evicted Gush Katif, a bloc of 17 communities in southern Gaza, and pulled back to its 1967 border with the Gaza Strip. It also evicted four secluded settlements in northern Samaria. The disengagement, during which 8,600 Israelis lost their homes, remains highly controversial to this day, as many believe it is directly linked to the increased terrorist activity and rocket fire emanating from Gaza since then.

As head of Central Command, Naveh oversaw the eviction of the northern Samaria communities of Kadim, Ganim, Homesh and Sa-Nur. The operation was far smaller and less dramatic than in Gush Katif, but Naveh's membership in the national-religious sector presented him with a personal challenge.

Twelve years on, as a group of coalition lawmakers plan to introduce legislation that would allow the residents of the four Samaria settlements evicted in 2005 to re-establish their communities, Naveh says the unilateral disengagement from Gaza was a mistake, telling Israel Hayom that reality has proved the move failed to generate any security or diplomatic advantage for Israel.

He also believes that Israel should seriously consider turning back the clock for two of the Samarian settlements, Homesh, northwest of Nablus, and Sa-Nur, northwest of Jenin, as repopulating them could serve Israel's security interests.

(Continue to Full Post)

Updates throughout the day at http://calevbenyefuneh.blogspot.com. If you enjoy "Love of the Land", please be a subscriber. Just put your email address in the "Subscribe" box on the upper right-hand corner of the page.Twitter updates at LoveoftheLand as well as our Love of the Land page at Facebook which has additional pieces of interest besides that which is posted on the blog. Also check-out This Ongoing War by Frimet and Arnold Roth. An excellent blog, very important work. 

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Europe's OCD (Obsessive Chicken Disorder) with Israel

...The duplicity of their campaign targeting Yehudah and Shomron is all the more apparent when one considers that no such campaigns are being contemplated for Chinese products made in Tibet, Russian items manufactured in Chechnya or Spanish goods from Catalonia. Only when it comes to the Jewish state do the liberals of Europe insist on drawing a line in the sand. This is not only hypocrisy, it is hatred, pure and simple.

Michael Freund..
Pundicity/Hamodia..
09 September '14..

For a continent beset by problems, Europe sure seems to have a strange set of priorities.

The region's economy is faltering, Russian forces are threatening the Ukraine, and the Muslim fanatics of the Islamic State (ISIS) are said to be plotting terror attacks on its soil.

But none of that has distracted the European Union (EU) from a matter of paramount importance: whether to halt the import of poultry from Israel.

No, this isn't a kashrus issue, nor are EU officials suddenly concerned about the sharpness of the knife used for shechitah.

Simply put, it is age-old anti-Semitism fastidiously dressed up in the guise of policy.

Earlier this year, the Europeans notified the Jewish state that it did not recognize the authority of its health inspection agencies to operate in Yerushalayim or in Yehudah and Shomron since the EU considers these areas to be "occupied territory".

As a result, Israeli produce such as chicken and meat would be barred from import into Europe unless the Israeli government would begin to distinguish between products exported from within pre-1967 Israel and those originating in Yerushalayim or Yehudah and Shomron.

Though European officials are claiming this is simply a technical matter relating only to health inspections, no one is buying that explanation.

Clearly, the goal of this measure is to harm the livelihood of Jewish businessmen and entrepreneurs as a way of undermining the settlement enterprise in Yehudah and Shomron. Needless to say, goods made by Palestinian-run plants in the territories will not be affected.

This is an absolute outrage, one that is both morally obscene and historically indefensible, and the EU should be ashamed of itself for engaging in such a discriminatory practice.

Misinformed and erroneous statements are the real obstruction to peace

...In 2009 I was invited to meet Tony Blair, the special envoy of the quartet (the UN, US, Russia and the EU) for the Middle East. At the end of our conversation I invited him to visit the communities whose future we had just discussed. He declined, saying: "I can see them from my helicopter." "From the helicopter," I replied, "you can't see the faces, look into the eyes and understand their aspirations." Blair, like many of his peers, continues to fly over our heads.

Dani Dayan..
The Guardian..
07 June '13..

Catherine Ashton, the EU's high representative for foreign affairs, is a vocal critic of the Israeli communities in Judea and Samaria. Referring to them as "settlements", she claimed last week that they "threaten to make a two-state solution impossible" and called on Israel "to immediately end all settlement activities beyond the green line, including East Jerusalem". Obviously, Ashton has never visited a "settlement", like almost all of her colleagues in the international diplomatic high echelons. Nevertheless they consider themselves experts on the matter.

One notable exception is the former US president Jimmy Carter, who visited Gush Etzion in 2009. Carter is well known for his harsh criticism of Israel, considered by many as sheer hostility towards the Jewish state. So shocked was he by the reality on the ground, he stated: "This particular settlement is not one that I envision ever being abandoned, or changed over into a Palestinian territory." The contrast between Carter's statement and Ashton's reminded me of a recent statement by Israel's finance minister, Yair Lapid: "I used to have so many opinions before I learned the facts."

In 2009 I was invited to meet Tony Blair, the special envoy of the quartet (the UN, US, Russia and the EU) for the Middle East. At the end of our conversation I invited him to visit the communities whose future we had just discussed. He declined, saying: "I can see them from my helicopter." "From the helicopter," I replied, "you can't see the faces, look into the eyes and understand their aspirations." Blair, like many of his peers, continues to fly over our heads.

More than 360,000 Israelis live in almost 200 communities across Judea and Samaria, with 200,000 more in East Jerusalem. That's more than half a million people. Our endeavour stands on solid moral ground.

Who do the territories belong to? With Golan Azulai

Moetzet Yesha
Title Translation by LisaLiel



Every day we hear in the news about "occupied territories" and "illegal settlement activities." And it seems everyone knows the story ... or do they? Golan Azulai gives a short, and to the point review, of what we may not have ever considered. Enjoy!



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The Dire Importance of Samaria

Jamie Glazov
frontpagemag.com
12 November '10

Frontpage Interview’s guest today is Michael Gottlieb, an oleh (immigrant) from the US who is a man on a mission. After moving from New York’s suburbia to Israel’s bucolic Samarian (Shomron) heartland region, he has joined the battle to save the Land of Israel in general and the Shomron in particular. His weapon of choice: his “Shomron Central” hasbarah blog.”

FP: Michael Gottlieb, welcome to Frontpage Interview.
I would like to talk to you today about the centrality of Samaria to the Land of Israel, its connection to the Jewish people and its importance to the State of Israel.

But first, let’s begin with why you moved to Israel and what Shomron Central is all about.

Gottlieb: Thanks Jamie.

I grew up in an orthodox family which emphasized Zionist values. My grandfather attended Zionist Congress meetings in the 1930’s and bought land in Haifa. He loved and revered the Land of Israel. Although we had a comfortable life in our Westchester, New York suburban community, we understood that there was more to life. By the time we made aliyah in 2002, most of my family had already been living in Israel.

Shomron Central is the name of the blog I authored. ”Shomron” is the Hebrew term for Samaria, the northern half of the so-called “West Bank” (Judea and Samaria), captured by Israel in the defensive Six Day war of 1967. It is the historic Homeland of the Nation of Israel and represents a big chunk of what was originally conceived to be the future modern Jewish State, according to international agreements dating back to the post World War I era.

The blog explains in a concise and engaging way the centrality of Samaria to the Land of Israel, its connection to the Jewish People and its multi-faceted importance to the State of Israel.

(Read full interview)

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90 Seconds About Israel

myisraelHE
www.myisrael.org.il
31 October '10

(A very special thanks to Naftali Greenwood for providing an English text translation of the film.)


                                   Did you know?

The Judea-Samaria mountain range constitutes 23% of Israel's area.

The Judea-Samaria mountain range is 55 km. wide; sovereign Israel between the Green Line and the Mediterranean Sea is only 15 km. wide.

The distance from Kefar Sava to the Green LIne is all of 2 km.

The Judea-Samaria mountain range looms to a height of 1000 meters over Tel Aviv.



Whomever controls Judea-Samaria can hit most of Israel's cities directly and indirectly.

Judea-Samaria abuts Jerusalem from three directions: north, east, and south.

Jerusalem will become an Israeli enclave within a Palestinian state, connected to the rest of the country via a narrow Palestinian-controlled corridor.

Judea-Samaria -- a mountainful of security!

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Succot 5771

Marc Prowisor
Yesha Views
21 September '10

Peace, peace, peace. Israel must give up territory… Israel must accept Arabs and their descendents that ran away in 1948 while Arab armies attempted to eradicate the Jewish existence in Israel…Israel must release terrorists who have murdered, and have been accomplices and/or have planned to kill Israelis. Israel must retreat to indefensible borders.

Russia arms Syria and Iran with advanced weaponry, the US arms Saudi Arabia, Lebanon and other Arab Nations with Sophisticated and advanced arms.

Islamic terror grows everyday as do attacks on non-Muslims and Western targets throughout the Islamic world.

The “Quartet” insists that Israel does not let any Jews build in Judea and Samaria. Salaam Fayyad and Abbas say the Judea and Samaria must be ethnically cleansed of any Jewish presence.

A close-to nuclear Iran says that Israel’s time is up. Salaam Fayad and Mahmud Abbas are on their way to the US to chum up to as many Jewish “leaders” as possible, to convince them to pressure Israel to place itself in the most “uncompromising” position as possible since the rebirth of the Jewish nation in 1948.

So lets see, pressure Israel to get into a one-sided peace agreement with the “Palestinian Authority” (who are the minority and barely represent themselves), arm the rest of Israel’s enemies to the hilt.

Again, I might have missed something…. Call on Israel to make every possible compromise and arm the nations that have been fighting against Israel since its creation even more than before.

Is it just me, or does anyone else see something wrong with this picture?

As we approach the Holiday of Succot we are taught how the walls of the Succah should remind us of the “Clouds of Glory” that protected us against all odds as we traveled through Sinai. We had no other allies in the world, it was just we and G-d and a dream of being in our own land, a dream that was fulfilled... not just once.

(Read full post)

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Samaria, Israel's hidden asset

Michael Gottlieb
Guest blog/JPost
29 August '10

The rolling hills of Samaria, cradle of the Jewish Nation, present a mosaic of rocky hilltops and fertile valleys, dotted with groves of age-old, silver-green olive trees. The terraced hillsides, first developed by farmers in ancient times, blend into the natural landscape. The vistas and scenery, seemingly unchanged since Biblical days, reflect the fulfillment of Jeremiah's prophecy "Again shall you plant vineyards on the mountains of Shomron". The perfumed mountain air and dazzling views excite the senses. Beautiful, barren and beckoning, the Shomron patiently awaits the return of the Jewish People.

Yet the Shomron, Israel's heartland region, remains an orphan child. Most Israelis don't go there and few really know anything about it - as if it were on another planet. However, far from being in outer space, the Shomron is virtually in our backyard. From Kfar Saba's industrial zone it's a ten minute bike ride away. Its majestic purple and gray mountain range, which runs north-south for 70 km, is clearly visible from any elevated location in Israel's center. Its downward sloping hillsides provide us with our drinking water.

The most notable feature of the Shomron is the immense strategic value it offers Israel. Its mountain range dominates the heavily populated coastal strip to the west and the strategic Jordan Valley to the east. Whoever controls Samaria also controls 70% of Israel's population, and 80% of its industry capacity. Samaria is arguably more strategic to the State of Israel than the Golan Heights!

Another important feature of the Shomron is that it contains the Mountain Aquifer, Israel's largest and most significant fresh water reservoir. It supplies about 600 million cubic meters of very high quality fresh water, equivalent to roughly one third of Israel's yearly water consumption. The Shomron Mountain Aquifer contains at least as much water as the Kinneret!

(Read full post)

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Some more preachin'

Marc Prowisor
Yesha Views
05 February '10

Some more preaching to the Choir…

I attended a “talk” at UCLA, the last of a series regarding Israel. This talk was given by a resident of one of the larger communities in the Shomron, , no stranger to the effort and cause of resettling our homeland, and regarded with esteem in many circles, both in Israel and among the “Choir” outside. The audience was not large, but made varied in religion, religious observance and political views.

My heart was warmed by her talk regarding our world in Yehuda and Shomron, as I know and live in the same world as she does. The talk ended and it was time for questions - the honeymoon was over. Obviously there were the questions from the “choir” which were answered with love and caring, but then came the questions by those whose views had already been hijacked by the “haters” among us. This is where ignorance and arrogance reigned - on both sides.

Many of our “representatives” who speak outside of the country are simply residents, “machers”, activists - they speak with the zeal and love of a land and people that continues to be the flames in our hearts. They represent strength and dedication and they are responsible for having set in motion the wonderful path we are on today in our country.

What many of them do not know is the other side. How do the Arabs think? How does the Left think and why? And the problem which I immediately saw – what do the young non-observant or non-affiliated Jews of the US think?

Simple questions were raised regarding “Palestinian” rights to land, treatment at roadblocks, polarization in Israeli society (raised by an Israeli), and of course the “A” word- apartheid.

(Read full article)
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