Category: Articles

By Alon Davidi, Mayor of Sderot – January 10, 2024

Until the morning of Oct. 7, the town of Sderot in southern Israel was a parable of hope and success. Less than a mile from the Gaza border, it emerged a few years after the 1948 Arab-Israeli war as a haven for Jewish refugees fleeing antisemitic persecution — from North Africa, Kurdish lands, Ethiopia and the former Soviet Union. I am a second-generation Israeli; my parents found refuge in Israel from Iran.

Those people forged a city brimming with cultural richness, industrial vitality and a spirit of coexistence.

The trials of those who built Sderot were indeed traumatic but did not define them. The city’s residents devoted themselves to moving on and forging a flourishing future built on educating the next generation.

Source:
The Agony and Determination of Sderot/New York Times, January 10, 2024, by Alon Davidi

Commander of the IDF Central Command Major General Yehuda Fox on Tuesday launched a widespread rampage of demolitions in Jewish communities near the town of Pnei Kedem in Gush Etzion.

A closed military zone order was issued for the entire region, including the access road to Pnei Kedem. Residents on their way to work were blocked by police for lengthy periods of time and were allowed to continue only after extensive questioning. MK Simcha Rothman, who lives in Pnei Kedem, passed through the area, and convinced the officers to allow residents to travel the road freely.

Late Tuesday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu issued instructions not to demolish the homes of soldiers and reservists during wartime. The photo in this article shows a bulldozer demolishing the home of a reservist.

Bedouin illegal construction lingering in almost the same location for years has not been evacuated. Nothing is done to stop illegal Arab construction which is rampant in the entire eastern Gush Etzion and all over Judea and Samaria. But demolishing the home of a reservist serving to defending the country right now is OK?

Sources:
Gen. Fox Sidesteps Smotrich to Justify ‘Urgent’ Demolition Rampage in Gush Etzion, by David Israel/Jewish Press, January 9, 2024

Netanyahu orders halt to home demolitions in Gush Etzion, by Hezki Baruch/Israel National News, January 9, 2024

By Maj. Gen. (res.) Gershon Hacohen

In the wake of October 7, the State of Israel, its society, and all its institutions are at a critical crossroads. One path forward demands a thorough investigation and examination of everything that failed on that day so the necessary corrections can be made. The second path directs Israel towards a comprehensive inquiry across all dimensions and urges the formulation of a new and updated national narrative in the face of the existential challenge. The question is, which of the two paths is worth pursuing?

Source:
A New Existential War – Part III: Forming a Clear Post-War National Vision Means Returning to the Roots of Zionism, by Maj. Gen. (res.) Gershon Hacohen/BESA Center, January 8, 2024

Mayor of Sderot Alon Davidi said the city’s evacuated residents would not comply with a government decision to start sending them back home as early as February 4.

Yesterday, Davidi presented a list of conditions for the return of the city’s residents, which included the total depopulation of the northern Gaza Strip and the extension until June of accommodation stipends for evacuees.

In his statement, Davidi presented conditions for a return to Sderot that included turning the northern Gaza Strip into a “kill zone,” as he termed it, and posting two Israel Defense Forces divisions in the area.

Sderot residents have repeatedly brought to the government’s attention that there has been a failure to protect them from Palestinian terrorists who have been firing rockets at the city since 2001. It’s high time for Israel to ensure that Sderot is made safe again.

Source:
Sderot mayor rejects government decision to bring residents back on February 4, by Canaan Lidor/Times of Israel, January 8, 2024

The Nachala movement, headed by Daniella Weiss, is recruiting former and future community members who are prepared to move back to the Gaza Strip, making it once again part of the Promised Land of Israel. On October 20, Nachala tweeted: “These days we must not forget that since the ‘Oslo era,’ with Gaza no longer under Israeli control, we have been experiencing a severe deterioration of our security. We left Gaza – we got a war. Therefore, the goals of this war should be clear: 1. Occupying the entire Gaza Strip; 2. Jewish settlement of the entire Gaza Strip.”

Nachala is planning a conference that will call for the resettlement of Gaza. The conference, which is organized by the Nachala movement together with other groups, will be held on Thursday, January 28 at Jerusalem’s International Convention Center under the headline: “In the face of alarming signs of weakness regarding the next phase of the fighting – a call for settlements in the Gaza Strip.”

Source:
Nachala Movement Planning Zionist ‘Day After’ in Gaza, Gush Katif and All, by David Israel/Jewish Press, January 5, 2024

These things will also be discussed in a Zoom meeting that AFSI is proud to co-sponsor with the Nachala Movement on Sunday, January 21. Time and registration link to follow. See Calendar of Events further below for preliminary details.

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich emphasized in a recent interview that it’s impossible to go back to the day before October 7, and Israel must establish a Jewish settlement enterprise in Gaza.

Smotrich warned that two million Nazis are living in Gaza, making it a time bomb with an extermination mechanism for the State of Israel.

“Whoever thinks it would be possible to go back to what was before and engineer some kind of local civil government in Gaza is mistaken. It is clear that Nazis are living in Gaza, two million Nazis who are being held captive for a long time, in poverty, in overcrowding, they are being deliberately held by the Arab world,” the finance minister asserted.

Source:
Smotrich on Popular Right-Wing TV Show: We Must Establish Jewish Settlements in Gaza, by David Israel/Jewish Press, January 8, 2024

Knesset Constitution, Law, and Justice Committee Chairman MK Simcha Rothman, in a conversation with Arutz Sheva, criticized the Supreme Court’s decision to publish its ruling striking down the ‘Reasonableness Standard Law’ during the war.

“Ruling on a divisive issue at a time of war is a mistake. Even if the ruling were for my side, I would say the same. This is not the time to deal with divisive issues.” says Rothman. He explains that he believes that a vast majority of the Israeli public supports a major change to the justice system.

While he believes that the Supreme Court made a mistake by publishing the ruling during the war, he clarifies: “It won’t drag me into the same mistake of starting a discussion and a public debate now when the soldiers are in Gaza, and in the north, and in Judea and Samaria defending our citizens from terrorist organizations to start talking now about divisive issues or about issues that can wait until the end of the war.”

MK Rothman says that every person is responsible for making sure that Israel will not revert to the social rift that existed before the war. With that said, Rothman’s comment certainly includes Israel’s Supreme Court. They should be fighting on the frontlines for unity and not divisiveness and power.

Source:
MK Simcha Rothman: ‘Soldiers returning from Gaza won’t tolerate divisive rhetoric’, by Israel National News, January 3, 2024

Binyamin Regional Council Governor Israel Ganz addressed a letter last week to US President Joe Biden calling on the President to cease advocating for the creation of a Palestinian Arab state in Judea and Samaria iand Gazai n the aftermath of the Hamas massacre of October 7.

Ganz began his letter: “The war between Israel and Gaza did not commence on October 7, 2023; rather, it has been unfolding over the past few years, particularly in Judea and in Samaria. It is no secret that the Palestinians use the same language as Hamas with regard to Israel, as expressed by the Palestinian Authority leadership, their educational systems, and media outlets. Regrettably, we forewarned of such events.”

Source:
Binyamin Gov. to Biden: Discard perilous idea of a Palestinian state, by Israel National News, December 31, 2023

A video posted by an IDF soldier on Wednesday revealed a tunnel shaft in one of the villages in the Mount Hebron area. The soldier says he found the shaft during a patrol his unit conducted after receiving complaints from area Jewish residents who had been hearing noises of underground digging. The video shows a 5-meter-deep shaft that connects to a short tunnel that does not appear to be connected to other tunnels or has another shaft.

Now revealed to the world are the facts, photos and videos of the hundreds of terror tunnels in Gaza thankfully being destroyed by the IDF. To learn that there is but one tunnel reported so far that extends into a Jewish owned town is deeply disturbing. We pray no further terror tunnels are found in areas inhabited by Jewish communities and that any that are found are destroyed.

Source:
Soldier Discovers Tunnel Shaft in Mt. Hebron Area, a Reminder the PA Is Riddled with Tunnels and Shafts, by David Israel/Jewish Press, January 3, 2024

The most undemocratic of the hurried Supreme Court announcements on Monday was not the 8 to 7 ruling revoking the amendment that removed the reasonability clause. That ruling was a mugging that took advantage of the political echelon’s reluctance to counterattack in wartime and used a very temporary majority of 8 to 7 justices that included two retired justices. Without them the vote on the same amendment, after the government gets around to rewriting it, will likely be reversed to 7 to 6 against.

But the punch-in-the-face, no-holds-barred decision on Monday was that the Supreme Court has the authority to conduct a judicial review of basic laws and intervene in “exceptional and extreme cases where the Knesset exceeded its constituent authority,”

That one was passed with a 12 to 3 majority, meaning it will not go away. What used to be the sanctified rule for close to 75 years, that Israel’s basic laws are tantamount to a constitution, and as such the court cannot contemplate anything that starts with the words “basic law,” is no longer.

Chairman of the Constitution, Law, and Justice Committee MK Simcha Rothman said, “I was hoping that they were connected to the magnitude of the hour, but unfortunately they chose to give a different ruling – the High Court chose its war.”

“The Supreme Court’s ruling is not legal, and includes the unprecedented cancellation of a Basic Law, without a source of legal authority and with a conflict of interest on the part of the judges. This is a dangerous, anti-democratic event – and at this time, more than anything else, it is a ruling that harms Israel’s war efforts against her enemies,” said MK Tzvikah Fogel.

Sources:
Supreme Court Establishes Dominion over 2 Other Branches, Grabs the Power to Kill Any Law Anytime, by David Israel/Jewish Press, January 2, 2024

MK promises: ‘We’ll finish the war and make order in the Supreme Court’, by Israel National News, January 2, 2024