WhatsappNetanyahu’s Likud party recently finished the party’s primaries in preparation for the upcoming elections. The results show that the supporters of the Likud party rewarded the Likud politicians who support Israel finally applying sovereignty in areas of Judea and Samaria.
Out of the 30 Likud members who today hold Knesset seats, 28 have made statements or signed a declaration in support of the application of some form of Israeli sovereignty in Judea and Samaria. The remaining two are Prime Minister Netanyahu and Benny Begin, who is retiring from the Knesset.
Likud Member’s Position
To show how strongly some Likud members feel about Israel finally applying sovereignty in Judea and Samaria, here is one recent quote from a Likud Minister. On Feb. 5 Tourism Minister Yariv Levin said the following with great confidence: “The application of Israeli sovereignty over all of the Land of Israel is in my eyes not a question of if but how we do it and when we get to it. In my view, it should start with applying laws that have specific relevance not only for the residents themselves, but also for the territory.”
Netanyahu & a “Solution”
Prime Minister Netanyahu gave a speech a number of years ago, during the Obama administration, voicing support for the two-state solution, which Netanyahu called a state minus.
Over the years, more and more of Netanyahu’s fellow Likud politicians have come out against the creation of any form of a “
Considering the Arab Muslims who live under Israeli control are the most blessed Arab Muslims in the Middle East, with freedoms and equality not offered in any other Middle Eastern country for all, the best solution for all, Jews and Arab Muslims, is for Israel to finally apply sovereignty. The Arab Muslims do not enjoy the same freedoms under the Palestinian Authority in Judea & Samaria nor under Hamas in Gaza. While they are persecuted by their own leadership, their brothers under Israeli control have full freedoms and equality.
Historic Likud Vote
Just a few years ago, no Likud politicians were calling for sovereignty in Judea & Samaria, yet at the end of 2017 the Likud party passed a historic vote supporting the
The Likud and the national camp must “prove that it has the power to rule and formulate a historic political plan that not only stops the Left’s ideas but also brings the national concept to fruition,” Katsover and Matar said, grassroots leaders of the sovereignty movement.
“Today, MKs, ministers and leaders are calling for the application of sovereignty because of the tailwind provided by the people with conferences, the journal, articles, vigils, billboards, flyers and stickers. Each small step has had a part in this revolution; we can and we must continue to take these steps.”
“Within days,” they promised, “we will push forward in the task that is incumbent upon each and every one of us, simple citizens and elected representatives alike. We, the citizens, have the task of continuing to encourage and support the leadership, which must deal with complex international pressures and is confronted by tenacious leftist elements that are loaded with foreign money; media that are still, for the most part, hostile to the idea; and a justice system in need of serious repair. We are up against all of these things with a lot of love for the Land of Israel in our hearts!”
“The fact that Israeli Prime Minister Binyain Netanyahu relates to the matter of sovereignty, and the fact that the American administration has been urged to respond to the discourse of sovereignty in Israel, indicate the necessity for additional public pressure in order to bring the implementation of the vision of sovereignty to political resolution,” the two said.
“The time has come to express our Biblical right to the land,” said Netanyahu’s number two in Likud, Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan.
More than a thousand Likud central committee members voted unanimously back in December 2017 to endorse exercising Israel’s sovereignty over Judea and Samaria in a meeting at Avenue Hall in Airport City.
Erdan said Israel cannot miss the opportunity of having US President Donald Trump in the White House who, Erdan said, does not believe settlers are an obstacle to peace. He downplayed the role of the overwhelming majority of the rest of the international community.
“We are telling the world that it doesn’t matter what the nations of the world say,” Erdan told the crowd. “We must recognize this sovereignty.
Women in Green
Nadia Mattar and Yehudit Katzover are the leaders of the Women in Green movement, also knows today as the sovereignty movement. When Women in Green started 25 years ago, it was a protest movement against the Oslo Accords agreements between the Government of Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization. Then, after the Israeli disengagement from Gaza in 2005, the organization shifted its direction to safeguarding Jewish land in Judea and Samaria, fighting what they describe as the Palestinian Authority’s continual, gradual creeping conquest of land in Judea and Samaria with the economic backing of Europe.
“They started taking over hills in Judea and Samaria in area C,” said Matar.
So, Women in Green spent a few years holding small, local battles over this hilltop or that hilltop, planting trees that the Arabs would uproot and then planting them again. But in 2007, the organization determined to stop saying “no” all the time, but instead to say “yes” – to offer a plan for the application of the sovereignty that it had been promoting and to explain the ramifications of this sovereignty.
“Fifty-one years after our victory in the Six-Day War we should declare sovereignty over this land,” said Matar. “This is not a concept that Women in Green came up with. There were others who spoke about it before us. But we turned it into a campaign.”
She said the Arab residents of Judea and Samaria understand that if they want a better economy, better infrastructure, if they want peace, then they will more-likely get that from living in a Jewish-run state.
Matar said that a big part of the Sovereignty Movement is pushing the government to take legislative action.
“Any question of the status of Judea and Samaria is not solved if we just keep forming communities in the area but keep them under rule by military command,” said Matar from her home in Gush Etzion. “The world tells us we are occupiers. If the government does not declare it is ours, if the government acts like it has not decided, then how can we complain about the sentiments of the rest of the world?”
