WhatsappNote the question that Piers Morgan opens up the debate with. He poses what seems like a reasonable question about how Israel building settlements just exacerbates an extremely tense situation. Right? Wrong. This supposition has been said so many times that it has become the status quo line about Israel, namely, that Israel building new neighborhoods, pejoratively called “settlements,” exacerbates the chances of peace and calm in the region.
Yishai Fleisher nails it by saying that not only is it a good thing – it is the only way forward. Meaning, Israel must build – build more – and stop kowtowing to international pressure to stop building up the Land of Israel.
The reason that Israel must keep building up in the disputed part of the State of Israel, Judea and Samaria, is because it is Jewish land. The Jewish claim to that part of the Land of Israel is stronger than any other part of the Land of Israel. Of course, it is also true that Israel must hold on to the entire Judea and Samaria for security reasons and other reasons. Without Judea and Samaria, Israel’s waist is approximately 10-15 miles wide near the bulk of Israel’s population. It is an absolutely absurd proposition that endangers the security of the entire State of Israel.
But that is not the key reason. Plain and simple, the entire claim of all Arabs to any part of Judea and Samaria is super-thin – historically, militarily, and morally. For thousands of years before Islam existed, the Jewish people who lived in the Land of Israel were centered around Judea and Samaria. Beit El, Shilo, Hebron, and Shechem were not minor places that are mentioned in the Bible a few times. Nearly all of the stories of all of the leaders of the Jewish nation, over a span of thousands of years – way before Muhammad was born – transpired in Judea and Samaria in exactly these locales.
But that’s not enough. The only Arab claim to Judea and Samaria that has any merit at all is the 19 year occupation by Jordan of Judea and Samaria following the failed Arab attempt to destroy the nascent Jewish country between 1947-1949. Israel won the war, but lost the Old City of Jerusalem, parts of East Jerusalem, and Judea and Samaria. Jordan occupied them all and created the “eternal” Arab refugee problem by making sure the Arabs who lived there languished in refugee camps. They did not give them any form of Jordanian citizenship. They just preferred to turn the Arabs in Judea and Samaria into ticking bomb neighborhoods that would rise up one day to attack Israel. Then in 1967, Jordan joined the attack on Israel with Egypt and Syria. They got whipped – as did Egypt and Syria – and lost everything west of the Jordan River including the unfinished majestic palace of King Hussein that towered over the Arab refugee camps below. Jordan has a super weak claim, but they do have a claim to Judea and Samaria. They lost it when they used it as a launching pad to attack Israel. Their are ramifications to attacking your neighbor and losing.
Lastly, the moral claim that Arabs have that they deserve their own State in Judea and Samaria is probably the weakest of all claims. The concept of an Arab national entity made up of so-called “palestinians” is a brilliant marketing move, but it is a fiction. The sadistic Arab killers and rapists are portrayed by their supporters as somehow unfortunate people who lack basic human rights. The reality is that the greatest human rights abuses in the Middle East are performed between Arabs and other Arabs. In the last decade alone, Arabs in Syria and Iraq have killed and continue to kill millions of other Arabs in Iraq and Syria in vicious Civil Wars. Anyone who truly is concerned about human rights of Arabs would make that their primary focus. But the fact of the matter is that those who only focus on Arabs in Judea and Samaria are people who only care about bashing Israel. They care less about Arabs – just about supporting Israel’s destruction.
The Arabs who have the highest quality of living, including health care, roads, and security from other Arabs attacking them are the Arabs who live in the State of Israel – including those in Judea and Samaria.
Yishair Fleisher has emerged as one of the most clear-headed and proud spokesmen for the entire State of Israel and especially for the heartland of Judea and Samaria.
