We’re talking about a questionable “gesture” to the head of the PLO, a terrorist organization dedicated to the principle of murdering Jews – men, women, and children. At the end of this process, at least as far as the prime minister is concerned, there will be another expulsion r”l. The question now is whether we should wait until they start pounding on the doors with expulsion orders, or should we wake up and fulfill the Rebbe’s instructions to protest vigorously and save the Jewish People?
Translated by Michoel Leib Dobry
1.
Last week, one of the ultra-Orthodox media channels conducted an interview with Shas Knesset Member Ariel Attias. Speaking in rather cynical tones, the former housing and construction minister presented the harsh truth about the governing coalition: You build in Yehuda and Shomron, yet you release terrorists and murderers? This time, Attias is right.
The current situation has reached a level of absurdity beyond all logic and reason. The leaders of the Bayit Yehudi Party pledged unequivocally prior to last winter’s Knesset election that their new coalition government would not permit another construction freeze, and they were prepared to do everything to uphold that principle. They don’t care that they’re releasing terrorists with Jewish blood on their hands – after all, they hadn’t promised not to free murderers. Furthermore, it’s not that there isn’t a construction freeze. No one is building in Yerushalayim. Construction is not being allowed freely in Yehuda and Shomron either. We only hear about the various public tenders that the prime minister occasionally promises to issue. Thus, there is a virtual freeze on construction in Yerushalayim and a partial freeze in Yehuda and Shomron, while the government in Eretz Yisroel continues to release terrorists wholesale. Apparently, what’s most important is that the Bayit Yehudi Party and its Cabinet ministers can sit in the coalition government.
The price for maintaining this coalition is far too high. Approving housing contracts in exchange for the safety of human life – is extremely dangerous.
It is one thing when the left-wing released terrorists – we have sadly come to expect that. Now, however, a Likud-NRP government has released over one hundred terrorists to date – and no one dares to say a word in protest. Coalition members come to demonstrations, speak as if they’re in the opposition, and afterwards they continue to preserve this leftist government dressed in right-wing clothing as a means of legitimatizing its policies.
The time has come to put an end to this charade. As long as the demonstrations are made against the prime minister alone and not against his coalition partners, they will continue to remain firmly ensconced in their places around the Cabinet table.
2.
We also heard last week about the start of construction on the Jordan Valley security fence, reportedly designed to demarcate the country’s future eastern border, in accordance with the prime minister’s objectives. These reports were issued as a crisis in the negotiations between representatives of the PLO and the pseudo-right wing Israeli government loomed in the background.
Once more, we could hear the calls for quiet acquiescence. We’re building a security fence, we’re conducting talks. The main thing is that Naftali Bennett and Uri Ariel won’t just be rank-and-file Knesset Members sitting on the coalition back-benches.
Last week, I spoke with Chevron resident R’ Baruch Marzel. “It’s not Bennett,” he told me. “It’s Uri Ariel.” I asked him why he’s directing his attack against Bayit Yehudi’s number two man, and not against its chairman. “We expected nothing from Bennett,” he explained. “However, what we didn’t expect from Bennett and [Ayalet] Shaked – we did expect from Mrs. [Orit] Struk and Eli Ben-Dahan.
“Thus, we again saw evidence of the pasuk, ‘Bribery blinds the eyes of the wise and perverts the words of the righteous.’ Netanyahu knew how many years Uri Ariel has dreamed of being a Cabinet minister, and his most cherished dream was to be minister of housing and construction. Bibi gave him the opportunity to fulfill his lifelong aspiration, thereby blinding him to everything else happening around him. Uri Ariel – who had once been the hope of those faithful to Eretz Yisroel – has become ‘the freeze minister.’ Bibi has put yet another freeze on construction in Yerushalayim, Yehuda and Shomron – and Uri Ariel has become its enabler. Ariel was certain that he would manage to ‘fix’ Netanyahu, but Netanyahu ended up ‘fixing’ him.
“As housing minister, Ariel has transferred hundreds of thousands of acres to the Bedouins in the Negev. He has virtually put a halt to all construction throughout Yerushalayim, Yehuda and Shomron, and as one of the prime movers of the governing coalition, he played a role in the release of 104 Arab murderers.
“The same person who spoke all these years about ‘baseless love’ is the same one who brought baseless hatred upon the country’s one million ultra-Orthodox residents, when he supported the political covenant with Yair Lapid. He conducted the negotiations with the ruling Likud Party, and he essentially became the architect of the current government.”
But they’re only a small portion of the Bayit Yehudi Party. Why are you coming to them with complaints?
“How could the Knesset Members from the ‘Tekuma’ faction support the legislation placing cruel edicts upon countless families blessed with many children? How could they sit quietly while their political leader recognized the Reform Movement and now gives them a foothold near the Temple Mount? Netanyahu is currently preparing to agree to additional painful concessions, and his government’s diplomatic representative, Justice Minister Tzippi Livni, is working vigorously for more harsh and dangerous withdrawals from portions of Eretz Yisroel!
“We say to Uri Ariel, Eli Ben-Dahan, and Orit Struk exactly what they would have said to the government ministers a year ago: Stop betraying the Land of Israel and the Torah of Israel!”
3.
During the Six Day War, when the Israel Defense Forces prepared to re-conquer the Old City of Yerushalayim, its leading generals expressed concern over bombing the city with artillery fire and possibly damaging its historic structures. Instead, they sent infantry troops to do the job, and many of them were sacrificed as a result – may G-d avenge their blood. When the Rebbe heard about this, he cried out that the army preferred buildings to the lives of its soldiers.
The rationale of those times hasn’t changed. Today, they still prefer to put Jewish lives at risk in order to acquire a few buildings in Ofra and Beit E-l. Anyone who doesn’t fight for the holiness of Eretz Yisroel in accordance with the holiness of the Torah loses all he holds dear. He is now prepared to endanger human life simply to remain seated at the Cabinet table.
One of the speakers during the recent International Shluchim Conference in Beis Chayeinu – “770” was the Rebbe’s shliach in Flatbush, Rabbi Zalman Liberow. Today, he said, everyone with some degree of human intellect understands the issue of Eretz Yisroel’s territorial integrity. He’s right. Unlike in previous years, there’s no longer a need to wage a public relations battle to explain why it’s forbidden to give away portions of the Holy Land. Yet, while Israeli awareness has changed, the nation’s leaders still understand nothing. They operate just as they did in the past. Public figures who once spoke in outrage against territorial compromise have now become political pragmatists in their support for an autonomy plan. While they understand the dangerous threat this poses, they fail to realize that protecting the lives of millions of Jews requires strict adherence to the uncompromising instructions of the Torah.
Releasing terrorists has been a powerful objective for this government. A more comprehensive plan is in the works behind the scenes. If they really are making peace, then why is there a need to free terrorists? And why did the prime minister choose to announce the release of these murderers?
We’re talking about a questionable “gesture” to the head of the PLO, a terrorist organization dedicated to the principle of murdering Jews – men, women, and children. The reason for this gesture is a desire to advance a far wider process. At the end of this process, at least as far as the prime minister is concerned, there will be another expulsion r”l.
The question now is whether we should wait until they start pounding on the doors with expulsion orders, as we again stand at intersections with orange ribbons and cry out, “I have called and no one answers,” or should we wake up and fulfill the Rebbe’s instructions to protest vigorously and save the Jewish People?