Transitioning to Full Rights in Judea and Samaria

Israel's status in International law is unique, and therefore potentially confusing.  Preliminary dejure (full) rights are easily viewed as defacto (current practice, but not actual law).  By selecting to attempt to give away land, Israel is superimposing by her chosen policy a defacto status to the territories that are really fully Israel's.  Therefore the moment Israel's policy becomes to retain their land, in that moment it will gain full dejure status, as it is not predicated on International feelings, but on the legal process that began 90 plus years ago and applied since then.

Now in this context allow me to clarify a statement that I previously wrote about on this blog:
"...under International Law all disputed territories in Israel are Israel's by way of a defacto annexation. Implicitly, then, it is only because Israel has been trying to give parts of it away that this whole "dispute" even exists. Only because a significant percentage of Israelis wish to continue the fantasy of a Palestinian state being a boon for peace does the entire concept continue as foreign policy."

But that defacto status is only due to current policy, not intrinsic to the legal status of all territories West of the River Jordan.

Let me try to explain this with a parable.  A person hurts his arm with painful wound that will fully heal in time and unwisely selects to undergo a voluntary amputation on that otherwise healthy limb.  Until that surgery happens, the chosen limb is at risk, and considered "ill" (even though it is only the person's way of thinking that is ill).  The diagnosing doctor marks the limb for amputation (he's a friend of the patient and just wants to be a "good friend" and listen to the patient), going against his own better judgement (assuming he has any). The surgeon (International Law in this parable) does not attempt to test the limb to see if it's healed (which would be a good medical practice for real doctors to follow).  Unless the patient changes his mind before the surgery begins, his limb remains marked for amputation. It has a pending defacto status of a severed limb. The surgery in this example, is signing a final status agreement, which has never taken place.

By placing a PLO flag on Judea, Samaria and Gaza, the State of Israel has marked those lands for amputation.  But it is extremely important for the patient to change his mind, for Israel to not go through with it.  It is extremely important for the nations of the world to check the facts of the situation to see if the limb really must go and if the limb, once severed, would only serve to make a Frankenstein monster rather than a healthy clone.

May Israel soon awaken from the extremely bad idea of giving away the wonderful land that the Creator gave her.  May she acknowledge her inherent dejure rights, her full and complete legal rights to all of the land West of the River Jordan.  May it be very soon, by the grace of G-d.

Ending the Demographic Nightmare

A chief concern of those who refuse to accept the most obvious solution to the Palestinian issue, that of full Israeli annexation of Judea, Samaria and Gaza, is the question of demographics.  No friend of Israel wishes it to endanger itself by disproportionately increasing Arabic power in the state of Israel.  Therefore a peace plan would require two things, that annexation allows expansion of IDF control while simultaneously furthering the preservation of current political power levels of both Jews and Arabs in the State of Israel.

The key is keeping things proportional.  If current demographics are maintained by adding an equal amount of Jews from outside the Green Line, then the current levels are not at risk. Pretty simple.  Yet if you take out all Arabs with terrorist leanings, you'll still have more Arabs than Jews currently living outside the Green Line.

That why there is a need to tie the naturalization rate of Green Line Arabs to the immigration rate of foreign born Jews, as I stated previously.

Next comes the most important part, placing in a bureaucratic filter to weed out terrorist from naturalization candidates.  But just as a credit card company can figure out who to trust with a credit card, similarly there is a way to get past that hurdle as well in the security field.  Just as one with bad credit can build their credit back to good, one with an anti Israel past can regain lost trust, if they are sincere and patient.

The key is this, everyone gets to keep their homes.  Both Jews and Arabs.  Only enemies of the state must leave.  So this gives this plan an advantage other plans cannot compete with, as no other plan allows retention of societal norms as does this one.  That is why I named it the Everyone Wins peace plan. But it's decidedly more important that everyone actually wins, that true peace be given a chance to flourish, than this plan be called by my name for it.  So rename it if you will, but I challenge anyone to come up with another plan better than this that does not require war to get us there.

The government has known about this plan for a few years now, let's hope it finally gets the serious review by the government that it deserves.  May it soon be so, by the grace of G-d.

The Meaning Behind the Destruction of the Temple

A friend recently wrote of his impatience with G-d at the rebuilding of the Temple, saying that Our Father was ignoring us by leaving us with fast days of mourning destruction rather than restoring the joy of the rebuilt Bais HaMikdash.  This is my reply...

Tisha B'Av and the Three Weeks of mourning for the Bais HaMikdash that is in ruins is not about doubting G-d's existence, it is about humbling ourselves in preparation for the high holy days when we must accept G-d's supremacy. Then we call Him, Our Father, Our King.  He is not just an Abba, a father that allows room for us to calculate how much we can get away with, He is also our King, with the absolute righteous right to demand of us as He wills.

What father would ignore his children? Yet what king can tolerate if their behavior ignores him?  This is the time of our wake up call.  Return to Hashem, or at least recognize that we need to return to him.

When much of the nation wants to share G-d's mountain with another religion rather than wish that G-d's house, the Temple, be built there, then where is there room to doubt our Father, our King in His silence, however painful it may be?  Yet He still protects us from our enemies.  Even when the State of Israel was established while ignoring His Rabbis, G-d did not let us lose that war, or any since.  Just as one can choose to lose a battle that that can be won, so too a child can choose to prolong their exile from their father's embrace.

May the policies of the government reflect the spiritual aspirations of the people and in our policy and in our daily lives may we reflect those ideals intrinsic to a rebuilding of the Bais HaMikdash, swiftly in our days.  May it soon be so, by the grace of G-d.