The Jewish Leadership Alternative to Flotillas and other Threats

By Moshe Feiglin

Israel is in acute distress. The bulwarks upon which we have predicated our security - America, Western Europe, the IDF - are all melting away. Even our mythological navy commando has been humiliated in a live broadcast. Slowly but surely, reality as we know it is changing its face. The ground is rumbling under our feet.

I look at all the good Jews demonstrating for Israel and my heart goes out to them. They feel that they are right, but cannot explain why. They have nothing more to lean on than Israel's explanations that exchange "justness" for humaneness. After all, we bent over backwards to be humane in Gaza. We even expelled our own brothers from there. So why is the entire world against us?

The protestors of the Left, on the other hand, have an apparently moral claim: Israel conquered a land that is not hers, they assert. Israel's right wing is offering nothing more than healthy emotions. If it cannot counter the Left's claims with solid moral reasoning, its protests will dissipate and the Left will once again sweep Israel from one defeat to the next.

The Marmara is the Exodus of the terrorists. International law supported the British army - not the ma'apilim, the "illegal" Jewish immigrants during the British Mandate. But the British were defeated because the world felt that the Jews were right. Today, the same game is being played out, but we are the side enforcing the blockade.

We claim that we need the blockade because they are shooting; they claim that they are shooting because of the blockade. There is one simple question that determines who is right: Whose land is this, anyway? When Israel recognized the "legitimate claims" of the Palestinians on this Land and even retreated from parts of it, it lost the moral high ground from which to claim the remaining parts of the Land. We did not receive international recognition in exchange for our "good will," but rather more international pressure, more isolation, more demonization and a new type of war that we cannot win, because we have lost our sense of justice.

Last week's fiasco on the high seas is just one more stage in the disintegration that Israel's leaders have no idea how to stop. What will we do when the next flotilla will include war ships from Turkey, or Britain or even the USA (as soon as the elections for Congress are finished)? Ultimately, the blockade will be forced open because from the corner into which we have backed ourselves -denial that Gaza is part and parcel of our Land - the Arabs are simply right.

We have two alternatives. We can come to terms with the "Palestinian" narrative, as the leftist demonstrators would have us do, wave a white flag of surrender and enter negotiations with the hopes of being granted the status of dhimmi in the new Palestine. The other alternative is to revolutionize Israel's basic values, rebuild our national ethos on Jewish foundations, return to our Jewish sense of justice and re-invent ourselves as proud Jews in the Jewish Land.

Let us imagine an Israeli prime minister who was elected on the basis of our Jewish values: "The Nation of Israel has returned to its Land after 2000 years of exile as per Divine directive," he would explain. "We do not wish to harm those non-Jews who are currently in the Land of Israel. We will honor all their human rights if they choose to fully recognize and respect the Jewish State. In addition, we will be happy to help those Arabs who prefer to pursue their national aspirations in any other country in the world. To that end, we have established an international fund to solve the problem of the refugees in Gaza. We have allocated five billion shekels for this project, with two billion shekels to be allocated to the fund annually. The fund will provide generous aid to any Arab who will sell his possessions in Israel and emigrate with his family to any other destination in the world. An Arab who chooses to remain in Israel and remain hostile to the Jewish Nation will be regarded as an enemy of the Jewish State and will be dealt with accordingly."

Does Israel have the money for this proposal? Absolutely. We spent much more on the Expulsion of the Jews from the Gaza area. Would the Arabs agree to leave? According to statistics publicized over the last years, approximately 70% of the residents of Gaza would be happy to leave. A budget of five billion shekels would convince the heads of many extended families to leave and provide an enticing example for all the rest. Photos of Arab families enjoying their new lives abroad would spark the imaginations of their Gaza brethren. A hot debate would develop in Arab society for and against the emigration. The terror organizations would fight against those who chose to leave and forget all about the Jews. No incentive to kidnap soldiers, to launch "freedom flotillas" or to use other methods and ploys to challenge Israel's sovereignty.

Only leadership that has a clear ideological platform and solutions for Israel's existential problems will inspire the nation to follow its lead. Manhigut Yehudit is offering just such leadership. We are confident that ultimately, Israel will make the right choices.