"The most dangerous thing in war is to underestimate the enemy and to to say downward that we are stronger." - Vladimir Ilyich Lenin
The sense of power emanating from the Ministry of Defense was intoxicating. Warnings coming from the field were written in bold letters on the wall, yet the system systematically ignored them. Brigadier General (Res.) Brik sounded the alarm, but nobody wanted to acknowledge it. The settlers have been providing reliable warning signals for decades, but the convenient label imposed by the authorities brands us as eccentric.
During the disengagement from Gush Katif, we sounded the alarm about everything happening to us today, including the disaster that occurred on the morning of Simchat Torah 5784 (October 2023). People who clapped their hands at the sight of locked gates in Gush Katif became victims of the arrogance and hubris of our security officials.
In recent years, a parallel process has been underway, paralleling the strengthening of Hamas in the south and Hezbollah in the north, a process that we have been warning about vociferously. In 2009, Salam Fayyad, who was then the Prime Minister of the Palestinian Authority, established a plan aimed at practically taking over Judea and Samaria through systematic land theft, unlawful construction as close as possible to Israeli settlements, and rampant anarchy. The plan is a blueprint for creating nooses that would turn into rings of fire on the day of reckoning, as we have witnessed and experienced.
The State of Israel must stop the invasion and attempts at extermination in the center of the country
While Fayyad's plan aims to erode Israeli sovereignty through "peaceful" means, we woke up on the morning of Simchat Torah to recognize the next stage of Hamas and the Palestinian Authority. Abbas Zaki, a member of Fatah's central committee, acknowledged Hamas for their work in Gaza and emphasized that they would do the same to Israelis and Americans in Judea and Samaria. He is not alone; Jamal Al-Hawil, another member of this murderous organization, announced that the two-state solution is no longer valid, and they now advocate for a single Palestinian state from the sea to the river (The Jewish Voice).
If we take Efrat as an example, out of over 85,000 illegal structures built in Judea and Samaria, more than 100 houses, most of which already have evacuation orders, are constructed on the special access road reserved for Efrat and adjacent to the settlement's boundaries on land not registered in the name of the offenders. The Palestinian Authority (PA) is constructing a city in the nature reserve of the Judean Desert, between Tekoa and the Dead Sea, to connect Bethlehem to Hebron and sever the connection between the State of Israel and the Dead Sea.
We are shouting from every high hill in the ears of the security ministers from both sides of the spectrum. This is not an exercise, and we are not just pressing the alarm button for no reason. Finally, listen to us! Maybe we should stop trying to analyze the psychiatry of these subhumans and start addressing their statements and actions on the ground.
There are over 500,000 Israeli residents in Judea and Samaria (the West Bank) who are living on ancestral lands and safeguarding the coastal strip. The State of Israel must stop the infiltration and attempts at destruction in the heart of the country. This is the time! We are not living with a false sense of security, but rather seeing and acknowledging reality as it is. Open your eyes and start responding to the preventive actions by necessity, and cease the policy of reaction that has cost us so dearly. We cannot afford another failure. It is time to halt the Fayyad plan, dismantle the illegal construction, and create a plan and organization to implement it.
The time has come to return to the plow of our homeland, "In the place where the Jewish plowshare turns the last furrow – there will our border pass" (Joseph Trumpeldor).
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Gideon Margalit, the founder and chairman of the Efrat Land Committee, the Gush Etzion Efrat Land Committee Forum, and the Judea and Samaria Land Committee Forum. He is one of the founders of the "HaKerem" ("The Vineyard") initiative, which bridges the gap between the community in Efrat and victims of shell shock. The project combines construction and innovative agricultural development, promoting vitality and peace.