Leading up to Israel’s Knesset elections on January 22, here are more initiatives I hope to bring to the fore in the next Knesset:
Gaza: Revoke the Oslo Accords There is no solution for Gaza if we do not understand that we are not colonialists and that Israel is our land. I oppose endangering our soldiers in a ground assault on Gaza if we intend to subsequently exit the area. The fact that Israel continues to provide electricity and cash to those who target its citizens is completely unreasonable. Israel must engage in a defensive shield type of operation in Gaza, destroy Hamas, restore security to southern Israel and return to the infinitely better situation that we had there prior to the Oslo accords. Ultimately, Israel must relate to Gaza as it does to Judea and Samaria.
For the Arabs of Judea, Samaria and Gaza: Permanent Residency The Land of Israel is our land and we will never leave it. Israel must declare sovereignty over all parts of the land that are in our hands, as the Likud charter requires. Israel’s Arabs enjoy all rights – even more than Israel’s Jewish citizens. The Arabs living in Judea, Samaria and Gaza can be offered permanent residency status. This status will afford them full human rights and most of the services that the state of Israel gives its citizens. It will be forbidden to do to them what we did to our own brothers in Gush Katif. Israeli citizenship will be granted to those non-Jews who have tied their fate to Israel and who have proven their loyalty to the state. Those Arabs of Judea, Samaria and Gaza who insist on voting for a parliament may do so in any one of the 22 amazing “democracies” that the Arab world has established since World War I.
The Iranian Threat: No Foreign Involvement One lesson of the Holocaust is that negation of the victims’ legitimacy precedes actual physical destruction. The Holocaust of the Jews of Europe did not begin in 1939 when the war broke out. It began in 1933 when Hitler became chancellor of Germany and, as head of state, began to espouse his threats to destroy the Jews. When the war broke out, a question mark already hovered over the right of the Jews to exist.
When the leader of a sovereign nation prepares to destroy Israel and publicly declares his intentions, he negates our legitimacy. This is the correspondence that we see between Ahmadinejad’s hate speeches and the accelerating process of de-legitimization of Israel in the Western world.
It is a fatal mistake to involve the world in the Iranian issue. If the world solves the problem, Israel will always be forced to pay for the right to breathe air on the face of the earth. He who threatens to destroy us loses his own right to exist. Think of how many lives would have been saved if the free world had understood this and killed Hitler before he embarked on World War II.
America: No Foreign Aid and the Overall Relationship Israel should have foregone American foreign aid long ago. The foreign aid that Israel receives from the U.S. amounts to four percent of its GNP. Israel exports to America approximately one third more than it imports.
When America carries a debt of $16 trillion, it is not reasonable that a much better off country like Israel should expect donations. Israel’s relationship with the U.S. should be based on common interests and values between strategic partners.
Israel must demand the release of Jonathan Pollard and expel the U.S. spies who fill our country.
We Still Have a Long Way to Go My election to the Knesset will be an important stage in the journey that began with the establishment of Zo Artzeinu and continued with the establishment of Manhigut Yehudit and our integration into the Likud. I do not know what role the prime minister will offer me. I am particularly interested in a position of influence in education, housing or security. But any position that will foster my efforts to advance the liberty, Jewish identity and meaning of the Jewish state are relevant.