Gary Cooperberg, September 18, 2005

Now that Ariel Sharon has succeeded in imposing his personal solution upon his disappointed electorate, you can bet that he will never get re-elected. Although much harm was done (which he is already compounding by his absurd attempts to justify his actions), there can arise some good from this mess. What we need is an entirely different leadership which is not afraid to use Sharon’s mistakes to begin a process of restructuring Israel into the Jewish State it was always meant to be. This process may take a long time to accomplish, but we must start somewhere.

Sharon already set the precedent that, for peace, and for the good of the country, it is acceptable for a government to arbitrarily and unilaterally expel whole communities from parts of our country in order to physically separate Jews from Arabs. Stage one was Gaza first. What we need now, before the next elections, is a candidate who is not afraid to run on the platform that stage two is to remove all Arabs in Israel into Gaza. Clearly this is not a "racist" suggestion, rather the natural follow up to the "disengagement" which Sharon has already begun with the approval of the Knesset. When Bibi gave 80% of Hebron to the PLO not one Jew was included in that part of Hebron. While he loves to talk about reciprocity, he neglected to give them all the Arabs from our 20%. Now is the time to finish that arrangement as well. This is not meant to be a final agreement, rather a temporary step until we can realize a permanent solution.

Let it be stated, clearly and unequivocally, that all of Gaza; all of Hebron; all of Bethlehem; all of Jericho; all of Judea and Samaria; and all of the so called "State of Jordan" belong to the Jewish State. Since these areas are presently occupied by foreigners, we will tolerate this occupation for as long as there is no terror. We do want to live in peace. We know for certain that all of these lands will eventually return to us and we will never recognize foreign sovereignty there, but we will not arbitrarily repossess them. But just as no Jew is living in so called "Jordan" or in areas controlled by the PLO, it is only proper to reciprocate and remove all Arabs in Israel to these places where they can identify with their own culture. If, after this relocation is completed, we are able to live in peace and security, we will accept this temporary situation until Moshiach comes and sorts things out. If, on the other hand, the Arabs continue to attack us, we will respo nd by repossessing permanently all territories from which the terror originates. One way or the other we will put and end to terror and find a way to live in peace.

The people of Israel are ready for a strong leader who is not afraid to speak and act as a proud Jew. Now is the time.

Gary Cooperberg, a resident of the Jewish community in Hebron, Israel, is the founder and director of Project Shofar.

Copyright © 2005 Gary Cooperberg