Among the many battles Lubavitch Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson fought for the Jewish people: Shuleimut Haaretz The territorial integrity of Israel and the integrity of its borders are more important than ever in the context we are currently experiencing.
The globally famous leader of the Chabad movement, who died 30 years ago this week, strongly believed and argued that abandoning territories under Israeli control would put Jewish and non-Jewish lives at risk.
This is obviously very relevant to the events of the past year and to the decisions Israel will be making now and in the coming days, weeks and months.
After months of postponement of discussions on plans for the “day after” Gaza war, the government finally revealed its plan. In a television interview two weeks ago, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu alluded to a new plan being implemented by the IDF, detailed by National Security Advisor Tsahi Hanegbi at the Herzliya conference: a top-down regional leadership system led by moderate Arab and Western countries.
Hanegbi said that “Hamas is an ideology, so it cannot be completely eliminated,” but argued that the government’s new approach is an “alternative” that can actually eliminate “the ideology of Hamas.” However, instead of eliminating the ideology, this new approach is instead energizing “armed struggle.”
Governance of Gaza would be overseen by a coalition of states guaranteed to advocate for the realization of a Palestinian state, which would result in one of two outcomes: either Israel resists an independent “Palestine” and lends legitimacy to the continued “armed struggle,” or the Jewish state ultimately agrees to an independent “Palestine” and the “armed struggle” continues, because the true meaning of “Palestine” was, is, and will always be “from the river to the sea.”
Hanegbi correctly points out that the Hamas “idea” needs to be replaced with another idea, but the only serious option that can achieve the goal of eliminating this idea is to end the idea of “Palestine” by Israel annexing it and assuming full responsibility for the land and all its inhabitants, as the Rebbe has always maintained.
But for decades it has been persuasively argued that annexation is impossible because of the “demographic problem”: if Israel annexed, it would have to grant citizenship to the population, which would result in an Arab majority in Israel’s democratic institutions and the end of Israel.
However, the Global Policy Initiative recently released the Domain of Israel (DoI) framework, which addresses the demographic issue.
According to the framework, reported by Israel National News, Israel would annex all of Judea, Samaria and Gaza, while establishing around 10 DoIs within those territories, each of which would be governed by a territorial constitution to be enacted and amended by the State of Israel, defining the extent of borders, rights, jurisdiction and other laws enacted by the Knesset, and by each territory’s directly elected ministers and local mayors, but only with Israel’s “sovereign consent.”
The key to the Indian Occupation Policy Framework, and the way it solves the population problem, is that the inhabitants will be given citizenship and rights in their own territories, but not Israeli citizenship, conditional on their acceptance of Israeli sovereignty. The Indian Occupation Policy Framework therefore provides the key to ending the “occupation”, providing for human rights, equality before the law, good representative governance that accepts but does not deny Israel’s right to exist, and ultimately putting a definitive end to the pursuit of two states.
Defining the borders of Israel
The most important question, of course, is whether Israeli territory will be accepted. Indeed, at the Herzliya conference, Hanegbi argued that “none of Israel’s proposals will come to fruition, because those who collaborate with it will lose legitimacy among the people of Gaza.” The most graphic example of this was in Judea and Samaria after 1967, when Israel tried to arrange local Arab governance under the IDF. At the time, many Arabs who agreed to help with governance were hunted down and killed as “collaborators.”
And it’s true: Israel’s proposal to maintain a situation in which the people it calls “Palestinians” have no rights, no state, and no citizenship will not be popular. (Instead, Israel is attempting to do the same thing under the auspices of Western and moderate Arab countries.)
But what about Israel’s offer of rights and citizenship? In that context, the only lesson to be drawn from Judea and Samaria after 1967 is that there were people who were content to govern their communities under Israeli rule, despite the absence of citizenship and “occupation,” and against the deadly backdrop of growing calls within those communities for continued Arab colonization of the Jewish homeland.
But here, Israel’s territorial framework provides clarity and permanence by annexing, establishing territory, granting citizenship rights, ensuring quality education, establishing democratic institutions, removing bad actors, and establishing the rule of law.
All of this will create an entirely new reality that will change things relatively quickly and completely for the Arab people in these areas of the Land of Israel, for both those who seek evil and those who seek good: the rest of the people, who are happy to live under Israeli sovereignty, will live in security, peace, freedom and prosperity, while Israel will eliminate those who seek to destroy its people.
For decades we lived under the illusion that the Rebbe’s views were demographically unrealistic. Thirty years after his death, Israel’s territorial framework has shattered that illusion.
The Rebbe has always emphasized and insisted that Israel and its leaders act independently and decisively, without being swayed by outside pressures or influenced by international opinion. Today, we need to set aside outside pressures, expectations and demands and consider a territorial solution for Israel, or something similar, that provides the constitutional means for the Jewish state to assume full responsibility for the peace, security and good governance of all people living in the Land of Israel.
This article was written with the help of experts in the field.■
The Italian-born author lives in Jerusalem with her husband and four children. She heads Hadassachen Productions and hosts a weekly talk show on Arutz Sheva.
