The tail being the settler movement in Judea & Samaria, as well as their supporters within the green line; the dog being the state itself. As a result of the Obama policy demands regarding the Israeli communities in Judea & Samaria and his mistaken belief of their centrality to the negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians the community living in Judea & Samaria and their sympathizers in Israel itself are in open confrontation with the state, as to who represents the true leadership of the state.
I believe that this point in time the settlement community has gained the upper hand and it may well be too late for the central government to exercise control over that part of the body politic of the nation.
The success of the settler community signals the defeat of the Zionist state. A state founded on a delicate and rational consideration for our past with an emphasis on our future.
From the point of view of the settlement community and many of its supporters; if the justification for the Jewish peoples returns to the Land of Israel is based on our past historical relationship with this land. In fact the land where we were most active in the biblical past, is in fact the Eastern mountain area. It was in Beth El and other mountain communities that our true historical experiences were most prevalent.
YES, we also functioned in the coastal plane. Yaffo was the port from which the prophet Jonah tried to escape his spiritual fate…There were Hebrew communities all along the costal plain, they were just not as central to our narrative as those to the east. The most well known was of course Yerushalayim. Bethlechem appeared in our historical narrative when Elimelech chose to leave the country and settle across the Jordan. Later when his widowed wife Nomi and daughter-in-law Ruth returned it was to Bethlechem. This city was then central to the story of the young Shepard David who became the King and ancestor of the anticipated messiah. Hebron too was a city central to our historical experience here. As is witnessed by the Cave of the Patriarchs (Abraham, Isaac , Jacob, and the Matriarchs Sarah Rebecca and Leah), who are buried there in the Machpela.
We know of Schechem, in the central highlands from the story the “Rape of Dina” (daughter of Jacob) and the revenge of her brothers. Today the city is known as Nablus and includes the homes of the Samaritans and holy temple they worshiped at two thousand years ago.
So, many claim, justifiably that Hebron and Bethlechem are more realistically cities in which we have an historical connection and commitment than Tel Aviv and Ramat Gan, Hedera or Eilat.
This might be true in a strictly historical accounting but to me, and thousand of other Israelis, the reality on the ground is more relevant and sacred than the ancient history.
A major sentiment driving the settlements enterprise has been the historical connection between the contemporary nation and the ancient national existence. To the degree that it is seen as paramount, is the depth of the defeat of rational Zionism and the triumph of Palestinian intransigence. The inevitable success of the single state between the river and the sea, the ultimate goal of the Palestinian national movement and the Arab Muslim world’s century’s long war on an independent Jewish state in “their” Middle East would be accomplished by a simple democratic election.
The critical question is; will we allow the settlement community and their sympathizers to dictate a policy which will lead us all into this box canyon.
