With an impending UN vote to recognize the “state of Palestine,” does the Israeli government have the chutzpah to finally stand up and shout, “It’s ours and you can’t have it!”?
A lot of people with skin in the game are hoping that the UN vote will be the final nail in the Oslo coffin, inspiring Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to declare that Israel stretches from the river to the sea.
While rumors are rampant, none are confirmed as yet. Some say that the unilateral UN move to create a Palestinian state may inspire a declaration of sovereignty over 30% of Samaria in the Jordan Valley. Nadia Matar and her co-founder of the Sovereignty movement, Yehudit Katzover, said that’s good but not nearly enough, in a recent interview.
While 30% may once have been better than nothing, Matar points out that after October 7 the entire geopolitical atmosphere changed.
“Thanks to Macron, we have an additional reason to apply sovereignty,” said Matar. “Now, the prime minister needs the courage to take as much as he can. Before the war with Iran, they said, wait until after Iran. Well, now Iran is dealt with. We have a friendly US administration. The Knesset voted in favor of it.”
Although she agreed that, these days, internationally, Israel is not winning any popularity contests, now, she said, opinions matter even less than they did before.
“No matter what we do, the international community will disagree. It doesn’t matter what the nations say. What matters is what we do.”
“If we miss this opportunity to finally stake our claim on Samaria, Judea and Gaza, we will have turned our backs not only on the legal case for sovereignty, as granted by the Treaty of San Remo, but also on the promise to the Jewish people, made by God Himself, that we are the legitimate inheritors of these lands,” said recently announced Knesset hopeful Jonathan Pollard.
But how does Israel deal with the United Arab Emirates, which released a statement from Dubai warning that annexation of the West Bank would constitute a redline for Abu Dhabi?
“From the very beginning, we viewed the [Abraham] Accords as a way to enable our continued support for the Palestinian people and their legitimate aspiration for an independent state,” Lana Nusseibeh, assistant minister for political affairs and envoy of the minister of foreign affairs of the UAE, was quoted as saying in an interview with Reuters.
After Netanyahu reportedly requested that his ministers refrain from discussing the issue of sovereignty, according to Haaretz, for fear that US President Donald Trump might weigh in negatively, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich shook up the media-sphere in a press conference on Wednesday, calling on Netanyahu to apply sovereignty to 82% of Judea and Samaria, according to Matar.
Apparently, that did not sit well in Dubai.
“We call on the Israeli government to suspend these plans. Extremists, of any kind, cannot be allowed to dictate the region’s trajectory. Peace requires courage, persistence, and a refusal to let violence define our choices,” said Nusseibeh.
“If Dubai feels so strongly about the fate of the Palestinians, then they can offer them a new home on the Gulf,” said Pollard.
Matar recalled when former Knesset member Geula Cohen led the passing of legislation for sovereignty over Jerusalem. Matar said that, at the time, she faced a lot of pushback. “The Knesset warned her that embassies will leave should Jerusalem be declared sovereign. She said she would rather have sovereignty with all the embassies moving away than no sovereignty at all.
“I’d rather have sanctions and sovereignty than enabling a PA state,” Matar said. “By not declaring sovereignty, the message becomes ‘I’m not sure it’s ours.’ There can be no partial deals, no partial sovereignty. This must be our final decision. The Six Day War hasn’t been won until we declare sovereignty.”
WE ASKED Matar what sovereignty in Judea and Samaria might look like.
“Declaring sovereignty will mean that Arabs will finally have no hope for destroying Israel,” said Matar. “The 80% of Arabs who affirmed October 7, and continue to support Hamas, will have to leave. Those who are ready to be residents and be loyal to Israel and do their obligations can stay.
“We cannot throw sovereignty under the bus,” she continued. “The Palestinian Authority must be dismantled. They are no different than Hamas. They may need help in relocating. We need to liberate the moderate 20% of Arabs from the PA and other terrorist factions.”
Matar asserted that from the moment sovereignty is applied, the rules will change.
While she said it may not happen overnight, she anticipates a Samaria full of investors, developers, and new building. Her vision sees people commuting to and from Gush Dan, with new means of transportation and new roads.
She said sovereignty must not just be declared; it must be implemented, not as it is in the Galilee. She suggested they model it after countries like Singapore, “where there is respect for the law. It starts by making it very clear: This is the nation-state of the Jewish people.”
She suggested that Israel build new trade schools to create more workers among the Jews.
“There is nothing wrong with a mother talking about ‘my son the plumber,’” she said.
Currently, the legal way to acquire land in Judea and Samaria is complicated, she said, but this will change the system.
“Sovereignty will enable us to solve Israel’s housing crisis, give people big neighborhoods and private homes, farms, houses with big gardens, and to eventually welcome another two million olim,” Matar concluded. “[Smotrich’s] plan advances us toward the vision of full Israeli sovereignty over all areas of the Land of Israel, prevents the establishment of a Palestinian state in the heart of the country, and puts an end – once and for all – to the Oslo Accords.”
And what about the remaining 18% of Judea and Samaria, which includes Nablus, Jericho, and Hebron?
Not everyone is happy with an 82% deal. Pollard noted that neither Smotrich or Yesha Council chairman Israel Ganz argued for the annexation of Gaza, which he called a “total disgrace.”
“The map which Bezalel Smotrich presented is absolutely unacceptable and represents a clear and present danger to the land and people of Israel,” asserted Pollard. “The main problem is that it still allows a large number of homicidal Arabs who want to kill us all to remain in both Judea and Samaria.”
Pollard said the plan offers “scraps” and doesn’t address the big picture. He said the only way to apply sovereignty in a way that will yield a safe outcome is by expelling every Arab from the territories, except for those represented by the five sheikhs living in and around Hebron.
“Leaving the rest of the Arabs in places like Tulkarm and Ramallah is the political equivalent of removing only part of a cancerous, life-threatening tumor. If possible, the entire tumor must be excised, if the patient is to have a chance of living.”
He said that the plan outlined by Smotrich and Ganz also failed to explain what would happen to the PA. Pollard advocated that the terrorist leadership be eliminated or incarcerated for life, and that the PA’s Arab population be relocated to Syria.
“The PA’s ministries and propaganda organs should be destroyed, while their armed forces should be rounded up.”
Katzover and Matar asserted in a press release that the implementation of the Smotrich-Ganz plan, “along with further stages, will be enabled through the structured encouragement of Arab emigration from Judea and Samaria.
“We will continue to demand sovereignty over the remaining territory – because the entire Land of Israel belongs to the people of Israel.”