There are moments in the life of a nation when hesitation is more dangerous than action. For Israel, that moment has now arrived.
As Axios reported on August 31, Israel is weighing the formal annexation of Judea and Samaria amid a mounting international push to grant statehood to a fictitious Palestinian entity.
The maneuvers by key Western countries, such as Canada, Britain, France, and Australia, completely ignore the lack of a Palestinian willingness to seek peace and, in the process, aim to undermine Israel’s historical rights.
Therefore, now is the time for Israel to step forward with clarity and moral strength by formally extending full sovereignty over Judea and Samaria.
Cradle of our civilization
Do not for a moment think of them as mere territories on a map; Judea and Samaria are the cradle of our civilization.
In Hebron stands the Cave of the Patriarchs, where Abraham bought the first Jewish-owned parcel of land in the Land of Israel (Genesis 23) and where most of our founding fathers and mothers are buried.
At Shiloh, the Tabernacle was erected as the nation gathered to worship (Joshua 18:1), and it stood there for 369 years. The Hebrew prophets walked the hills of Judea and Samaria, and God declared, “They shall dwell in their land, which I gave to My servant Jacob” (Ezekiel 37:25).
To call this soil “occupied” is to try to erase Scripture itself. If we cannot claim Hebron, Shiloh, and Beit El, then what moral grounds do we have for Tel Aviv or Haifa? Judea and Samaria are not bargaining chips. They are the divine covenant etched in stone and earth.
Military advantage
Geography also makes annexation indispensable. Israel without Judea and Samaria is a nation exposed; its central plain is barely nine miles wide. From the hilltops of Samaria, terrorists could hold our population centers hostage with little more than mortars. And does anyone think they would not hesitate to do so?
The Jordan Valley is our natural shield to the east. Control over it ensures that weapons and militias do not pour in unchecked. To relinquish it would be to gamble with Israel’s survival.
International prejudice
When Jordan occupied Judea and Samaria during the War of Independence, almost no one objected. When Morocco absorbed Western Sahara and when Turkey entrenched itself in northern Cyprus, the world barely shrugged. Yet when Israel seeks to secure its ancestral patrimony, which was promised to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the international chorus of condemnation is deafening.
This is not about international law; it is about international prejudice. No other nation is told to surrender its ancestral homeland for the privilege of existing. Only the Jewish people.
The legal status of Judea and Samaria is clear: They were never sovereign Palestinian territory. Israel reclaimed them in 1967 in a war of self-defense. Jordan’s prior annexation in April 1950 was illegal, unrecognized by nearly the entire world.
Israel has every right – legal, historical, and moral – to apply sovereignty. If international law ignores that, then it is a law that is hollow and bereft of justice.
An assault on Israel's legitimacy
Opponents of annexation wield demography like a weapon, warning of a Jewish minority. But the statistics are inflated, manipulated to scare Israelis into paralysis. Even so, Israel can shape policy – through residency rights or municipal autonomy – without surrendering its Jewish identity.
Other democracies maintain complex arrangements to balance sovereignty and population. Why must only Israel be denied that right?
The coordinated campaign to confer recognition on “Palestine” is an outright assault on Israel’s legitimacy. Our response must be decisive, not timid.
For too long, successive Israeli governments treated Judea and Samaria as objects to be traded away at the negotiating table. The result has been endless rejection, terror, and delegitimization.
Enough.
Annexation is necessary
Hebron, Beit El, Shiloh, and Ariel are not leverage or an ace up the sleeve to be dealt away. They are as much a part of Israel as Jerusalem and Beersheba.
To be sure, annexation will not silence Israel’s critics. Nothing ever does. But it will restore truth to a debate poisoned by hypocrisy. It will secure Israel’s borders, affirm Jewish history and destiny, and provide the country with much-needed strategic depth.
Earlier this year, a survey found that 71% of Israelis oppose the establishment of a Palestinian state, and nearly 70% support extending Jewish sovereignty over Judea and Samaria.
So let the world debate as much as they wish. But it is Israel that must decide.
If Paris, London, Canberra, and others want to slap the Jewish state in the face by recognizing “Palestine,” then Jerusalem should respond in kind with a clear and unequivocal message: Judea and Samaria are Israel. Now and forever.
The writer served as deputy communications director under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.