What Can Be Done?

In This Article:
1. Time to Stop this Train
2. Come Together, Oppostition Forces
3. Pick Up the Slack
4. Damage Control
5. Let's Wake up From This Bad Dream 

"It is our destiny to be in a state of continual warfare with the Arabs, and there is no other alternative but that the lives be lost."
(Dr. Arthur Ruppin. Personal Journal,1936).

Time to Stop this Train
The Jewish state is on the verge of total collapse. A multitude of analyses unmistakably proves that Israel's fateful hour is approaching. Any objective observer who has access to the Arab press and who has monitored Israel's behavior since the 1993 signing of the Oslo agreement can easily understand that the Jewish state is heading towards an existential catastrophe. The time for contemplation is over. Now is the time for Israel to act.
Only a simultaneous awakening of all the different groups within the Jewish state can stop and reverse the disastrous progress of events. The situation is extremely critical, but it is still reversible as long as Israel does not allow the creation of another Palestinian Arab state. The train of Oslo must be stopped before it reaches the gates of Auschwitz.
Ehud Barak's government must fall. The National Religious Party (NRP), the Yisrael B'Aliyah (YBA) party and the religious sephardic SHAS party must leave the coalition, showing Barak that he definitely does not have a Jewish majority to support the continuation of his policies. The threats to leave the Coalition, coming from Housing Minister Yitzhak Levy, leader of the National Religious Party, and Interior Minister Natan Sharansky, leader of the Yisrael B'Aliyah party should stop being threats.
The time has come to act upon the threats. It is irresponsible to wait till Barak's "concessions on Jerusalem and Yesha are confirmed" and only then to leave the government. The last several years have proven without a shadow of doubt that all attempts to influence the government from within have miserably failed. Since the majority of the constituency of both the NRP and the YBA are against the withdrawals there can no longer be any foot-dragging.
The NRP and YBA must leave the government immediately, one after the other, in two consecutive days, after their leaders declare at press-conferences that they cannot be a part of the government that leads Israel to disaster. Sharansky's carefully worded statement that the agreement with Arafat will "affect the standing of the Jewish people in Israel and the Diaspora, weaken the people, and reduce their ability to identify with the State" should be repeated, but in a much stronger way. The truth must be spoken clearly and unequivocally - every step along the Oslo road is a step toward Israel's demise.

Come Together, Oppostition Forces
After the NRP and YBA leave the government, all patriotic forces in the Knesset must unite on a platform of opposition to the abandonment of the lands of Yesha and Jerusalem and the rejection of a second Palestinian state. The Opposition front should pressure the SHAS party to follow the example of the NRP and YBA. If SHAS abandons the government, it will collapse. The departure of the NRP and YBA and the threat of the SHAS party to leave the coalition will force Barak to think twice before continuing with his concessions.
The Opposition front must wrest the initiative from Barak's government. It should start organizing DAILY demonstrations in the most visible locations emphasizing the follies of Barak's policies. The gloves have to be taken off. No political correctness any more. The issue at stake is the life and death of the Jewish state. All the efforts of the Opposition front should be primarily directed towards a PR campaign explaining the danger of the situation to the Israelis. The Oslo process was initiated by the Israelis. It should be buried by them, too.
At the same time the citizens of Yesha, the Golan, the Jordan Valley, etc. - i.e. all the areas that are under the threat of abandonment by the Israeli government - must in a very short period develop and sign a Memorandum of Zionism that will clearly state that under NO CURCUMSTANCES will they leave their houses, their settlements and their cities.
If the leaders of the Yesha council are not capable of leading the Memorandum campaign, it should be entrusted to the Dor Hemsheh leaders. The Yesha council must immediately stop any cooperation with Barak's government. In view of the recently released information that Barak is ready to hand more than 90% of Yesha to Arafat, the lesson of the previous years is clear enough: any attempts to work with the government have completely failed.

Pick Up the Slack
The Memorandum of Zionism should declare that every single house that is built or is going to be build anywhere in Eretz Yisrael is there FOR EVER. It is the inalienable right of the Jews to settle Eretz Yisrael and first and foremost its heartland - Yesha. The Memorandum should have the names of the citizens of Yesha, the Golan, the Jordan Valley, etc., and should be signed by the heads of the respective households.
The Memorandum should declare that all the undersigned will categorically oppose the abandonment of ANY Jewish community regardless of its size. There is no difference between Maale Adumim, Efrat or Nokdim. All of them are located in Eretz Yisrael. All of them will remain there and thrive.
Concurrently, the Yamin Yisrael Party, the Women in Green, Gamla, Zo Artzeinu and similar groups and organizations, which are today at the forefront of the struggle for the survival of the Jewish state, should unite into the Zionist Conscience Alliance and play the role of the Voice and the Conscience of the Jewish people of Israel. They should initiate and lead the campaign among all the citizens of Israel within the so-called "green line" to sign the Brotherly Memorandum - a Memorandum identical to the Zionist Memorandum - in order to match every signature on the Zionist Memorandum with a signature on the Brotherly Memorandum, thus proving the unflinching unity of the people of Eretz Yisrael.
This Memorandum should declare that the government's decision to abandon any place in Eretz Yisrael will be met by an immediate occupation of this area by thousands of people who have signed the Declaration and by a non-stop vigil in front of the Knesset.
All the Patriotic forces must demand the resignation of Barak's government and the immediate abrogation of the Oslo agreement. The most important task today is to change the perception of the public and the psychological climate in the country. In spite of all of the territorial and moral retreats that have happened during the last seven years, Israel can still mend the situation.

Damage Control
What is needed is resolve and the Jewish and Zionist vision of the leaders. It is only an excuse to say that nothing can be done and to resign to the establishment of another Palestinian Arab state. As long as the land has not been given to the Arabs, the situation is reversible. Unfortunately, the reversal of this suicidal course will be accompanied by human losses. Douglas Feith wrote almost three years ago in Commentary:  "There would be a price in blood that Israel would have to pay. That price would be high. That price would not likely be so high, however, as the military and diplomatic price Israel would have to pay if it were compelled to take action against terrorists based in a new Palestinian state.
It is obvious that the "price in blood" that Israel would pay now is going to be much higher than it would have been if the Jewish state had listened to Feith in September 1997. However, it is the last chance for Israel to control the number of casualties through a preventive attack. If Israel allows the creation of a second Palestinian state, the Arabs are going to be the ones who will decide when to start the final assault on a weak and demoralized "Jewish entity" and the number of casualties will be innumerably higher.
It is time to stop trying to justify Barak's actions. The people who do not want to believe in Barak's follies must look the truth in the eyes. The magician has nothing up his sleeves. What we are witness is the bitter reality. Yes, there was an absolutely shameful "slinking, servile withdrawal" from Lebanon. Yes, there was a dishonorable betrayal of the South Lebanese Army. Yes, Barak is ready to give up more than 90% of Yesha and it does not matter what kind of wrapping paper he uses for this gift to Arafat.
Even the "never again divided" Jerusalem promised by Barak is nothing more than a torn apart city with Arafat's gangs de-facto controlling its eastern sector, and PLO flags "flying over the Al-Aksa Mosque and Christian sites in the Old City" (1). Barak's declaration that "Jerusalem shall forever remain ours because it is in our souls" (2) means absolutely nothing. Jerusalem was in our souls for two millennia, and, though it was not divided during that time, in reality we did not have it.
It is time to admit that Barak is a bad leader for Israel. He does not have a "smart plan" with which he is "luring the Arabs into a trap." Everything is very simple. Barak has not given up the Golan and Yesha to the Arabs yet, only because they did not accept it, knowing that they will get more. Uri Milstein, a military Israeli historian, said in an interview in the "Sheshet Yomim" weekly that "the only motivation that moves him [Barak] is how to remain in office" (3). Since he was put in office by those who are ready to sell out the land, Barak will give it away. It is hard to let go of the illusion of "the most decorated Israeli soldier" who, in reality, "had only failures, when he was Chief of Staff"(3), and that according to Milstein such failures followed Barak throughout his military carrier.

Let's Wake up From This Bad Dream
However, it is much better to relinquish our illusions today, than to relinquish our country tomorrow. Barak cannot stay in power any longer. He "has been badly infected by Washington and the Clinton White House"(4). The illness cannot be cured by conventional medicine. The alternative people's medicine is the answer. In addition to existing Patriotic forces new grassroots movements must come into existence in Israel.
There are very many people in Israel who simply do not know how to help preserve the country. They should start talking to their friends, neighbors, and relatives. They should become vociferous and unite, first into small groups and then into bigger ones. The Israeli turf is ready for the creation of the People's Movement for Eretz Yisrael. The young Jews should be in the forefront of this struggle. They are the hope and the future of the Jewish people. They should not follow the "fake" heroes brought into power by the current establishment. The Jewish people had real heroes who loved the Land -  Eretz Yisrael - and who gave their lives for it, taking strength in the knowledge that future generations will not betray their ideals.
The young Israeli Jews must open their hearts and minds to the words of Jonathan Neatanyahu, who wrote in one of his letters:  "We must, we are obliged, to cling to our country with our fingernails, with our bodies and with all our strength. Only if we do that, if we give all we have for the well-being of our country, will Israel remain the State of the Jews. Only then will they not write in the history books that once indeed the Jews roused themselves to action and held on to their land for two decades, but then were overwhelmed and became once more homeless wanderers" (5).
Jews of Israel, you can make it happen; you can save the Jewish State!

1. http://www.jpost.com/Editions/2000/06/02/News/News.7672.html
2. http://www.jpost.com/Editions/2000/06/02/News/News.7668.html
3. American Yated Neeman, Dec. 2, 1999.
4. Bob Slosser, Good mornin', Amerca, How are Ya'? Brace Yourselves for 'a World Without Israel'. http://www.cbn.com/newsstand/commentary/bobslosser/000601.asp.
5. Self-portrait of a Hero: from the letters of Jonathan Netanyahu, 1963-1976. Warner Books, 1980.

Boris Shusteff works as an engineer and is also a research associate with the Freeman Center for Strategic Studies.