Another Few Outposts On The Way To Jerusalem

By MK Dr.Michael Ben-Ari

(Knesset speech translaned into English by Daniel Pinner)

            Back in Isaiah’s day, Sennacherib, King of Assyria, the undisputed ruler of the mightiest empire in the world, arose, proclaiming himself as the international leader. He, too, waved his hand towards Jerusalem, after having passed by all the other outposts which were not really all that important to him. The prophet describes Sennacherib’s rapid succession of conquests: “he has come to Ayyath, after passing Migron; he deposited his tools in Michmas” (Isaiah 10:28).

            After his impressive conquests, and intimidating the entire world with the impression he left, Sennacherib went for the icing on the cake – Jerusalem: “Today, he [Sennacherib] will yet stand in Nob, waving his hand contemptuously at the mountain of the Daughter of Zion, the Hill of Jerusalem” (ibid, verse 32).

            The rest is history: the Assyrian king’s army was forced into retreat, his royal dynasty was destroyed by internecine fratricidal murders, and of all his boastfulness, little remained. Sennacherib and his empire were finished.

            Just a few years ago, the arch-murderer Arafat arose and gave his Jerusalem/Al Quds speech. He had already received several cities – Jericho, Ramallah, Shechem [Nablus], Jenin, and others; and he then enunciated his true ultimate goal, the icing on his cake: Al Quds, wa-ba’ada, wa-ba’ada, wa-ba’ada; that is to say, Jerusalem, and onwards, and onwards, and onwards.

            Obama, fortunately for us, has not prevaricated at all: he openly and honestly follows in the footsteps of previous oppressors. His hatred for Israel flows freely and naturally from his mouth. Let no one make any mistake: the issue of outposts is merely tactical, and not the actual goal itself. And consequently, continuing to build them has become our single most existential national task here. Dismantling the outposts will be the signal that heralds the evil, and the beginning of the crumbling of our entire existence.

            Obama, like Arafat before him, sees Jerusalem as the lynchpin of the issue: integral parts of Jewish Jerusalem such as Ramot and Neve Ya’akov are “occupied territory”, and the appropriate way to deal with them is summarised in the term “internationalisation”.

            It is all too clear that dismantling any outpost, even the smallest, demoralises all those of us who still cleave to our national ideals and values; and the excuse that abandoning Migron enables us to keep Jerusalem is no longer relevant after the eloquent speech of the President of the United States of America.

            The time has come for us to stand straight and proud, and to tell the President of the USA to deal first of all with some of the “smaller” problems that are rampant in his region – such as more than half a million Americans being made redundant every month, which is a social earthquake of far greater dimensions than our squabbles; likewise the North Korean nuclear program, and so on.

            A self-respecting leadership would announce: We have returned to our land by the will of G-d, in spite of the USA’s fundamental opposition back in those first critical days of Israeli independence. We will continue to build throughout this land, fulfilling the vision of countless past generations and for the sake of the future generations.

Dr. Michael ben Ari is the only current member of the Israeli Knesset who speaks and acts from the perspective of the authentic Jewish idea.