HASHEM HU HAMELECH – G-d is King!

Yesterday’s speech by Netanyahu has certainly garnered many reactions throughout the world and in the JBlogosphere. While many have praised the speech as "the best he could do under the circumstances," the following statement has to be made. I found it here in Hebrew and it is my translation.

This is the reaction of the representatives of the 'Outpost Rabbis,' who protested against Netanyahu’s words, and declared: "The entire Land of Israel is given to the Nation of Israel, with a covenant and an oath, from the King of the World, and no one of flesh and blood has the authority, not even as a tactical statement, to agree to deliver any part of the Land of Israel to foreign rule. And thus commanded the King of Kings, as the Ramban says in Sefer HaMitzvot, Mitzva 4: 'We are commanded to inherit the Land that G-d gave to our forefathers, Avraham, Yitzchak and Yaakov. We are not to abandon it to the hands of other nations or leave it empty. And He says to them, that "you shall inherit the Land, and dwell in it, for I have given you the Land to inherit, and you shall inherit the Land which I have sworn to [give to] your fathers." '

Therefore Netanyahu’s words, even as a supposition, under any conditions, to abandon the Land to the hands of other nations, are an explicit sin against what the Torah says. The words of our Sages [Chazal] are known - that a person may not make a condition against what the Torah says. Therefore, these words are null and void, without substance or authority; this declaration has no validity or significance. In the words of Rabbi Tzvi Yehuda HaKohen Kook, they are worth less than the dust of the earth. Land cannot be stolen, and there is no permission for anyone to talk about handing over the Land of the G-d of Israel to a foreign authority. There is no agency when it comes to committing a sin. And from this let us rise and take courage, to continue the building of our sacred Land, in its entirety, according to the Law and the Divine command - and G-d’s Word is everlasting. With the hope of the establishment of the Kingdom of Heaven in the Land of Israel, the Kingdom of David, and the Holy Temple, speedily in our days. Hashem is the King."

Interestingly, Batya's husband Yisrael Medad pointed out that a mere 7 years ago, Netanyahu said that "Yes to a Palestinian state means no to a Jewish one."

Some salient points from that speech of the same Bibi:

"But what about a Palestinian state without Arafat, under different leadership, after the Tanzim and the Al-Aqsa Brigades have seemingly undergone reforms and become transparent, more responsible, under a different command? What will happen then? Okay - let’s talk about this latest illusion.

The question is whether in a future settlement, the Palestinians would indeed enjoy self-rule. I, for one, have no desire whatever to rule over even a single Palestinian.

The question is whether we can agree that they have sovereign authority, power that goes beyond self-rule, which every country has. This power would include: the right to have full control over borders, through which they could import unlimited arms and solders. States control their own air space – a Palestinian state would have the right to shoot down any Israeli plane overflying it without permission. States have the right to make military alliances with other countries - a Palestinian state would have the right to make such alliances with Syria, Iraq, Libya, etc. States control the water sources underground - a Palestinian state would have the right to control the mountain aquifer which supplies about 30 percent of Israel’s water and most of our drinking water. Even those who support the establishment of a Palestinian state are unwilling under any circumstances to give this power to the Palestinians. But the moment we agree to give them a state, that is exactly what we would be giving them!

It must be understood that sovereignty has its own power. Even if an agreement limiting certain sovereign rights were signed, within a short time, this Palestinian state would demand to have all these rights and would realize them, whether we agreed or not.

The world would not stand in the way of allowing the Palestinian state to appropriate all this authority, which would give it the power to destroy the State of Israel, but it would stand in our way if we tried to prevent it from realizing these rights.

In that same speech, Netanyahu brings an amazing quote:

"Guaranteeing our national survival requires that we fight against the establishment of another Arab state on the West Bank. The entire essence of such a state would be directed against the existence of the State of Israel. No agreements or contracts would do any good – nor would peace treaties. Life is stronger than any of these.

"Squeezed in between two states – Jordan on the east and Israel on the West – this state would be a pressure cooker, always on the verge of bursting, with the explosion directed first of all westward – against us.

"It would be a state that would not be able or want to control the ‘dissidents’ among it, with the excuse that it is too weak to do so. It would become the most dangerous of jumping boards for terror directed against us. And ultimately, when we once again would be required to take matters into our own hands – and to fight with one raid following on the heels of another, we would appear in the eyes of the world to be conspiring against the existence of a young state that had just been born."

And who is he quoting? Again, in Netanyahu’s words:

"This person was not a member of Moledet or the National Religious Party or the Likud. He was not even a member of the Labor party. He was the leader of Mapam, the forerunner of today’s Meretz, the late Yaakov Hazan, who made the following comments in 1978, when minds in Israel had not yet been brainwashed by the sweeping propaganda of the proponents of Oslo."

And finally, as if the above is not enough, there’s this quote:

"No Jew has the right to yield the rights of the Jewish People in Israel. No Jew has the authority to do so. No Jewish body has the authority to do so. Not even the entire Jewish People alive today has the right to yield any part of Israel.

It is the right of the Jewish people over generations, a right that under no conditions, can be cancelled. Even if Jews during a specific period proclaim they are relinquishing that right, they have neither the power nor the authority to deny it to future generations. No concession of this type is binding or obligates the Jewish People. Our right to the country - the entire country - exists as an eternal right and we shall not yield this historic right until its full and complete Redemption is realized."

And the million dollar question - who said it? Rav Kook? No. Rabbi Meir Kahane? Again, no. It was said by none other than David Ben-Gurion, first Prime Minister of Israel.