The Israeli newspaper Haaretz published two articles that analyzed what took place at a conference organized by an extremist right-wing movement via the Internet the day before Monday, calling for the establishment of settlements in the southern Lebanon region.
In the first article, Maya Lecker, the newspaper’s deputy editor-in-chief, recalled the demonstration organized by far-right activists last April, in which they called on Israel to occupy southern Lebanon and allow Jews to settle there.
About 20 people participated in that demonstration. When someone was asked why the idea of establishing settlements in Lebanon had not gained much momentum yet, he said, “Maybe the idea had not occurred to anyone.”
Lessons for settlement
Two months later, specifically the day before yesterday, a few hundred people attended an online conference on this topic – organized by the “Ori Tsavon” (Wake Up the North) movement – which included a symposium entitled “Successful Settlement Models from the Past and Lessons for South Lebanon.”
In their articles, Lecker and her fellow columnist for the same newspaper, Anshel Pfeffer, quoted excerpts from the statements of conference speakers, including Haji Ben Artzi, brother of Sarah, wife of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who said, “We are not extremists, and we do not want a meter beyond the Euphrates River.”
Liker says that most Israelis hold back their laughter when they are presented with the idea of moving to the Israeli-occupied areas of southern Lebanon, and they also “feel terrified” by the seriousness with which some ministers, army officers, and rabbis discuss the “resettlement of Jews” in the Gaza Strip.
Gaza settlement
While most Israelis still view extremist settler violence against Palestinians in the West Bank as a “marginal trend” occurring far away, a parliamentary gathering in the Knesset (Israeli Parliament) calls on Jews to settle in the Gaza Strip, according to the deputy editor-in-chief of Haaretz in her article. .
The writer also quoted a statement from former Knesset member Moshe Feiglin in which he stressed the need for the Israelis to return “not only to Gaza, but also to the northern Galilee, at least as far as the Litani River” in Lebanon.
Among those who participated in the first session of this parliamentary gathering yesterday was Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, who promised that the government is “committed to returning to Gaza,” stressing the need for settlement restoration to be accompanied by “encouraging the migration” of Palestinians from the region.
Old ideas
According to Lecker, the leaders of the extreme right in Israel, “who monopolize a great deal of political power at the present time,” seemed very clear about their intentions and plans to support the expansion of Israel’s borders into new areas, even though they cannot even protect civilians in their homes, as the writer put it. I concluded that anyone who cannot understand what is happening must be “misinformed.”
As for Anshel Pfeffer, columnist for Haaretz newspaper, he believes that – before ignoring the ideas of the “religious Messiahs” who are waiting for the coming of “the Messiah” and which they put forward in their small online conference on Monday with their eyes on restoring “God’s Promised Land” – people should remember that their plans for settlement In the West Bank it seemed just as strange 50 years ago.
At that time, half a century ago, the national religious movement “Gush Emunim” established the first settlement in Sebastia, a Palestinian town located in the Nablus Governorate in the occupied West Bank.
The godmother of settlement, Daniela Weiss, one of the most extreme settlers, spoke at the conference. She currently leads one of the groups trying to rebuild settlements in Gaza and is open to suggestions related to Lebanon as well.
Change the course of history
However, the columnist in his article believes that there is a feeling that this conference was not really an event worthy of coverage, perhaps because the small number of people who organized and participated in it, because they are “above all a group of religious Messianic people” discussing a topic that seems so divorced from reality that it At its peak, only 280 people watched it on his YouTube channel.
The writer believes that the participants who spoke in the discussion of “Successful Settlement Models from the Past and Lessons for South Lebanon” did not have any experience or insight into the history of Lebanon or the topography of this country, but they had an argument that a small group could change the course of Israeli history “with determination and determination.” .
He also says that these extremists are “Israelis who live among us, look to the north, and dream of a homeland in Lebanon.”
Al-Aqsa flood
Among those who spoke at the conference was Torah researcher Professor Yoel Elitzur, who believes that the attack by the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) on Israel on October 7 was a “clear miracle” and a “divine message,” and urged listeners to understand what the Lord is asking of them. .
The speaker quoted many texts from the Old Testament or the “Tanakh” (the Jewish holy book) and names of places to prove that Lebanon is part of the Promised Land mentioned in the Book of Genesis, whether within the framework of the “limited promise” – which reaches the Gulf of Alexandretta in Turkey, and includes all Lebanon and western Syria – or the “Extended Promise” which includes the land south of the Euphrates, all of Syria and western Iraq.
According to the columnist, this was not the first time that right-wing Zionists spoke about building settlements in southern Lebanon. This was preceded by the “Gush Emunim” movement, which called for a return to the “homeland of the Asher tribe” in 1982 when the First Lebanon War broke out.
Asher is the eighth son of the Prophet Jacob, peace be upon him, and one of the ten lost tribes, according to the Jews.
The writer concluded his article in Haaretz newspaper by saying that religious extremists and nationalists have already proven that today’s illusions are tomorrow’s Israeli policy, and the next day they will become reality.
