The proper Zionist answer to French President Emmanuel Macron should be given during the Ten Days of Repentance. In practice, it will come within three days. Macron is expected to recognize a Palestinian state on September 22, on the eve of the Jewish New Year. Benjamin Netanyahu will speak at the UN General Assembly four days later. That means he will have three days afterwards to announce counter-steps. After that, the string of Jewish holidays will blur everything.
The Prime Minister’s Office, Yesha Council leadership in Judea and Samaria, the U.S. Ambassador to Israel, right-wing ministers — all are focusing efforts on those three days. The impression is that Netanyahu and top adviser Ron Dermer would prefer to avoid unilateral steps, if the French would only retract their outrageous initiative to reward the Palestinians for the October 7 massacre.
Israel now prefers to play defense, blocking harmful initiatives rather than going on the offensive. That’s why, for example, Hungary has not opened an embassy in Jerusalem, even though Prime Minister Viktor Orban proposed it long ago — because why open another front? Ultimately, Israel fears a political avalanche that even Washington could not stop.
The temptation to apply sovereignty over Judea and Samaria is clear, thanks to the combination of the most pro-Israel American administration in history and the most ambitious Israeli government on the Judea and Samaria issue. Indeed, Secretary of State Marco Rubio arrived in Israel this morning and is expected to make an unequivocal statement about Israel’s natural right to Judea and Samaria.
And yet, it is still an ambitious attempt: putting out a fire with fuel.
On the margins, an interesting struggle is taking place between two groups on Israel’s right. The first believes sovereignty is a crucial symbol and should be applied almost at any cost, since there is no precedent for territory over which Israel applied sovereignty, only to later return it. The second is concerned that any territory not annexed will be interpreted as implicitly relinquished. In addition, within three years, seven at most, a Democratic administration will enter the White House and almost certainly revoke recognition of sovereignty on its first day, amongst hundreds of executive orders.
The alternative proposal is transferring hundreds of square miles from Areas A and B (under Palestinian security control) to Area C (Israeli control). This echoes an older debate between Revisionist and Labor Zionists, between political and practical Zionism, between those who believe in declarations and treaties and those who believe in another acre and another goat.
The above is an excerpt from my Shabbat column in Israel Hayom. You can read it on Israel Hayom’s website here.
