Sukkot Special: Settling Gaza and Other Dangerous Likud Agendas
As we approach the one-year anniversary of October 7th on the Hebrew calendar (Simchat Torah – כ”ב בתשרי), it is hard to be optimistic. Rockets have been falling constantly from Hezbollah in the North reaching well past Haifa into the center of the country. We mourn the loss of life of 4 Israeli soldiers killed by a rocket on their base and hope that we can fulfill the commandment of rejoicing on our holiday.
There are so many wonderful Israeli Sukkot events that I see from our Israeli Reform Movement, our congregations, and much of civil society. And then I received this flyer:
This is from the Likud party inviting supporters to an event on Monday, October 21st / 19th of Tishrei that reads: “The Likud: We are gearing up for Settlement in Gaza, together with our Garinim – (small groups or communities of friends/families who will settle together). Join the Likud in the Giant Sukkah-City”
We wish to invite you to join our event “Preparing for Gaza Settlement” together with nuclei of settlement, hostage families, bereaved families, and soldier families, to be our guest in the Likud Sukkah.
One year after the pogrom, we will show up together, members of the Likud, branch heads, Ministers and MKs, and call together –
Gaza is ours. Forever!”
For background, let us go back and recall that in 2003, the disengagement was proposed by Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, adopted by the government of Israel in June 200
4, and approved by the Knesset in February 2005 as the “Disengagement Plan Implementation Law.” The motivation behind the disengagement was described by Sharon’s top aide as a means of isolating Gaza and avoiding international pressure on Israel to reach a political settlement with the Palestinians. The disengagement plan was implemented in August 2005 and completed in September 2005. Israeli security forces, over the course of several days, removed settlers who refused to accept government compensation packages and voluntarily vacate their homes prior to the August 15, 2005, deadline. The eviction of all Israeli residents, demolition of the Israeli residential buildings, and evacuation of associated security personnel from the Gaza Strip was completed by September 12, 2005. The eviction and dismantlement of the four settlements in the northern West Bank was completed ten days later. Over 8,000 Jewish settlers from the 21 settlements in the Gaza Strip were relocated.
Since Israel removed its presence, Hamas took over the Gaza Strip in a violent coup against the Palestinian Authority and proceeded to use all its resources to build an underground network of terror. On several occasions over the past two decades, Hamas launched missile and terror attacks against Israel culminating in the horrific massacre of October 7.
Regardless of one’s political perspective, this was a painful moment. There is so much more to say about the disengagement – the unilateral way in which it was done, and the societal fracturing that came as a result, but this was an important turning point for many in the National Religious community, and some came to see October 7 as a rapturous messianic turning point that will allow a tikkun for, and a reversal of, the sin and the deep blow of the Disengagement 18 years earlier. Much like the iconic speech of Rabbi Zvi Yehudah Kook on Independence Day of 1967, who some see as an unadulterated prophetic vision as it called for a return to biblical cities such as Jericho, Shechem, and Hebron, and then only 3-weeks later with the conquest of the Six Day War, Israel came then to rule over those areas.
This past January, there was a well-attended conference in Jerusalem trying to capitalize on this moment to build up the momentum towards resettling Gaza, and then there is this Sukkot (see above flyer).
This is the Likud Party. Not Itamar Ben Gvir’s or Betzalel Smotrich’s parties, nor the ultra-Orthodox parties. The purportedly center-right party that in the 1980s walked out on the extremist nationalist and bigoted Meir Kahane as did many other MKs who supported the disengagement (for the record, then Minister Netanyahu did not support the disengagement).
This turn of events is incredibly dangerous.
The mentality of the settler expansionism that thinks that somehow Gaza is theirs for the taking could not be a worse message for Israel’s image abroad. While activists are out there campaigning to bring home the remaining 101 hostages and the country is under daily attack from Lebanon, the Likud Party – has yet to take any responsibility for the colossal failures and the devastating losses of October 7th and the war since, been working to re-settle Gaza!
I cannot imagine a greater form of chutzpah. We are working to get Jews (and other captives) out of Gaza. Most soldiers do not enjoy being there, and would not want to have to even think about what it means to have a Jewish/Settler presence there again. While some don’t take this seriously, we must. Some dismiss this as not serious or not part of the mainstream. Even if it isn’t today, tomorrow it will certainly be.
Those who vote in the Knesset must understand how important it is to organize and mobilize ahead of the next election (whenever it will be – likely in the Fall of 2026 given Netanyahu’s comfortable coalition comprised of 68 MKs). And those in North America must understand how critical it will be to join us in mobilizing our movement for the next World Zionist Congress elections from March 10- May 4, 2025. While this election does not alter the balance of power in the Knesset, it does afford us critical positions of influence in key institutions that can have sway over land purchases, sales, and settlements.
While we are all feeling the fragility and temporality of this beautiful holiday of Sukkot, let this Likud invitation be a wakeup call to remind us how important it is to stand with Israel we believe in and to make sure that those with a messianic and extremist agenda are not able to put their vision into practice.
Kohelet reminds us that there is a time for everything under the sun. This is a time to be alert and to take action. Join us.
Shabbat Shalom and Moadim L’Simcha!