1
Because I'm unwilling to suspect all Likud MKs of being unpatriotic, I assume that they understand that the perpetual "temporary order" of the citizenship law, which allows the prevention of family reunification for Palestinian citizens of Israel with Palestinians outside the country, is not vital for security.
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I believe that at least some of them realize the damage caused to Israel and Jews all over the world by laws like these, which present Israel as a country apathetic to the suffering of people without legal status who live here with nearly no rights. I assume they know that there are some who exploit the law, and that there have been some who used it to get into Israel to commit terrorism, but closing the gates hermetically is an unwise and un-Jewish act.
Now that the temporary order is no longer in effect, we need to go back to individual checks and examine every case on its own merits, delve into whether a marriage might be fictitious or another attempt to take advantage of the law for purposes other than family reunification.
By voting against extending the order, the Right exposed itself to the world: even if when the law was first passed, with the violence of the Second Intifada in the background, it was done out of fear that family reunification would serve as an excuse to commit terrorist acts, as the years have gone by its main purpose has been to discriminate against Palestinians. But anyone who wants to naturalize 350,000 Arabs from east Jerusalem and talks about a "united Jerusalem" won't convince anyone that preventing residency on a temporary or permanent basis will solve the demographic problem.
I very much hope that the Likud MKs, first and foremost Netanyahu, will stand up for their principles, and vote against the unjustified extension of the law the next time the interior minister presents it to the Knesset plenum.
2
The national unity government under Levi Eshkol never decided on a permanent solution, but had a large majority of support for dividing the country and leaving part of the West Bank and Jerusalem in Israel's hands, and giving the rest of the territory back to Jordan, mostly due to concern that if it didn't happen, the Jews would become a minority in territory under their own control. Right-wingers who were not afraid of a situation in which a minority controls a majority tried to force the government to accept facts on the ground. Thus, Eliyakim Haetzni convinced Moshe Levinger and his friends to reserve rooms at the Park Hotel in Hebron for Passover in 1968, and plant a flag in the ancient city while disguised as tourists from Switzerland.
The government tried to convince the "Swiss tourists" Haim Drukman, Moshe Shamir, and others to leave quietly, to no avail. Then-minister Yigal Allon came up with a "compromise": The "Swiss" would be removed, and a new settlement would be established near Hebron and named Kiryat Arba, the city's other biblical name. Kiryat Arba became a city, but a Jewish neighborhood was also established in Hebron itself, which paralyzed the Arab neighborhoods and became a flashpoint for clashes between Jews and Arabs.
This is the compromise for Evyatar: The outpost is not legal by any criterion, Israeli or international. The people who settled it forced a "framework" on the government: the invaders will leave, IDF soldiers will replace them, the homes they built will not be demolished, and maybe a yeshiva will be built, or the invaders might return. This is another Park Hotel "Israbluff."
Very senior officials who have spoken recently with Prime Minister Bennett couldn't get him to say anything clear about a Palestinian state. I told them that I'd be amazed if after Barak, Netanyahu, Sharon, and Olmert, Bennett would be the first prime minister of the third millennium to reject the founding of a Palestinian state. The reasonable solution for him is to back to Netanyahu's "bluff" of his right-wing supporters, and let the Palestinians call their scattered entity a "state," if they want to…
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