The message conveyed by the absence of sovereignty is the same message reflected in Israel’s conduct during the war and the negotiations for the return of the hostages - and there is one word for it. Tzvika Mor, father of Eitan, speaks.
Since his son Eitan was abducted to Gaza on the morning of Simchat Torah, Tzvika Mor has become, in the eyes of many, the voice, silenced until now, of those who understand the value of the collective and the nation in its deepest sense. In an interview with Sovereignty, he draws a connection between the hostage deal, the IDF’s withdrawal without achieving the war’s objectives, and the lack of sovereignty in the heart of the Land. “Hesitation,” he sums it up in one word.
“At this point, I don’t know how the issue of the hostages will be resolved, but as of now, Israel has essentially raised a white flag and surrendered to Hamas’s demands after 15 months of fighting in Gaza. That should have been enough time for the IDF to conquer both Syria and Iraq together, yet Hamas is still setting the terms regarding the hostages,” says Tzvika, noting that even now, so long after the war began, “we have not yet met the war’s objectives, and we still do not know how the remaining hostages will return home. This is a cause for concern not only for the hostages’ families but for every citizen who is concerned about their life and that of their families, both because Israel is once again surrendering to terrorist organizations, and because hundreds and thousands of terrorists will be released into Judea and Samaria, Jerusalem, and Gaza, endangering mainly the border communities but perhaps also beyond.”
“The picture we see in Israel’s conduct of the war is that of hesitation and lack of clarity. The State of Israel does not know how to win wars. It does not want to triumph and achieve victory. The army has undergone a process of dismantling the values of victory, decisiveness, and defeat of the enemy. On top of this, in recent decades a culture of individualism and anti-nationalism has developed, a progressive culture that that negates all values. And because of this lack of absolute values, the values of preserving the land, the nation, and sovereignty have been eroded over the years to the point of crippling the state’s ability to protect its citizens through preventive measures.”
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According to him, “the hesitation we have seen in every round of fighting in the Gaza Strip and what we are seeing now relating to the hostage matter also applies to Judea and Samaria. On one hand, there are half a million Jewish citizens of Israel here, but on the other, there is no sovereignty. So what exactly is it? Is it part of us or not? Is it the Land of Israel or not? We hesitate and do not say clearly that this is our Land, the Land of the Bible, where our forefathers walked, and that our rights to Tel Aviv, Haifa, and Mishmar HaEmek are based on the fact that our ancestors were primarily in the mountains of Judea and Samaria. If we abandon this part of the Land and do not clearly state that it is ours and an integral part of the Israeli ethos and history, we undermine our ability to fight for it. We do not invest in physical infrastructure such as roads and cellular reception because we leave the status of this area in question, and we will not win the war this way.
“After 12 years of study in the Israeli education system, its Jewish graduates aspire to succeed in life, travel abroad, and make a lot of money, while on the other hand, the Arab graduate dreams of conquering the land and expelling the Jews. This leads to the situation where we will not win because we do not present a clear commitment.”
In his view, the solution lies precisely in this issue. “The answer to the lack of clarity is a return to our national consciousness,” he says, and he emphasizes, “I do not mean the consciousness of the state’s founders and their successors because we see that it has collapsed. I mean a return to the consciousness that the Jewish People had throughout the generations regarding themselves, its unique role, and its status as a chosen people.”
And he believes that the public is now receptive to this new discourse. “Since the war broke out, we have heard voices expressing an awakening from the Left and Center, calling for a return to values. But do they mean the values of the founders that collapsed? We need something much deeper, something that will not break or erode over time or as a result of other cultural influences. We call this to ‘return out of love’— to show people the true power and beauty of Israel’s sources. The majority of the public in the country is ready for this encounter.”
In Tzvika’s opinion, while there indeed are “ideological secularists,” as he calls them, who will be a tough nut to crack, the vast majority of the people, throughout the months of war, have seen how a certain sector of the public has produced many ground troops who have fought with the willingness to sacrifice their lives.
Further acquaintance and closer ties will show them the values of family and decency embodied by this group. “At the very start of the war, voices were already searching for something different, something deeper to strengthen their connection to the Land after the possibility and the dream of peace collapsed for them.”
Facing this lack of clarity, Tzvika says, “we must speak clearly and truthfully. Stop talking about secondary things like security. It is a lie to say that we are in Judea and Samaria because of security considerations or that we returned to the Land to secure welfare and happiness for every citizen. I am in favor of welfare, happiness, and security, of course, but that is not why we came here. If that were the only reason, it wouldn’t be worth being here, the hottest region on the globe. We could live well in the U.S., even if we were to move there as an organized group of eight million.
“The common thread in our failures has been the lack of clarity and commitment that still persists. The answer is to clearly state the justice and absolute truth of our cause and our rights to the Land and to start speaking about the vision and destiny of the Jewish People.”
The interview was first published in Issue 18 of the Sovereignty Journal. Click here for the issue.