Pollard: The mountain war for the heartland of Israel must be won

The battle for Judea and Samaria will ultimately be decided on the strategic hilltops where Israelis and Palestinians are fighting to determine who will control the heartland of Israel.

By Jonathan Pollard

Jonathan Pollard (Courtesy)

Although many of my fellow citizens are sadly unaware of it, there is a cosmic war going on right now in the Territories between the forces of good and evil. It is not being waged with traditional weaponry, but its outcome may very well decide who inherits the mountaintops of Judea and Samaria, the heartland of the Jewish people.

These are not insignificant, random points on a map. They are imbued with a long history of bloody combat and revelation stretching far back into antiquity. Indeed, many of these mountains are even named in our Bible.

What we learn from our holy texts is that possession of these strategic heights has repeatedly helped determine who won and who lost a campaign or war.

The opposing forces currently battling over these particular mountain peaks in the Territories are certainly aware of this fact. And they are acting accordingly.

On one side is a group of young, unarmed, idealistic, G-d-fearing Jews who have been unfairly demonized by our government and the left-wing media as violent fanatics.

Granted, there may be a minuscule number of mindless troublemakers among them. But I can’t help wondering whether some might even be agents provocateurs, like Avishai Raviv, planted to reinforce what our foreign enemies are saying about the hilltop youth. I have no proof that this is occurring, but given our history, I believe the possibility should not simply be dismissed.

The other side of this conflict consists of genocidal Muslims who have been inaccurately portrayed by the world’s press and antisemitic progressive elite as victims of what they call “settler colonialism.” They are not. They are modern-day manifestations of the Amalekim, whom we are ordered by HaShem to blot out.

But whichever side of this conflict you favor, let’s be clear about one thing: Whoever prevails in this mountain war will ultimately win the heartland of the Jewish people.

So, let’s start at the beginning.

Why the Mountains Matter

When the Israelites first entered the Land under the command of Joshua, they primarily lived on the mountaintops and in the hill country rather than the lowlands or major valleys.

While they eventually expanded their territory, their foundational heartland during the eras of the Judges and the early Monarchy was heavily concentrated in the central hill country, a rugged mountainous spine running north to south through Judea and Samaria.

The indigenous Canaanites and later the Philistines controlled much of the fertile plains and valleys because they possessed iron chariots.

These mobile, horse-drawn systems were devastatingly effective when employed on flat, open spaces, but far less useful in steep, rocky mountain terrain. The mountains, in other words, provided our ancestors with a way of neutralizing their enemies’ technological advantage.

Of course, there were exceptions to this rule. The defeat of King Saul on Mount Gilboa, for example, was not due to Philistine chariots. Rather, it was the Philistine use of massed archery that helped decide the battle.

This exception notwithstanding, the mountains continued to provide our ancestors with a way of effectively dealing with more advanced enemies, such as the Seleucid Greeks and, for a time, even the Romans.

Now, unfortunately, the “enemy” is also within our camp.

The Battle for ‘Area C’

When Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Salam Fayyad advanced what became known as the “Fayyad Plan,” its strategy was to establish Palestinian facts on the ground, particularly in Area C. This included widespread construction and efforts to establish control over strategically important territory.

In response, a group of idealistic Jewish kids, known collectively as the hilltop youth, began settling as many of these strategic locations as possible. Their objective was simple: prevent the Arabs from taking control of the high ground and creating territorial facts that would eventually determine the future of Area C.

With the notable exception of the Regavim organization, which has tried to catalog and protest what the Arabs are doing, our own government, army, police and security services have largely turned a blind eye to this creeping annexation attempt by the PA.

Indeed, anyone reviewing their actions over the past year, in particular, couldn’t help but conclude that they were basically acting as surrogates for the Palestinian Authority.

It’s not an exaggeration to say that the army’s overall commander in the Territories, Gen. Avi Bluth, has destroyed so many hilltop settlements that he should be awarded a medal by the PA.

Israel’s War on the Hilltop Outposts

What’s behind this unconscionable behavior by our government?

One word: fear.

Not of the Arabs, mind you. But of our friends the Americans.

Basically, in order to protect the build-out of new government-sanctioned communities in Judea and Samaria, the prime minister has ordered the army to publicly destroy as many of the “illegal” hilltop outposts as possible. And, from what I understand, he has ordered this fratricidal campaign, which has included brutal beatings and gunfire, to accelerate.

This policy has also been seen by our leaders as one way of countering the lie of “settler violence,” which has been largely orchestrated by the media and leftists both in Europe and Israel.

It has also been promoted by the IDF spokesperson, who, in my view, has repeatedly presented a false picture of violence by the hilltop youth. Videos taken at the scenes of some of these confrontations appear to contradict the official descriptions, showing instead what I regard as unjustified brutality against defenseless Jewish civilians.

I’ve been asked by reporters how I can justify the illegal construction of hilltop outposts when they contribute to the impression of government-condoned lawlessness in the Territories.

My answer is simple.

In the shocking absence of any serious attempt by the government to defeat the Fayyad Plan, the hilltop outposts are preventing the Arabs from establishing “facts on the ground” that can later be used by the international community to undermine our control over Area C.

And our American ally is fully behind this effort.

Trump administration policies have also left open a path toward the eventual creation of a Palestinian state. President Trump’s 2020 peace plan explicitly envisioned such a state under specified conditions, and the Abraham Accords continued to leave the Palestinian question unresolved.

The Fatal Flaw in Netanyahu’s Strategy

By going after the hilltop outposts, Bibi is essentially trying to feed the crocodile in order to buy time to build additional settlements.

But what he clearly doesn’t seem to understand is that if all the strategic hilltop outposts are taken over by the Arabs, our new communities could eventually find themselves completely surrounded.

Anybody looking at the maps associated with the Trump administration’s proposed final settlement can see the danger. Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria could be left in what amounts to a shooting gallery.

Palestinian Authority security forces situated along mountaintops and ridges would be able to easily target Jewish traffic, thereby choking off isolated communities.

This is the fundamental contradiction in Bibi’s strategy. He is sacrificing the very strategic heights that ultimately protect the larger communities he believes he is saving.

Bibi knows the danger. And yet he apparently believes that by sacrificing the hilltop outposts, he can somehow forestall this kind of calamitous outcome.

Unfortunately, his logic doesn’t make any sense and is playing right into the hands of our enemies.

What Bibi should do is cancel the Oslo Accords, retroactively legalize all existing hilltop outposts and open up Areas A and B for unrestricted Jewish settlement.

He should also enforce the demilitarization of the PA’s security apparatus, declare Israeli sovereignty over the Territories and take Israeli control of the partially inhabited modern city of Rawabi, east of Ramallah, making available property there for army reservists to live in for free.

If he were to do these things, we would unquestionably win the mountain war for the heartland of our people.

The Legal Case for Taking Control

Of course, if the prime minister wanted to make the legal case for doing all this, then I propose he cite the following:

After World War I and the end of the Ottoman Empire, the Allied powers agreed at San Remo in 1920 to incorporate the Balfour Declaration of 1917 into the framework for the Mandate for Palestine. The declaration had expressed British support for the establishment of a national home for the Jewish people in Palestine.

The League of Nations formally approved the Mandate for Palestine in 1922. Its preamble expressly recognized the historical connection of the Jewish people with Palestine and the grounds for reconstituting their national home there.

Although the United States was not a member of the League of Nations, it subsequently entered into the Anglo-American Convention concerning the Palestine Mandate. Under that agreement, the United States consented to British administration of Palestine pursuant to the Mandate and recognized rights and benefits arising under its terms.

Supporters of Israel’s legal claims to Judea and Samaria also point to Article 80 of the U.N. Charter, arguing that it preserved rights arising from the League of Nations Mandate system rather than extinguishing them when the United Nations was established.

Given this legal history, I can’t, for the life of me, understand why the Israeli government hasn’t summoned the courage to figuratively throw it in the faces of both the Americans and the British.

So…

Let the Arabs rage and burn our flag.

Let the Europeans pass their meaningless condemnations.

Let Trump threaten us with his incoherent rants.

All we have to remember is that by doing what is good in G-d’s eyes, we shall receive His blessings and victory.

After 2,000 years of Exile, we are finally home in the sacred Land HaShem bequeathed to us, and us alone.

So let us seize the mountains and demonstrate this fact to the world.

Avi BluthFayyad PlanJonathan PollardJudea and SamariaRegavimSan Remo