In the grand scheme of things, Bibi Netanyahu and the IDF had relatively little to do with the success of Palestian Arabs’ shock-and-awe katyusha-led raid that enabled the Hamas Palestinian Arab terrorists to massacre over 1300 Israelis, and kidnap another 100+ Israelis. The tragic 2023 Simchat Torah proto-Holocaust Raid was already predestined to happen over 30 years ago on September 13, 1993, the day the Oslo Accords were signed in Washington D.C..
The Israeli fault of the 2023 proto-Holocaust raid lay not in the failure of Israel’s Intelligence, but in the messianism of Yitzhak Rabin, Simon Peres, and all their millions of delusional Israeli and American followers.
Today is not a day to shame. Today is a day to acclaim the thankless heroism of the hundreds of thousands of 'West Bank' Jews who braved ridicule, dodged bullets, took bullets, and died to protect the Tel Aviv Israelis from the very type of mass-missile attack that was perpetrated on the Gaza belt Jewish communities. For without the 30 years of "West Bank" settlers taking fire from both the Palestinian Arab terrorists, and another kind of fire from their own Israeli brothers, there would have been a Palestinian Arab 'West Bank' State controlled by Hamas and Iran. And, instead of 1,300 dead Gaza-belt Israelis, and a possible Israeli counter-attack, there would have been 60,000 dead Tel Aviv Israelis, 10,000s of hostages, and no possibility of an Israeli-counter-attack, and an ensuing 6,000,000 modern-day Israeli Holocaust.
I am not being a Monday-morning quarterback. On November 12, 1993, I wrote a full-page New York Times advertisement that was funded by many selfless American Jews including Joe Frager, my father, William K. Langfan, and others, where my group warned of katyusha attacks from land ceded to the Palestinian Arabs. In the ad, I concluded by stating that concerning the Israeli 'West Bank' and Gaza "settlers" that: “Far from being ‘obstacles to peace,’ the heroic Israeli citizens represent Israel’s only bulwark against annihilation. To abandon these patriots and the land they protect, is best based on wishful thinking, and at worst a combined act of extreme recklessness and national suicide. By differentiating these Israeli citizens from those within the Green Line, the Rabin Government is delivering a clear signal that these Jewish men, women, and children are fair game for Israel’s most implacable foes. And, this is unacceptable!”
Israel’s and the Post-World War II American Jewish tragedy is that for over 30 years, the Tel Aviv/Haifa Israelis and the vast majority of American Jews treated the 'West Bank' Jews as if they were less than dirt. Millions of Israelis and American Jews treated these modern-day Jewish heroes as pariahs. Leftist politicians called them “Messianic,” as if the "settlers" cared more for their paper Bible than for “peace.” Even worse, millions of Israelis and American Jews alike reflexively believed axiomatically that "West Bank" Israeli "settlers" were the root cause of Palestinian Arab continued terrorism against Israelis and American Jews. These deluded Israelis and American Jews believed that the 'West Bank' Jews had Jewish blood on their hands because they simply ‘weren’t willing to move to the Negev.’ Even more insidious was the fact that generations upon generations of leftist and centrist Israeli politicians used the “messianic settlers" as their core of political message to garner votes.
What would have happened if these Israeli 'West Bank' heroes had been uprooted and thrown to the literal gutter as the heroic Israelis living in Gaza were by Ariel Sharon and all of the succeeding Israeli governments including Likud-led governments? Instead of firing an initial salvo of 5,000 rockets from Gaza, the Palestinian Arabs would have fired an initial salvo of 40,000 rockets from the 'West Bank' into the Tel Aviv/Netanya corridor Sharon Plain that holds 70% of Israel’s population and 80% of its industrial base. Given the dramatic difference in Jewish population density of the Tel Av/Natanya corridor compared to the Gaza Belt, instead of 1,300 dead Israelis there would have been 60,000 dead Tel Aviv Israelis, 10,000s of Israeli hostages, and 100,000s seriously wounded. All transportation in and out of the country would have been paralyzed, and any IDF mobilization would have been impossible. It would have been a one-and-done kill-shot.
Today, the left’s 30 years of delusional rantings and scapegoating against the selfless heroic 'West Bank' Jewish "settlers" has been exposed for what it always was: An evil blood libel against hundreds of thousands of heroic Jews who sacrificed their own blood and the blood of their families to protect the Tel Aviv Jews from the kind of massacre that occurred on October 7th..
G-d bless the 'West Bank' Jewish "settlers". They are today, and have always been, the true heroes of the modern-state of Israel.
Mark Langfan is Chairman of Americans for a Safe Israel (AFSI) and specializes in security issues, has created an original educational 3d Topographic Map System of Israel to facilitate clear understanding of the dangers facing Israel and its water supply. It has been studied by US lawmakers and can be seen at www.marklangfan.com.
See Mark Lanfgan's interview explaining Israel's norther border.
