Speech of Prof. Paul Eidelberg at the National Movements’ First Assembly Unity Mission at Beit Hasofer, Tel Aviv, October 27, 2000. Participating movements: Yamin Israel Party; Zo Artzeinu; Women in Green; Center for  Advance Policy Research ("Mekimi"); Jewish Leadership ("Manhigut Yehudit"); Pikuach Nefesh; Hashiva Shofteinu; Chever Ha'Rabbanim;Temple Mount Faithful;  Gamla Shall Not Fall Again.

 THIS is the National Movements’ First Assembly, Baruch HaShem, something I have prayed for since December 1988 when the Shamir Government failed to suppress the intifada.  Our Second Assembly, allow me to say, must meet in Jerusalem where we must establish our national headquarters.  However, before we meet again, we must formulate a comprehensive program whose immediate objective must be to bring down the Barak Government, and whose larger and positive goal should and must be to reconstruct the State of Israel on new foundations.

 * We cannot go on with Arab Knesset members who incite Arabs to kill Jews.
 We cannot survive with one million Arab citizens identified with Israel’s enemies, be it Arafat or Saddam Hussein. We cannot survive with Israel’s existing  political and judicial institutions.

 * You all know that the present left-wing government has betrayed the Jewish people.  But much the same may be said of its so-called right-wing predecessor.  No party in the Knesset has the intellectual and moral capacity to reconstruct the State of Israel on solid Jewish foundations.

 * I ask you, how is it that the Barak Government can give away the Har HaBayit without the support of the Knesset?

 * I ask you, why does the Knesset do nothing while the Barak Government allows Jews to bleed to death?  I ask you, why does the Knesset do nothing  while Barak resumes negotiations with Arafat, Hitler’s successor?

 * What made it possible for a Labor Government to impose the Israel-PLO agreement on our country in 1993 when more than two-thirds of our people opposed recognition of the PLO in 1992?

 * Why did the Likud Government go even further than Labor in its suicidal land-for-nothing policy by abandoning Hebron?  And why did the Likud, and not only Labor, release and arm Arab murderers  without opposition from
the Knesset?  Must we not also blame the Likud and even the religious parties for murdering the sense of justice in this country?

 * I ask you, what is there about Israel’s parliamentary electoral system that prevents Israeli governments from pursuing a coherent national strategy consistent with the abiding convictions of the Jewish people?

 * How is it that the implementation of Oslo was made possible by a Knesset Member who switched parties for a Mitzubishi?  Why has the Knesset become a haven for job-seekers, who hop from party to party, as 29 MKs did before the 1999 elections?  But this is not all.

 * Why has the Supreme Court become a super legislature that can implicitly  declare Zionism a violation of human dignity, and can even prescribe whether parents can spank their children?  Why is this the only court in the world  that scorns the heritage of its own people?

 * Why were two patriotic Jews like Moshe Feiglin and Shmuel Sackett convicted of sedition when engaged in civil disobedience, while Arab MKs openly oppose the existence of the Jewish state?  Why have demonstrations by hundreds of thousands of citizens had no impact on the policies of Labor and Likud governments?

 * Why have 23 years of countless critical analyses of the peace process by scholars and journalists had no impact on any government of Israel?

 * The answer to all these questions begins with one simple fact:  Despite periodic multiparty elections, Israel is NOT a democracy.  It is not a democracy because, unlike the legislatures of 74 democratic countries, members of the Knesset, and therefore cabinet ministers, are not accountable to the people in regional elections, where these politicians would have to defend their policies or their failure to act vis-a-vis rival candidates. This is why MKs and cabinet ministers, who have safe seats on their party’s list, can ignore Jewish public opinion with impunity.

 * This is why, in addition to fear of the charge of racism, no concerted effort has been made by Jewish MKs to expel seditious Arab MKs from the Knesset.  This why Yamin Israel is placing full-page ads containing
petitions demanding the indictment of Azmi Bishara and other seditious Arab MKs.  These ads will also expose Jewish MKs who have violated their oath of office by not upholding the law against such criminals.

 * It should be clear from what I have said that we need to radically overhaul Israel’s political and judicial institutions. How this can done is discussed in my book Jewish Statesmanship (www.jewishstatesmanship.com), which you can obtain from the Ariel Center.  But if Israel’s political  system is rotten, if the parties in the Knesset are bankrupt, then logic dictates that we must form a new party, but a party like no other.  This must be a party committed to the establishment of a Constitution clearly
and proudly based on Jewish principles and values.

 * Our Second Assembly meeting must therefore offer the people of Israel a positive and inspiring goal, one linked to the Jewish heritage.  We must present a program that can unite the vast majority of our people.  Yamin
 Israel has such a program.  It is not our program, it is your program.  It is based on your concerns and convictions.  I am not here to promote our party.  Our party would happily cease to exist if this National Movements’ Assembly becomes what it should and must become, the generator of the first  truly Jewish nationalist party.  This new party should see itself as a “shadow government,” with committees that parallel government ministries.

 * One last word.  You may wonder:  Where is the charismatic leader required for so grand a mission?  I tell you he is near, but he will not come forward until the organizations represented here this evening unite behind a
 comprehensive plan of action having, as its motive and banner, the sanctification of G-d’s Name.  Nothing less can effectively oppose theArabs who butcher Jews in the name of Allah!  I urge you to bring back the G-d of
 Israel into the domain of Statecraft.

 * I urge you, in the Name of God, UNITE AND GO ON THE OFFENSIVE!
 UNITE AND GO ON THE OFFENSIVE!
 UNITE AND GO ON THE OFFENSIVE!