Far-right lawmakers establish Knesset caucus calling to resettle Gaza
Sam Sokol is the Times of Israel's political correspondent. He was previously a reporter for the Jerusalem Post, Jewish Telegraphic Agency and Haaretz. He is the author of "Putin’s Hybrid War and the Jews"
Israel’s national security was severely harmed by the 2005 Gaza Disengagement, far-right lawmaker Limor Son Har-Melech declares, calling for renewed Jewish settlement in the Gaza Strip following the end of the war against Hamas.
Speaking at the sparsely attended inaugural meeting of the newly-established “Knesset Caucus for the Renewal of Settlement in the Gaza Strip,” the Otzma Yehudit legislator complains that her position has led her to be branded as a messianist and says “it is time to return” to the settlements uprooted nearly two decades ago.
“The failed preconception could bring Israel back to a cycle of suffering and we have to prevent it,” she insists, arguing that without new settlements Israeli cities will remain exposed to rocket fire and that only by moving to Gaza will Israel’s enemies be convinced of their defeat.
“There is no more time to wait. That’s why we established a lobby,” she says. “We need to mobilize with all our might.”
Speaking at the meeting, former Likud lawmaker Moshe Feiglin calls for Israel to conquer the entire West Bank and Gaza and expel the Palestinians living there.
“There is no victory without settlement,” he says to applause. “From the river to the sea it is either you or me. There is no room for Israel and this Islamic Nazism. There is no room for any arrangement. The only solution is complete victory, occupation, expelling the enemy and settlement.”