Gafni: Rav Shach’s Hashkafah of Peace is More Important Than Rightist Ideal of Retaining Land  

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At the third annual Peace Conference of the Haaretz newspaper, MK Moshe Gafni of UTJ reiterated Rav Elozar Menachem Man Shach’s hashkofah that peace with Palestinians (so long as it is real peace) is more important than the rightist ideal of retaining land.

Gafni began by saying, “The Left is intelligent, more than the Right. People always ask me in speeches of this kind, ‘Politically speaking, you lean more to the left. Why don’t you go with them?’ This is because you [the Left] sit with the Reform. We don’t recognize them at all because they harm the Jewish people.”

“I sit with everyone in the Knesset, but with the Reform I don’t sit,” Gafni emphasized. “For me, the Reform is the greatest threat to the Jewish people.”

“I don’t like the legislation this government makes in all sorts of right-wing matters, I absolutely don’t like it,” Gafni continued. “If possible, I would vote against it. But I don’t have a partner. I have no one on the Left to say – that which you value as the apple of your eye we’ll be with you through fire and water.”

Gafni told the conference, “The first important thing is that the State of Israel be a Jewish state, otherwise we have no right to conduct negotiations with the Palestinians – they were here before us, we removed them from here,” adding that, “if we do not have the historical right that the Jewish people have here, we have no rights.”

“We are like every citizen of the State of Israel as a group and as individuals,” he continued. “This land is important to us, Israeli society is important to us, but we have an order of priorities. I do not represent all chareidi Jews, certainly not in diplomatic affairs. But I represent Degel Hatorah, which was founded by Rav Shach. Our diplomatic positions are moderate.”

“We have an order of priorities,” he said. “We want the State of Israel to be a Jewish state, publicly Jewish [in accordance with] the status quo signed with Ben Gurion. You, the Left, go with the Reform, with people who from our point of view are the worst possible.”

In a recorded speech made in honor of the conference, P.A. Chairman Mahmoud Abbas urged Prime Minister Netanyahu not to miss the peace opportunity presented by President Trump and said again that he is willing to meet Netanyahu at any time to reach an understanding on concrete steps to resolve issues standing in the way of ending the occupation and reaching a peace agreement.

MK Ahmed Tibi of Joint Arab List said in a panel discussion that Israel was “further than ever” from an agreement with the Palestinians.

“I heard Defense Minister Lieberman say recently that we are closer than ever to an agreement,” Tibi said. “I can tell you, and I would claim that I know what’s happening: We are further than ever from an Israeli-Palestinian agreement, despite the visits by President Trump and the meetings that took place. Our role as a minority is to say on every platform without embarrassment, ‘enough of the occupation.’”

Lieberman had said, “If someone brings forth an agreement that includes an arrangement with all the moderate Arab states, including the opening of embassies, trade relations and direct flights, I assume that it will receive an overwhelming majority, both within the Knesset and within the public.”

In regard to this conflict of views between the two men, Channel 20 reported that a joint meeting between President Trump, Prime Minister Netanyahu and P.A. Chairman Abbas could take place within a month. Although Abbas has expressed willingness to start negotiations without preconditions, Trump was still working on lessening the void between the two sides.

However, in a Channel 2 survey among 604 Jewish Israelis, 50% saw no chance of a peace deal in the foreseeable future and among chareidim the figure was 69%. 46% of the respondents said that a deal was possible but unlikely and only 3% thought that chances for peace were good.

{Matzav.com Israel News Bureau}


11 COMMENTS

  1. Rav Shach strongly supported the theoretical idea of land for peace but he also strongly opposed the Oslo Accords due to the reality that it wasn’t going to bring peace.

  2. Gafni is misrepresenting the rightists’ reasons for opposing the “peace” deals: it’s not about sacrificing Jewish lives for land, it’s about preventing the sacrifice of Jewish lives for the Neville Chamberlain’s style insane apeasment. That is, you can’t achieve peace by appeasing the islamonazis, only by wiping them out. The islamonazis don’t hate us for land, they hate us for being non dihmi Jews, who refuse to be islamised. The apeasment has an opposite effect of showing a weakness, hence inviting more violence from the islamonazis. If Gafni wants to really appease the islamonazis, he should convert to their cult. At least, the guy won’t be UTJ’s representative any more.

  3. The Lubavitcher Rebbe z”l held that by giving away land you are placing jews in danger plus it was against shulchan aruch to give away land. Unfortunately he was proven correct many times. The more land we gave away the more brazen the arabs have become. We have lost many karbonos since the Oslo accords have been signed.

  4. Didn’t know he believes the Arabs were there before the jews I guess on tiesha bav he has nothing to mourn.

  5. Learning Rabbi Schach’s way is intelligent. He did not want to step on Israel.

    Focus on kiruv and Hashem will bring the future more peace.

    Give any jew credit if he is jewish. Daven and name those who deserve credit or must be stricken by proper prayer.

    Heresy is our greatest battle.

    Torah can buiod the world.

  6. Not to be believed that this Knesset member thinks and speaks this way after Israel returned Gaza etc. and the terror never ends r”l! this fellow is so to the left that there is nothing left!

  7. To the above “anonymous” disrespectful and arrogant author who expresses his feelings of the Lubavitcher Rebbe ZY”A
    the only limud zechus is to describe him as chazal say אפרוח שלא נפתחו עיניו – to put it plainly he has absolutely no clue.

  8. reiterated Rav Elozar Menachem Man Shach’s hashkofah that peace with Palestinians (so long as it is real peace) is more important than the rightist ideal of retaining land.

    SO LONG AS IT IS REAL PEACE…..Is Gafni in the know of something that no one else is aware of?

  9. Gafni is also missing something here.

    It could be all well and good,but we need to give the younger people something to throw their ardor into and to keep them going so that they’ll be around when we’ll need them.

    Settling the Greater Land of Israel
    will do that

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