There is no victory without Sovereignty, Part 3
The case that convinced the Knesset - and what comes next
BREAKING UPDATE: The Knesset just voted 71 to 13 in favour of sovereignty
As I was finalizing this piece about the Sovereignty Conference held two days ago, the Knesset voted by a large majority to call for the application of Israeli sovereignty over Judea and Samaria. What seemed like advocacy just hours ago became official policy. The speakers at this conference weren't just making arguments; they were articulating the national consensus that finally found its voice in the Knesset today.
All kinds of people have crazy ideas about what should be done with the area, like the Oslo Agreements, which were signed because there was no sovereignty and this brought about the Oct 7th massacre. Israel has to once and for all declare, with a vote in the Knesset, that the land of Israel belongs to the people of Israel.
This warning from Nadia Matar, co-founder of the Sovereignty Movement, cut through legal debates and diplomatic language before the recent Sovereignty Conference even began. Her call for a Knesset vote proved prophetic: today, that vote became reality.
After publishing Part 2, I received a private email from a reader who strongly objected to my argument for Israeli sovereignty. I addressed that objection in Part 2a. Now, in Part 3, I return to the conference to share highlights from speakers whose words proved not just urgent and compelling, but prescient.
The message was clear: everything is ready except our will to act. Today, that will finally asserted itself.
Political Preparedness: "Everything is Ready" And Now it's Happening
Justice Minister Yariv Levin delivered what now appears to have been the most prophetic statement of the day:
We were very close to a major first step toward sovereignty. All the groundwork was done - maps, government infrastructure drafts, everything is ready. Unfortunately, things happened, and the plan was halted. Today, we are once again at a historic opportunity that must not be missed: to apply sovereignty over all of Judea and Samaria, over every community and all the land that belongs to us.
Think about that: the maps are drawn, the legal framework exists, the government machinery is prepared. What was missing wasn't preparation; it was the decisive moment.
MK Keti Shitreet expressed hope that the Knesset would vote before summer recess to extend sovereignty. That hope has now become reality - the Knesset has spoken with a resounding majority.
"Swift action is required; we must not give up," Levin concluded.
Sovereignty will ensure that from now on, there will be no difference between Yitzhar and Ramat HaSharon, between southern Mount Hebron and Tel Aviv. Israel will be one state with full sovereignty.
Today's Knesset vote brings that vision one crucial step closer to reality.
Security Through Ownership: The Oct 7th Lesson
But why the urgency? Major General (res.) Gershon Hacohen began his remarks with a crucial distinction:
We are not here for security; security is critical, but it is not the essence.
The essence is ownership and our failure to assert it creates the very security vulnerabilities that threaten our existence.
Consider the legal chaos that undermines Israeli authority every day. MK Avichai Boaron, who established the settlement of Amona, destroyed in 2017, described the surreal situation: "An Arab will get a speeding ticket and scrunch it up in front of the police officer who gave it to him."
Why? Because Israeli law has no authority over most Arabs in Judea and Samaria. The laws that do apply are a patchwork of British, Ottoman, and Jordanian regulations, some no longer operative anywhere else.
"Only sovereignty over the land will free us from the legal chaos there," Boaron said.
This legal vacuum doesn't just undermine traffic enforcement; it created the conditions for Oct 7th. When you don't govern territory, you don't control what happens there. When you don't assert ownership, your enemies assume the land will eventually be theirs.
MK Moshe Passal connected this directly to our October disaster:
The way to change 'the conceptsia' [the illusion of deterrence] that left us vulnerable on Oct 7th is our sovereignty over all the Land of Israel. Our failure to assert ownership gives hope to our enemies. With every hesitation, we tell them the land is not ours.
Hacohen outlined the strategic reality: without settlements in the hills overlooking central Israel, Highway 6 would be unsafe and Ben Gurion Airport even more vulnerable. The Jordan Valley under Israeli sovereignty protects agricultural lands from Jordanian Bedouin raids. The South Hebron Hills shield Beersheva and the south.
The fantasy of demilitarizing hostile populations died on Oct 7th, when ordinary civilian items like drones and smartphones became weapons of war. "The imperative is no longer demilitarization," Hacohen concluded, "but rather preventing hostile populations from operating within our heartland."
Vision and Identity: Respecting Ourselves
MK Dan Ilouz, one of the conference organizers, framed the deeper issue: "We need to change from controlling the region to governing over the region."
The distinction matters. Control is temporary, defensive, reactive. Governance is permanent, assertive, proactive.
"Jews did not dream of Tel Aviv," Ilouz said, "but of Bet El and Shiloh, places at the heart of Jewish memory, faith, and nationhood." Sovereignty over Judea and Samaria "will actually strengthen our standing in the world because people respect those who respect themselves."
MK Amichai Chikli drove this point home by connecting past retreats to present disasters:
We betrayed the people of Israel, and the land of Israel did not forgive. We thought abandoning those communities [in Gaza] would bring quiet, and instead we invited disaster.
The pattern is clear: when Israel retreats terrorism follows. When we act like temporary occupiers rather than permanent sovereigns, our enemies plan accordingly.
For former Kiryat Arba Council head Eliyahu Libman the situation is not political, it is lethal:
We are not against anybody except those who want to kill us. And the Arabs of Judea and Samaria have decided that that is what they want to do. It is our responsibility to make sure they cannot do that.
Nili Naouri, who chairs "Israel is Forever," announced a new initiative to settle incoming French immigrants in Judea and Samaria while criticizing Israel's tendency to wait for international permission before acting as a sovereign nation.
The youth establishing farms in the hills today, Chikli noted, are our new pioneers. But pioneers need sovereign protection against hostile international courts and pressure.
The Cost of Hesitation — And the Power of Decision
Matar's opening warning about the need for a Knesset vote has been answered. Oslo happened because Israel failed to assert sovereignty over territories it controlled. The result wasn't peace; it was Oct 7th.
For too long, every day of delay sent the same message that led to that massacre: our presence on the land is temporary and conditional, and our enemies just need to wait us out.
The speakers the July 21 Sovereignty Conference weren't debating whether sovereignty is legally justified or internationally popular. They were arguing that it's existentially necessary.
And today, the Knesset agreed.
What Israel needed was not more preparation. What it needed was the recognition that hesitation had become a form of national suicide.
Today's overwhelming Knesset vote suggests that that recognition has finally arrived. But as Matar noted in her response to the vote, this is just the beginning:
The next and necessary step — the actual implementation of Israeli sovereignty over its promised land, expressing moral and historical justice, national responsibility, a Zionist vision, and the just path of the Jewish people.
The Knesset has spoken. The political will has been demonstrated. Now comes the harder task: turning resolution into reality.
We are no longer debating whether we should act like owners of this land. The Knesset has declared that we will. The only question now is when and how declaration becomes deed.
🕯️ Thank you for being here.
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Excellent. I agree completely and fully support Israel taking back all that is theirs/ours.
Implementation of Isra’eli sovereignty is urgent