“The path to an autonomous Judean state is riddled with obstacles, but Yekutiel Ben-Ya’acov, a marketing consultant from Kfar Tapuah, is not daunted.
Ben-Ya’acov, 41, who sees himself as a student of Rabbi Meir Kahane, together with hundreds of right-wing activists who share Ben-Ya’acov’s vision, will gather at Yeshivat Hakotel in Jerusalem’s Old City on Wednesday to stop future unilateral territorial compromises patterned after the Gaza pullout.
“‘Our proposition, called the Judean Initiative, is a rejection of the Geneva initiative,’ said Ben-Ya’acov. ‘We want to be granted Jewish autonomy in all areas in Judea and Samaria populated by Jews.
“‘Instead of handing control over to Arab terrorists we propose something identical to the present situation in the Gaza Strip – autonomy without statehood – except we want it for Jews. We would be a vital buffer zone for the State of Israel.'”
The settler movement suffered a major blow with the Gaza “disengagement” and, despite a majority of Israelis keen for further withdrawals, the colonists are aware that time is not on their side. In the meantime, they work furiously to uproot Palestinian livelihoods while the Israeli authorities ignore the problem.