The Rabbinical Alliance of America — Igud HaRabbonim, representing over 950 American rabbis — applauds the historic decision of President Donald Trump in recognizing Israel’s right to establish cities and towns in Judea and Samaria. This recognition places the current administration in the history books as having a hand in initiating the restoration of the Biblical State of Israel, a restoration which, for almost two thousand years, has constituted the hopes and dreams of millions of people of different faiths the world over.
Under Turkish and British rule, Jews were allowed to live in Judea and Samaria. Only after Israel’s founding did foreign rulers expel Jews from these parts of the historic homeland. The cities and towns that Israel has established in Judea and Samaria since the Six Day War of 1967 have only returned Jews to places they rightfully belong. Foreign occupiers who forbade Jewish settlement in Judea and Samaria shamefully discriminated against Jews. Israel righted that wrong, which the United States now recognizes as legal and binding.
Rabbi Mendy Mirocznik, executive vice-president of the Rabbinical Alliance of America, stated: “The previous lack of recognition of Israel’s right to Judea and Samaria threatened Israel with being forced back to pre-1967 borders, which Abba Eban called ‘Auschwitz borders.’ That situation would put Israel’s civilian population within range of enemy artillery, an unacceptable if not suicidal situation. Thankfully Israeli citizens of all religions and ethnicities can now choose to live wherever they want, like residents of all free countries around the world.”
Rabbi Yaakov Spivak, Presidium Member of the Rabbinical Alliance of America, expressed the hope that this firm American policy convince Israel’s enemies that their only hope is to come to the peace table with Israel, and thus fulfill Leviticus 26:6: “And I shall give peace in the land, and you shall lie down, and none shall make you afraid.”