Ettinger riveted the audience with his accounts of how previous Israeli leaders had stood up to American pressure, among them Levi Eshkol, who decided on the preemptive attack that became the Six-Day War; Menachem Begin, who bombed the nuclear reactor in Iraq; and Yitzhak Shamir, who refused to make dangerous concessions in the early 1990s.
Ettinger also noted that President Obama is fairly limited in his ability to pressure Israel, given his fear of upsetting any constituency prior to the upcoming congressional elections. These elections are liable to be critical to Obama, Ettinger said, since many Democratic seats are up for grabs. He hinted broadly that Prime Minister Netanyahu should keep in mind that Congress, which is strongly pro-Israel, is at least as influential in American foreign policy as is the president.
An expert on Land of Israel demographics, Ettinger presented charts and figures showing that fears that Israel will soon find itself at the mercy of a growing Arab minority are at odds with the facts. He noted that Jewish fertility rates in Israel have risen to an all-time high, especially among born-in-Israel couples, while Arab rates continue to drop. The Arab population in Judea and Samaria, he said, is 1.7 million, not 2.7 million as Arab sources have it, and Israel has a solid 66 percent Jewish majority even when including those regions.
Critically important, Ettinger said, is the still untapped potential for aliyah from the United States, Europe and elsewhere.
The bottom line: “We have all been to many demonstrations over the years,” said Yehudit Katzover, “saying no to concessions, no to two states, no to the release of terrorists. It’s time to say yes – yes to Jewish sovereignty in Judea and Samaria.”
