The Hamas-led terrorist attacks in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, can be traced back to Israel’s unilateral withdrawal from the Gaza Strip in the summer of 2005, Amichai Chikli, Israeli Minister of Diaspora Affairs and Combating Antisemitism, stated on Wednesday evening.
“There is a direct line between the withdrawal from Gaza to the disaster of Oct. 7,” Chikli said in remarks at “The Future of Judea and Samaria” conference at the Inbal Hotel in Jerusalem, sponsored by the American Friends of Judea & Samaria and the Jewish News Syndicate.
He noted that because of the dismantling of Israeli communities within the Palestinian enclave as part of the Gaza disengagement plan under Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, a buffer zone was lost. The southern Israeli border communities that were overrun two years ago were practically a sitting duck for terror.
“We betrayed the land of Israel when we withdrew from Gaza, and the land of Israel did not forget,” he said.
The hawkish minister stated that the international “demonization” of Israeli residents of the biblical heartland, spearheaded by “so-called” Israeli entities such as B’Tselem and Breaking the Silence—primarily foreign-funded, he noted—is part of an attempt to replicate an “irrational and delusional” withdrawal, this time from Judea and Samaria.
Still, Chikli said he is optimistic that in the aftermath of Oct. 7, more people now understand that Judaism and Zionism are synonymous.
“Being a proud Jew is being a proud Zionist,” he said. “The greatest threat is when Jews walk away from their identity.”
