Remembering Ghandi

Though I'm certain many of you have never heard of him, if there is one Zionist visionary whom the Madzionist reveres more than any other it would be the late, great Rehavam Ze'evi, or "Ghandi" as many affectionately called him. It now marks four years since Ze'evi was shot dead in a Jerusalem hotel by, you guessed it, terrorist moslems, on Oct. 17th, 2001.

So, who was this man that the Madzionist looks up to with such deep reverence? Born in Jerusalem in 1926, Ze'evi was a seventh generation sabra (native Israeli) who went on to have a great military career, retiring as the Commander of Central Command in 1973 with the rank of Major General.

He next served as terror advisor to PM Yitzhak Rabin, then became the Prime Minister of Intelligence, and later the director of the Land of Israel Museum in Tel-Aviv.

But what he is best remembered for was his plan calling for the population transfer of all the 'Palestinians' out of Gaza, Judea and Samaria and into Jordan as the only viable solution to the Arab/Israeli conflict. As we can see today, Ghandi was indeed a visionary because instead of moving the moslems out of Israel, as he insisted must be done, we've instead seen the dark reality of population transfer used against the Jews as an act of capitulation by Yassir Sharon's appeasement government.

Obviously known as a fierce nationalist who did not hesitate to stand up to Arab MK's in the Knesset, Ze'evi was also was admired by many of his political enemies for his kind and honest ways and love of Eretz Yisroel.

Unfortunately, he is often mistaken by those less familiar with Israeli politics for the more radical Meir Kahane, who was himself assassinated by moslems in 1990. Kahane was an advocate of pan-Israel expansion beyond her borders, and had a virtually genocidal strategy against Arabs and secularist Jews.

Ze'evi was not such a man. To be sure, he wanted the Arabs out of Israel to make The Land whole again, and leftist Jews certainly had big problems with this viewpoint, but Ghandi knew it was the only way for real peace to exist in The Land, and, as we all can see today, he's been proven to be absolutely right.

His legacy lives on with the National Union Party and his successor Benny Elon. Elon has himself proven to be a great man in his own right, and has formed Ze'evi's prophetic population transfer vision into a plan called the Right Road to Peace.

Today, Ghandi's National Union Party is stronger than ever, comprising 9 MK's compared to 3 at the time of his assassination. Ze'evi was in fact memorialized yesterday in a special ceremony attended by knesset members friend and foe alike. Among those who spoke were PM Sharon, Bibi Netanyahu, Benny Elon, Tommy Lapid, Ruby Rivlin and many others.

He may be gone, but his greatness lives on -- though perhaps not as famously to those less familiar with the inner workings of Israel. God willing, his vision will become a reality that all of us will celebrate soon and in our days.

-MZ