On May 2nd, 2004, the opposition in Israel suceeded in overwhelmingly defeating PM Sharon in the Likud referendum.

How?

By training people to appeal to the Likud electorate and to the media with a universal message The Sharon Plan as a threat to all of the people of Israel, and not only to the Jewish communities in Judea, Samaria and Katif.

The teams that went out to canvas voters got people to read the Sharon Plan for what it is: PLO empowerment.

The campaign against the Sharon Plan, since that time, used a totally different tactic

Appealing to people to endorse the narrowly focused idea of sentiments for people who live in Katif and the Shomron.

This tactic only appealed to the convinced to become more convinced, and did not reach outside of the ideologically strong circles.

The only way for Israel’s opposition to win now would be to adopt all of the principles of outreach, in what is know as the “kiruv” methodology… to develop an approach which will convince the movers and shakers of the Jewish people that withdrawal from Judea and Samaria and the creation of a PLO State represents a threat to A L L of the Jewish people… and represent a threat to the West.

The opposition must understand why the battle was lost and how a war has yet to be won.

The time has come for the opposition to learn the lessons of arrogance, and to realize that no one took the time to educate the movers and shakers of the people of Israel.

  • Most people in Israel never even knew location of Katif or the Northern Shomron, nor their proximity to the population centers of Israel.
  • Most people never read the easily accessible Sharon plan.
  • Most people have no idea that the focus of the plan is to arm and fund the PLO entity without any quid pro quo whatsoever.
  • Most people have no idea that the PLO strategy of phases is still in force and that the PLO covenant has never been changed.
  • Most people have no idea that 70% of the Arabs in Gaza wallow in UNRWA camps, under the premise and promise of the right of return, and that they are pushed by the Palestinian Authority to reclaim their lands from beyond Gaza.

In sum, if a massive effort to educate and reach out to all of the Jewish people is not launched, Israel will stand to lose its hegemony in Judea, Samaria and even Jerusalem…

The reality is that if the business community of Ramat Gan and the population of 33 development towns are not convinced that Judea and Samaria should stay in Jewish hands, the opposition to Sharon will lose the war.

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David Bedein
David Bedein is an MSW community organizer and an investigative journalist.   In 1987, Bedein established the Israel Resource News Agency at Beit Agron to accompany foreign journalists in their coverage of Israel, to balance the media lobbies established by the PLO and their allies.   Mr. Bedein has reported for news outlets such as CNN Radio, Makor Rishon, Philadelphia Inquirer, Los Angeles Times, BBC and The Jerusalem Post, For four years, Mr. Bedein acted as the Middle East correspondent for The Philadelphia Bulletin, writing 1,062 articles until the newspaper ceased operation in 2010. Bedein has covered breaking Middle East negotiations in Oslo, Ottawa, Shepherdstown, The Wye Plantation, Annapolis, Geneva, Nicosia, Washington, D.C., London, Bonn, and Vienna. Bedein has overseen investigative studies of the Palestinian Authority, the Expulsion Process from Gush Katif and Samaria, The Peres Center for Peace, Peace Now, The International Center for Economic Cooperation of Yossi Beilin, the ISM, Adalah, and the New Israel Fund.   Since 2005, Bedein has also served as Director of the Center for Near East Policy Research.   A focus of the center's investigations is The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA). In that context, Bedein authored Roadblock to Peace: How the UN Perpetuates the Arab-Israeli Conflict - UNRWA Policies Reconsidered, which caps Bedein's 28 years of investigations of UNRWA. The Center for Near East Policy Research has been instrumental in reaching elected officials, decision makers and journalists, commissioning studies, reports, news stories and films. In 2009, the center began decided to produce short movies, in addition to monographs, to film every aspect of UNRWA education in a clear and cogent fashion.   The center has so far produced seven short documentary pieces n UNRWA which have received international acclaim and recognition, showing how which UNRWA promotes anti-Semitism and incitement to violence in their education'   In sum, Bedein has pioneered The UNRWA Reform Initiative, a strategy which calls for donor nations to insist on reasonable reforms of UNRWA. Bedein and his team of experts provide timely briefings to members to legislative bodies world wide, bringing the results of his investigations to donor nations, while demanding reforms based on transparency, refugee resettlement and the demand that terrorists be removed from the UNRWA schools and UNRWA payroll.   Bedein's work can be found at: www.IsraelBehindTheNews.com and www.cfnepr.com. A new site,unrwa-monitor.com, will be launched very soon.