Yud Shevat: The Lubavitcher Rebbe’s Leadership in the Land of Israel
BS”D
Yud Shevat 5786 – January 28, 2026
In 1992, on Yud Shevat, then Transportation Minister Moshe Katzav visited the Lubavitcher Rebbe by Sunday Dollars.
After showering Katzav with special blessings, the Rebbe went on to raise “the strange and shocking rumor” he’d heard about the Israeli government negotiating a proposal for Arab self-rule to take full effect over a five-year period in the lands liberated in the Six Day War – not small pockets of land either but major places such as Judea, Samaria, Gaza, Hebron and Yerushalayim.
“A program of autonomy is a severe threat to Jewish life and runs contrary to the explicit prohibition Lo Tichoneim forbidding relinquishing even an inch of the Land of Israel to non-Jews – a denial of G-d, His Torah and of the holiness of Eretz Yisroel!”
Try and sell it to the Jewish People with all the “diplomatic icing” and a cherry on top, “what matters”, said the Rebbe, “is how the non-Jews interpret it.”
“Their interpretation is that this is a framework to ultimately relinquish areas of Israel for the establishment of a Palestinian State.”
Katzav’s feeble excuse that the year before President Bush had sent a letter saying he was opposed to a Palestinian State and more recently that he was not in favor of one drew an impassioned response from the Rebbe who saw in Bush’s watered-down wording which way the wind was blowing.
“Shamir has much merit regarding the Land of Israel but now he is negotiating to give away portions of it. He must immediately sever all talks on autonomy and nullify these plans!
“I consistently battled on his behalf to lead the government. But if they continue in this direction than I, Menachem Mendel, will be the first to battle with all my power and strength against him for the government to be brought down.”
Stop Speaking in the name of the Arabs!
Ten years earlier on Gimmel Tammuz in 1982, two weeks into the First Lebanon War, the Rebbe lamented the Israeli Government’s retreating from effectively finishing the job.
Although in the first few days of the war, the IDF had successfully decimated Syria’s air force then occupying Lebanon and repelled the PLO, Israeli politicians soon capitulated to international pressure to ceasefire. Unsurprisingly, the other side almost immediately violated the terms and used the break to regroup their forces.
Frustrated by Israel’s foot dragging and distraught over the heavy number of Jewish casualties, r”l, the Rebbe got right to the point: “We must widely publicize – in a way that everyone knows – that a certain person delayed the prompt, military conclusion to Operation Peace for the Galilee despite the emphatic opinion of the Military to finish the job – an opinion made known, despite the censor.”
Today, certain person(s) of the same type not only delay effective military strategy against Hamas, but even go so far as to feed and sustain Gaza’s hardly innocent, thoroughly complicit population – against the will of Israeli citizens and the vast majority of Jews worldwide.
Those certain person(s) recklessly put millions of Jews in danger in the years leading up to October 7th. They steamlined the flow of Qatari money into Gaza, ignored when deliveries of cement and steel were being used to build tunnels and did little to stop Egypt from smuggling weapons into Hamas’ hands.
Now they aim to capitalize on having brought home the last unfortunate hostage, Ran Givilli, HY”D. Masters in the art of teary-eyed eulogies and phony solemn pledges – we’ll dismantle Hamas and demilitarize Gaza!, these certain person(s) have no compunction trying to pull the wool over weary Jewish eyes to hoodwink and hide the truth of what lies ahead under President Trump’s takeover of Gaza:
The establishment of a Palestinian State. Facilitated no less, by the very same evil actors who funded October 7th, gave harbor to Hamas’ chieftains and whose Board of Peace European and British members have done too little and far too late to outlaw anti-Semitism in their own countries.
“When everyone knows that he is the one who delayed this Operation, no one will vote for him (nor his proteges and party).
“Consequently, he will not be allowed to speak in the name of the Jews of the Land of Israel (or the Jewish People worldwide).
“He can speak in the name of the Arabs (and their ideological brothers in arms) whom he benefitted but not in the name of the Jewish People!”
Don’t tell us you’re going to Make the Same Mistake All Over Again!
French Lubavitcher Chassid, Saadia Maatuf, z”l, kept a diary of his visit to 770 during Tishrei in 1973 and the Yom Kippur War. Reb Saadia recounted a conversation the Rebbe had with a group from the Israeli Consulate who had come to 770 for hakafos on Simchas Torah journalist Gershon Jacobson later shared.
“The Rebbe said to them that it was urgent that they capture Damascus, and that even the Americans wanted Eretz Yisroel to conquer Damascus.
“The Rebbe also added that it was only the mistakes made in the war of 1948 [War of Independence] that caused the Sinai War, and the mistakes of the Sinai War that caused the Six Day War, and the mistakes of the Six Day War that caused the current war. And if there will be mistakes again, I don’t want to say what will be in a few years down the road.” Excerpted from Beis Moshiach Magazine October 1, 2017
Exit Only at the Rafah Gate
Shortly after October 7th businessman Yitzchak Levi suggested opening the Rafah Gate exclusively to let Gaza’s Arab residents (most of whom are Egyptian in origin) exit into Egypt where they could be easily way stationed and/or resettled in the more than two million apartments lying empty there, built years before as part of a planned economic initiative.
A hefty grant from the U.S. and other countries compensating Egypt for its generosity in absorbing them would also give a boost to Egypt’s failing economy.
We’d, additionally, like to suggest earmarking a portion of those funds or adding to them to professionally train Gazans in the expanding field of water technology. This would provide them with peaceful and lucrative employment opportunities and create a workforce for Egypt to utilize in resolving its major water crisis. This would also generate jobs in other markets servicing the industry and workers. See: The diplomatic battle between Israel and Egypt can decide the future of Gaza; Egypt’s Water Crisis
A win-win for everyone!
But if the Prime Minister and Defense Minister want to continue on as always and permit the Rafah Gate to be open for Gazans’ re-entry or Egypt’s ingress then:
“There is no shame in everyone else resigning from the Knesset. In order to prevent Jews from being murdered, it’s worthwhile losing all public office. At the end of the day, no man (or woman) was born a government minister.
Not resigning won’t help them. Ultimately they will be thrown out when it becomes clear they can’t be relied on.
As for those who profess to believe in G-d, who keep Torah and Mitzvos yet have no problem playing with the Code of Jewish Law, such people just as easily also have no compunction playing with Jewish lives.” The Lubavitcher Rebbe in a private interview with Moshe Ishon in 1970
How to conquer Hamas
“After notifying any remaining “non-combatants” to leave (within a short, non-negotiable time frame), surround the terrorists from all sides and turn the area into a “mound of ruins” without sending in a single soldier.
“When the terrorists realize it’s not an empty threat, they will immediately and unconditionally surrender.”
Or be turned into a mound of ruins which they rightly deserve.
The Lubavitcher Rebbe discussing the First Lebanon War during a public addrerss on Yud-Bais Tammuz, Parshas Chukas-Balak in1982
The Jewish Future in Gaza
Sovereignty, Security and Settlement
Just because the UN Security Council endorsed Mr. Trump’s plan to end the conflict in Gaza and featured Board of Peace [Resolution 2803], doesn’t mean the sovereign State of Israel is has to accept it. There is simply no Halachic, moral, security or diplomatic justification for relinquishing Gaza to Mr. Trump, let alone giving a foothold in Israel to a board made up of adversaries who funded October 7th, gave harbor to Hamas’ chieftains and whose members have done next to nothing to quell anti-Semitism in their own countries.
Whether he was under pressure or has other reasons, Prime Minister Netanyahu can still escape the corner he backed the rest of us into by publicly endorsing and moving forward with the Gush Katif Forum and Nachala plans for Gaza’s Jewish renewal.
Mr. Trump and his business associates can still invest in Gaza’s Jewish reconstruction and reap the financial returns they anticipate but it must be with the understanding that Gaza is and always will be a part of the sovereign State of Israel.
To Learn more about The Gush Katif Forum Way to the Sea, Path to Victory Master Plan for the Israel Future in the Gaza District: http://bit.ly/3JacTHd
To learn more about the Nachala Master Plan for Jewish Resettlement in Gaza: https://tinyurl.com/4fthyxsx
