Givat Haviva Voice

Yaniv Sagee, Executive Director, Givat Haviva Twenty-four years ago I fell in love with my wife and life partner, Galia. I was then 26 years old, the Secretary General of Kibbutz Ein Hashofet. This was about a year after I returned from representing Hashomer Hatzair and the Jewish Agency in the United States. It was four years after I completed my service in a Paratroopers Commando Unit, where I spent time Lebanon and served in the First Intifada as part of my reserve duty. Galia was a fresh discharge, who had just completed her military service as a welfare officer of the Golani Brigade. After five years of being together, we got married and our first son was born, Tav Sagee. Today, after the completion of his year of civil service in Hashomer Hatzair, he was inducted into the army for combat service. At the height of the Gaza conflict, the next generation is joining the cycle of war. How long will this continue? My father, Yaakov Sagee (Weissman) was born 77 years ago, in...

Anyone who thought there cannot be serious peace negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians was sadly mistaken. The talks are on the table and people of the right are feeling the pressure. This is also the pretext for Liberman’s latest proposal for transferring territory and populations in exchange for Israeli populated areas of the West Bank.  According to his plan, Wadi Ara and the Triangle would be transferred to the Palestinian state, together with the inhabitants.  The very idea is despicable, immoral, a blow to Israeli society, and, in any case, constitutionally, does not stand a chance of being adopted. Some background: Wadi Ara and the Triangle were assigned to Israel at the armistice talks held with Jordan in Rhodes in 1949. This is how it came about that 300,000 Palestinian Arabs live in the villages and cities of the area.   They represent an historic ethnic minority with their own distinct culture and dialect, much like the more th...