THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
An Online Journal of Political Commentary & Analysis
Volume VII, Issue # 97, April 28 2005
Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
Government Committed to & Acting in Accord with Conservative Principles
Ensures a Nation's Strength, Progress, & Prosperity
JEWISH SETTLERS IN GAZA RESTLESS OVER
THE COMING FORCED WITHDRAWAL
By Asaf Romirowsky
ISRAEL'S COMING DISENGAGEMENT FROM GAZA: THE ISRAELI GOVERNMENT'S PLAN TO FORCE JEWISH SETTLERS
RESIDING IN THE GAZA STRIP TO GIVE UP THEIR HOMES & RESETTLE WITHIN THE BORDERS OF THE STATE OF ISRAEL -- WILL
THE FORCED WITHDRAWAL BE CONTESTED BY THE SETTLERS? ARE THE ISRAELIS ON THE BRINK OF CIVIL WAR?
FULL STORY:
We are entering the 100-day period before the disengagement from Gaza begins. The odds are we will see pictures similar to what we
saw when, in 1982, Israel gave back Yamit -- a settlement that had come to be known as the Jewish capital of Northern Sinai. As Ehud
Barak famously remarked after the Israeli pullout of Lebanon, "Withdrawals are not photogenic." We may assume that contested
withdrawals are even less so.
In his book, The Revolt, former Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin was confident that, despite opposing political beliefs
during the British mandate, the Jews would never reach a point of civil war. As he wrote,
"Two factors saved the people from the catastrophe of civil war. In the first place, we did not
teach Irgun fighters to hate our political opponents. One-sided hatred is obviously a threat to
national unity. Mutual hatred brings almost certain civil war. Whenever we saw manifestations
of hatred against us, we grieved and were astonished. Was such brother-hatred possible, we
asked ourselves."
He held this belief to be true when he agreed to give back the Sinai Peninsula for peace with Egypt. And yet, Israelis still did not leave
peacefully, and many left the country disappointed in Begin and his government.
In 1982, Ariel Sharon had to go down to Yamit and help remove the residents. Now he is asking many of those same people, more than
20 years later, to evacuate their homes and leave Gush Katif. Begin had an easier task than Sharon does today. As Israel's Prime Minister,
Sharon is possibly facing the one scenario Begin thought would never occur among Jews. As he moves ahead with the disengagement
from Gaza, Sharon himself admitted to an NBC interviewer, "The tension here, the atmosphere here looks like the eve of civil war."
Moreover, Sharon's plan puts Israel's constitutional democracy to the ultimate test -- a constitutional democratic state forcing thousands
of its own citizens to leave their lawful homes.
The Oslo Accords proved to the world that all the promises made by Yasir Arafat were just talk, with no real intention to resolve the
situation between Israelis and Palestinians. And yet, Sharon is taking Israel back to the socalled "road map to peace" -- an outgrowth of
that same program. To the naked eye, it would seem like Israel has overcome the latest intifada, and then Arafat's death created the right
environment to cede Gaza to Abu Mazen's Palestinian Authority.
But have the rules of the game really changed that much since Arafat's death? If one looks at Abu Mazen's list of demands for peace,
they have not changed since Arafat's tenure. He still is demanding a complete right of return for Palestinian refugees, Israel's complete
withdrawal to the untenable pre-1967 borders, and making Jerusalem the Palestinian capital. Abu Mazen's "peace" is more means than
end. Hence, Abu Mazen and the PA will be tested.
U.S. President George W. Bush vowed to defeat terrorism in an unprecedented global war. Part of that promise required that the
Palestinians crack down on the radicals' in their midst. Yet, today, the PLO covenant still calls for the destruction of Israel by any
means possible and still acts as the Palestinian constitution:
"The liberation of Palestine, from an Arab viewpoint, is a national [qawmi] duty and it attempts
to repel the Zionist and imperialist aggression against the Arab homeland, and aims at the
elimination of Zionism in Palestine."
How is the disengagement furthering peace if the Palestinians' own constitution has not been changed to recognize Israel's right to exist?
If there is no recognition, there is no compromise or solution.
In practice, security will be the bottom line. Can it be achieved? The basis for coexistence between Israelis and Palestinians depends, not
only on rebuilding trust and acknowledgment between the two parties, but also on creating a secure environment, dismantling terrorist
networks, reforming the media and education, and stopping weapons smuggling into Gaza and the West Bank. If we are to believe that
Abu Mazen is sincere, he should make it clear now, though real actions and deeds.
Begin was right to say:
". . . we are a small nation which has laid the foundations for its freedom. Our enemies are many; our friends are very few.
Who knows what the morrow holds for us…"
Sharon cannot know what tomorrow will bring, but, as someone who has fought in every war since Israel's establishment, the big
question for him is how will these 100 days be used and will they create a concrete understanding between Israelis and Palestinians. At
the same time, he must secure the foundations of freedom that make Israel the Jewish state that protects and provides security for
Israeli citizens, and must not place such duties in the hands of Israel's enemies.
LINKS TO RELATED TOPICS:
The Israeli-Arab Conflict
The Middle East & the Arabs
Radical Islam & Islamic Terrorism
War & Peace in the Real World
Islamist Terrorist Attacks on the U.S.A.
Osama bin Laden & the Islamist Declaration of War
Against the U.S.A. & Western Civilization
Islamist International Terrorism &
U.S. Intelligence Agencies
U.S. National Security Strategy
Asaf Romirowsky is a Campus Watch Associate Fellow for the Middle East Forum and the Israel Affairs Associate for the Jewish
Federation of Greater Philadelphia.
The foregoing article by Asaf Romirowsky was originally published in Tech Central Station, April 26, 2005, and can be found
on the Internet website maintained by the Middle East Forum.
Republished with Permission of the Middle East Forum
Reprinted from the Middle East Forum News
mefnews@meforum.org (MEF NEWS)
April 26, 2005
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