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Article published Saturday, August 20, 2005, Toledo Blade
SATURDAY ESSAY
A painful but necessary move from Gaza
http://www.toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050820/OPINION04/508200307
By BARRY LEFF
EVERYWHERE you go in Israel today you see orange and blue ribbons streaming
from car antennas and clothing, purse straps and backpacks.
Orange is for the large minority opposed to "the disengagement," the
withdrawal of 8,000 Jewish settlers from Gaza Strip and West Bank. Blue is
for the slight majority who favor it.
The passions involved, the harsh rhetoric, the demonstrations, all make our
recent red state/blue state divisions seem tame. Those on Israel's political
right, the ones opposed to the withdrawal, have been staging mass
demonstrations for months.
A radical few have vandalized cars that display blue ribbons, blocked roads
with their bodies, nails, or oil, and threatened violence. A group of
right-wing rabbis even invoked a Kabbalistic curse on Prime Minister Ariel
Sharon.
These emotions are aroused by the prospect of Jews being kicked out of their
homes. Jews have reason to be especially sensitive about being evicted from
their homes. Millions were displaced in Europe before and during World War
II.
After the formation of Israel in 1948, 800,000 Jews were expelled from Arab
countries. The most common bumper sticker of those opposed to the withdrawal
says Yehudi lo m'garash Yehudi, "a Jew does not expel a Jew."
Coupled with the expulsion revulsion is a strong spiritual attachment to all
of the land of Israel. Many settlers believe that giving up Gaza isn't only
a bad idea - they believe it's a sin.
I recently had the opportunity to sit in the living room of a Jewish settler
in Gaza Strip. Just the term "Jewish settler" conjures up an image of an
Uzi-toting zealot with prayer fringes and a scruffy beard being dragged off
a barren hilltop by Israeli police. The reality is very different.
Chagit is a 20-year resident of Gaza, a 40-something mother living in a
lovely middle class home with a green yard. She's religious but not radical,
concerned about her family, concerned about where they're going to live,
concerned about how they'll earn a living when they leave Gaza, even
concerned about where she's going to store all her stuff if she's forced
from a 2,000-square-foot home into a 900-square-foot trailer.
Chagit, like most of the settlers, is not some wild-eyed crazy person,
intent on evicting every Palestinian west of the Jordan River. But she does
not believe sacrificing her home will lead to peace.
In addition to their emotional and religious attachments to the land, many
settlers believe that their presence in Gaza enhances Israel's security.
Many settlers point to the war in 1948, when Jewish settlements in Gaza
helped slow down the advance of Egyptian troops toward Tel Aviv. They claim
that withdrawing from the settlements in Gaza will put Israeli cities closer
to Palestinian rocket and mortar attacks.
So in the face of all this opposition, why is the Israeli government so
intent on this withdrawal, and why does over half the population favor it?
Most Israelis, even in the left-wing peace camp, are pessimistic about the
prospects that withdrawal will lead to peace. They know that Palestinian
Prime Minister Abu Mazen's control over his own police forces, let alone
over terrorist groups like Hamas and Islamic Jihad, is tenuous at best.
Many terrorists see the withdrawal as a victory for terror - and a reason to
continue their attacks.
Israel is withdrawing from Gaza not because that will immediately lead to
peace with the Palestinians but because the two-state solution is clearly in
Israel's best interests. Israel's near-term goal, as retired Major General
Uzi Dayan described it to me, is to have a Jewish democratic state with
defensible borders.
By a "Jewish" state, most Israelis mean that in the way that America is a
"Christian" country. (One-fifth of Israel's population is Muslim, with a
small percentage of Christians, Druze, and other faiths). As in the United
States, people of all creeds can worship as they choose without fear of
persecution. They can vote, serve in the government, and enjoy equal civil
rights.
The civil law code is not based on religious law. (Much of it, in fact, is
based on British law.) But Israel does have a Jewish character: many stores
are closed on the Jewish Sabbath, Saturday, and most national holidays are
the religious holidays of the Jewish majority (just as Christmas is a
federal holiday in the United States, and many states, including Ohio, have
"blue laws" to protect the sanctity of the Christian Sabbath, Sunday.
Israel does not want to annex all of the West Bank and Gaza, because that
would mean making another 3.5 million Muslims citizens, and that would mean
the end of the Jewish character of the state.
The status quo, with Israel as an occupying power and the Palestinian people
in a state-less limbo, is clearly untenable militarily, morally, and
financially.
To have the scattered settlements of 8,000 Jews making Swiss cheese out of
the map of Gaza, with its 1.4 million Arab residents, makes no sense
militarily. It takes thousands of soldiers to protect the lives of those
8,000 Jews. It's much better for Israel to remove those citizens from harm's
way and create a border with Gaza that can be more easily defended, as a
step toward that two-state solution.
It's a real pity that Chagit and the other settlers can't stay in Gaza as
residents of the Palestinian Authority. I spoke to some settlers who said
they'd be happy to do so, but no one in either government has proposed that.
The Palestinian Authority is unwilling to take responsibility for protecting
Jews who remain behind, and lacks the practical ability to do so.
Someday, God willing, there will be real peace in the Middle East.
Jews from Jerusalem will gamble at the casino in Jericho, Palestine and
won't need armed guards to pray at the Tomb of the Patriarchs in Hebron.
Muslims from Gaza City will hang out in the malls in Tel Aviv and travel
unimpeded to worship at the Dome of the Rock.
While we wait for that day, Israel is doing the only thing it can do
unilaterally: establish defensible borders. It's a very difficult and
painful move for Israel, but one that is necessary.
Barry Leff is rabbi at Congregation B'nai Israel in Toledo.
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