Listen to the calls of distress
By Ari Shavit
Reprinted with permission from Haaretz ©
www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/532467.html
January 27, 2005
The other people are in turmoil. The other people, who in the eyes of some
of us are not even people, feel we are attacking them. The other people, who
in our eyes are dastardly, feel we are going to trample over them. And throughout
Judea, Samaria, and the Gaza District, settlers feel that a foolish Israeli
majority, full of hubris and lacking any sensitivity, are going to lynch them.
Throughout the realm of knitted-kippa religious Zionism is a feeling that
a brutal, heartless herd of secular elephants are going to trample them under
as the herd gallops to the abyss. People whose faith is not our faith feel
that we are going to destroy their homes. People whose values are not our
values feel we are going to bring down their world on their heads. They are
desperate, angry and up against the wall.
At the beginning of the week we heard from Benzi Lieberman, chairman of the
Yesha Council. At the end of the week we'll hear from the moderate rabbi from
Gush Etzion, Yoel Bin Nun. Neither Lieberman nor Nun are lunatics. Both are
supposed to be the natural interlocutors for the mainstream Israeli. However,
both Lieberman and Bin Nun have harsh things to say. Both feel betrayed. Both
feel the Israeli left has abandoned them. Both feel that the Israeli democrats
have let them down. Both feel that the way the disengagement process is going
undermines the very foundations of Israeli society, undermines its sense of
social solidarity and cohesion, plays into the hands of the extremists, fans
the flames for the fanatics, and could lead the Third Commonwealth to the
disaster of civil war.
True, the moderates among the settlers have good reason to try to intimidate
the supporters of disengagement. The decent among the settlers are now searching
for the last-minute rabbit to pull out of the hat to prevent a final decision
for partition. Therefore, one must take their words with caution and suspicion.
But nonetheless, it is a duty to listen to them. Not to agree, not to accept,
but to listen.
This summer, Israel is going to do the most ruthless thing it has ever done
to its citizens. Israel is going to do something that even General de Gaulle
did not do in Algeria in the early 1960s. It is going to send its soldiers
into the homes of citizens to pull them out. And to destroy all that they
built, all they planted, all they believed.
This brutal act is necessary. The settlements in Gaza were a historic mistake.
That mistake threatens our very existence here. If Israel wants to survive,
if it wants to continue to exist as a Jewish-democratic state, it must correct
that error. It must evacuate all of Gaza. Completely. Down to the last house.
Moreover, since the current conditions don't allow leaving the residents
of the settlements under the protection of the Palestinians, there is no choice
but to withdraw them along with the military forces. And since a substantial
proportion of the settlers ideologically oppose this necessary move, there
is no choice but to impose it upon them. It is impossible to leave the freedom
of choice to individuals. It is necessary to coerce those individuals to accept
the will of the Israeli majority and the will of Israeli sovereignty. It is
necessary to go from house to house and empty each one of its inhabitants.
However, that difficult deed must be done properly, correctly. Not with glee,
not with indifference, not as a matter of fact. That horrifying deed must
be done with awe and trembling; with weeping hearts and bowed heads; without
treating the uprooted high handedly; without treating them badly and without
crushing them; understanding that the tragedy of Gush Katif is an all-Israeli
tragedy.
The question now is not a matter of the essence. It is a matter of the process.
Even many of the settler leaders understand they lost the campaign. They understand
they cannot save Netzer Hazani and Ganei Tal. They understand the process
is too strong, and it has passed the point of no return. But what they are
asking for is a clean, decent, clear, legitimate process with a genuine democratic
validity and Jewish meaning, that renews Zionism and does not destroy Zionism,
forges alliances and does not break alliances.
And they are right about that. One does not need to accept their ideological
positions. One does not need to be deterred by the remnants of their political
power. But one must listen to their calls of distress. Even with their knitted
kippot and other beliefs, Lieberman and Bin Nun are our brethren. And so is
each and every resident of Gush Katif whom we will have to uproot with broken
hearts from their homes in the coming summer.