haaretz.com
Protesters tried to persuade soldiers to disobey orders
Those who still see in the knitted skullcaps the best and brightest of our youth, and who think their contribution to the country and the army is priceless, hope that at the moment of truth the revolt against the evacuation will not erupt, and that the 42,000 soldiers and police officers called to suppress it will in effect have nothing to do. That was the hope as long as the pullout opponents made do with holding rallies, painting the country orange and lobbying ministers who oppose the withdrawal in an attempt to precipitate new elections or reverse the Knesset decision.
But in recent days, the concern has arisen that the line has been crossed, that the protest has become a revolt. Under the nose of the Israel Defense Forces, thousands of settlers have illegally infiltrated Gush Katif. Not just wanton settlers, but also the veteran leadership, which is considered to be responsible. In the last few days there have been threats of suicide and of holing up in synagogues wrapped in prayer shawls, until the end. Several hundred Gush Katif residents have even asked to be recognized as a separate Jewish state and have threatened to inject the horses of mounted officers with atropine when they come to evacuate the settlements.
At the same time, an additional fortification is being created in the northern West Bank settlement of Sa-Nur, where extremists are holing up. According to operational directives handed out at the mass rally in Rabin Square last week, all pullout opponents are to block access to Gush Katif with their bodies. The seditious talk of the rabbis, which is likely to have tragic consequences on the ground, leaves no room for empathy or complacency. We are no longer talking about expressions of sorrow for the evacuees - among whom the sane are in the midst of packing - but of the general enlistment of the sane public in suppressing the settlers' open revolt against the decisions of a sovereign government.
Complete Article
w w w . h a a r e t z . c o m
Last update - 23:26 15/08/2005
This is a revolt, not a protest
By Haaretz Editorial
Those who still see in the knitted skullcaps the best and brightest of our youth, and who think their contribution to the country and the army is priceless, hope that at the moment of truth the revolt against the evacuation will not erupt, and that the 42,000 soldiers and police officers called to suppress it will in effect have nothing to do. That was the hope as long as the pullout opponents made do with holding rallies, painting the country orange and lobbying ministers who oppose the withdrawal in an attempt to precipitate new elections or reverse the Knesset decision.
But in recent days, the concern has arisen that the line has been crossed, that the protest has become a revolt. Under the nose of the Israel Defense Forces, thousands of settlers have illegally infiltrated Gush Katif. Not just wanton settlers, but also the veteran leadership, which is considered to be responsible. In the last few days there have been threats of suicide and of holing up in synagogues wrapped in prayer shawls, until the end. Several hundred Gush Katif residents have even asked to be recognized as a separate Jewish state and have threatened to inject the horses of mounted officers with atropine when they come to evacuate the settlements.
At the same time, an additional fortification is being created in the northern West Bank settlement of Sa-Nur, where extremists are holing up. According to operational directives handed out at the mass rally in Rabin Square last week, all pullout opponents are to block access to Gush Katif with their bodies. The seditious talk of the rabbis, which is likely to have tragic consequences on the ground, leaves no room for empathy or complacency. We are no longer talking about expressions of sorrow for the evacuees - among whom the sane are in the midst of packing - but of the general enlistment of the sane public in suppressing the settlers' open revolt against the decisions of a sovereign government.
Kid gloves cannot be used in dealing with revolts. The failure that has resulted in the need to evacuate more than 5,000 pullout opponents who have infiltrated Gush Katif and the northern West Bank settlements, in addition to the settlers who live there - a failure that means the security forces will have to deal with the most vociferous pullout opponents - may be investigated one day. Maybe the lessons of over-sensitivity, that allowed soldiers at the roadblocks to let thousands of people into Gush Katif, will be learned one day.
At this perilous moment, the presence of the infiltrators guarantees that the operation will be significantly more difficult, and that the soldiers and police officers will be compelled to confront people with a considerable capacity for violence. This additional hardship could have been prevented if IDF commanders had been less arrogant.
The time has not yet come to discuss the day after, the lessons that will be learned, the historic self-examination of the knitted-skullcap wearers, or the appeasement for which many - be they evacuators or evacuees - hope.
Now is the time for bravely confronting those who are trying to undermine the pullout. The soldiers and police officers must know they have widespread public support to carry out the evacuation order, and that the invectives flung at them, like the threat of punishment in the world to come, are expressions of hatred for the democratic process and an attempt to foment a type of religious-fundamentalist putsch. Most of the country's citizens renounce this with repugnance and foreboding, and see in it and its representatives a clear and imminent national danger.
No comments:
Post a Comment