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Alan Perlman is a resident of the community of Carmel in the Hebron Hills region and a technical writer. Perlman has a master's degree in social work.
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By Alan Perlman
January 6, 2005
The country is abuzz with fears of civil disobedience, mass army refusals, and civil war, in response to the government's planned expulsion of the Jews from Gaza. The government and media are placing the blame squarely at the feet of the Rabbis, settlers, and political Right, and are calling for unity in the face of the planned expulsion. But in truth, the rabbis, settlers, and political Right are not at fault. All blame belongs to a government and populace that choose to ignore the possible consequences of such an action.
Many Israelis happily envisage that if and when a final peace accord is achieved with Israel's neighbors, Gaza will fall outside Israel's borders. In such a case, given the deep-rooted anti-Semitism and bloodthirsty nature of those neighbors, Jewish settlements would likely be uprooted from Gaza. And such a case would be legitimate, because Israel has the right to conclude peace and draw up final borders, even if such borders involve what the Prime Minister cynically refers to as "painful concessions."
But those who consider this to be the future ideal must not confuse their hopes with current reality. In the absence of a peace treaty that places the Jewish settlements of Gaza in some other country, the government's fundamental obligation is to protect each citizen's right to his land, home and property. Such a fundamental obligation cannot be dependent on popularity contests or even referenda.
Imagine uprooting the residents of the northern border kibbutzim because kibbutzim lost their popularity or because people don't want to defend those residents on the border. A country that makes the rights and protection of its citizen dependent on popularity cannot remain united, and cannot long endure.
Now imagine a scenario in which French Muslims threaten violence if France does not remove Jews from their neighborhoods. In this scenario, France decides that protecting the rights of those Jews is not worth the bother given the overwhelming numeric superiority of the Muslims, so France forms a relocation authority, headed by a French Jew of course, whose purpose is to uproot, compensate and relocate those Jews. Just how low can those anti-Semitic French stoop? Now replace "France" with "Israel."
Perhaps you will respond that this is different because the French are anti-Semites but Israelis are fellow Jews, brothers, who are pained greatly by this so necessary uprooting. But like Arab protestations that they cannot be anti-Semites because they are Semites, such a protestation would ring hollow.
Which expulsion supporters really feel the pain of a brother? Perhaps the CEO of Tnuva, and like-minded Israelis, who consider settlements a cancer. Or perhaps the members of Peace Now who will not serve in Yesha to defend Jewish settlers from Arab terror, but will gladly serve in Yesha to uproot Jewish settlers from their homes. Or perhaps the members of Rabbis for Human Rights, and other human rights organizations, that shed tears for destroyed Arab homes but have no tears for Jewish families destroyed by Arab murderers.
Or perhaps Generalissimo Ariel Sharon himself, who continually sheds crocodile tears for the settlers he plans to expel, while trying to pass special laws depriving the Jews of Gaza even the most basic right to protest their expulsion. If poor, pained Sharon had his way, protesters would be given extra long prison terms, and whole families would be interned in special camps set up for this purpose.
Israel is at war, and above all else, it needs unity, commitment and loyalty. But the height of chutzpah and folly is to strip loyal citizens of their homes, land, and rights, and then expect unity of and loyalty to the country that just disenfranchised them.
The loyalty and commitment of the settlers and the Right, especially the religious Right, should not be taken for granted. The religious Right has an unwavering commitment to the holy Land of Israel and the holy people of Israel, no less than its commitment to the holy Torah. But the State is not holy. It must earn the commitment and loyalty it desires. And a State of Israel that would frivolously expel Jews from their homes or that would place so little value on the Land of Israel that it would freely surrender it to an enemy without firing a shot, has not earned, and does not merit, that support and commitment.
Yet, it is precisely the loyalty and commitment of the settlers and the Right that Israel needs above all; certainly more than it needs the defeatism of the Left. The Left gave Israel post-Zionism; the settlers and the Right keep the flame of old-fashioned Zionism burning bright. The Left pioneered the refusal of soldiers to defend Jews; the settlers and the Right (and their children) serve in the most elite and dangerous positions in the army.
The Left has lost its attachment to the land that even Israel's founding fathers called Zion; the settlers and the Right stand willing to defend Zion with their lives. The Left foisted the false promises of Oslo on the Israeli people through guile and deceit, and though the settlers have borne the major brunt of Oslo, they nevertheless remain steadfast in the face of relentless terror and tremendous losses. The Left, including the Prime Minister and his government, have fallen into despair and lost both the will to fight and win, and the belief in the justice of their cause.
There is only one way to unity. Recognize that whatever perceived benefit you anticipate from the expulsion is not worth the cost of splitting the country. Demand that your Prime Minister put his expulsion plans on a back burner. You need not give up your hopes for the expulsion. You need only have the wisdom to recognize that any victory over the settlers will be hollow indeed. If you defer the expulsion, you can continue to look forward to it. But if you go ahead with it and it proves disastrous, you cannot undo it.
Even if you support an eventual exodus from Gaza in the context of a peace treaty, don't risk losing the loyalty of half the nation to the State over it now. You need them more than they need the State. Without the steadfast settlers and the Right, you risk losing even the emasculated version of the State that you are hoping to preserve.
Views expressed by the author do not
necessarily reflect those of israelinsider.
 
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