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Moshe Feiglin is head of the Jewish Leadership faction in the Likud and can be reached via the web site.
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By Moshe Feiglin
January 23, 2005
To write a few words of encouragement, saying, "Be strong! Hold on!" etc. might well be considered inappropriate, if not absurd. Perhaps such words would seem more legitimate if written by someone who exists, together with you, in the cross fire from without and within. But what right do I have, when I am outside the range of fire, to presume to encourage you?
Therefore, I shall not presume, but shall try, instead, to bring to your attention several facts that make life difficult for the bad guys. The facts indicate that expulsion has certain requirements and certain built-in difficulties. It may well be that from a distance these can be seen more clearly:
1. In order to expel you, tremendously large forces will be required. It will not be possible to retain such forces in the area for a long period of time.
2. In order to expel you, there will be a need for coordination of command and control on a tremendous scale. This is very difficult to achieve when the situation is changing rapidly, and it will in fact change.
3. In order to expel you, there will be a need for broad popular support. Begin had such support, but Rabin didn't, and neither does Sharon. Consequently, not a single settlement has been evacuated since Begin's time, not even an outpost.
4. In order to expel you, there will be a need for a strong political foundation. Because of Netanyahu's spineless behavior, Sharon was able to regain control of the Likud. However, as the Likud referendum indicated, the party fundamentally opposes Sharon's plan. It's simply not possible to fool everyone all the time. When he runs into complications, Sharon will again find himself isolated in his party -- and he will certainly get himself entangled in complications.
5. In order to expel you, there will be a need for a quiet international scene.
6. In order to expel you, there will be a need for a period of quiet, free of Arab terrorist attacks. Disengagement, rather than halting such attacks, will only encourage continued acts of murder.
7. In order to expel you, there will be a need to overcome the opposition of the broad public who support you.
8. In order to expel you, there will be a need to cope with refusal to obey orders on a tremendous scale, inside the army and, perhaps, also in the police force -- as well as varying degrees of lack of cooperation ("My back is hurting, sir.")
9. In order to expel you, there will be a need to cope with spontaneous blocking of all the major roadways -- that will cause the country to grind to a halt. It is doubtful whether the required forces will be able to reach you.
10. In order to expel you, there will be a need to confront -- you!
Against the bad guys, there you stand, you -- the righteous people, the heroes! It may perhaps sound strange, but it is far easier for you than for them. You are far stronger, much greater and more numerous, not only in spirit but also in substance. As we saw on Independence Day and in the Human Chain, you have tremendous reserves of strength among the public, throughout the country. These reserves will do everything for you -- as long as you remain where you are.
All that you have to do is simply to hold on. Tell Jonathan Basie to go to hell, and hold on!
Actually, the bad guys are far more familiar with the facts listed above than I am, and they are probably aware of several more that I don't know about. Because expelling you will not be easy, their plan is built on the assumption that you will do the work for them -- in other words, that you will leave of your own volition! Basie and Omri have even expressed this explicitly: "There won't be an evacuation by force. They are rational people. They'll go of their own accord."
This is precisely what happened in Yamit. At first the people were strong. But then, one of the major leaders of the struggle gave up (Itzik Rogev, now one of Sharon's people in the Likud Central Committee who worries about us gaining control of the party?), he accepted compensation and he left! The rest followed in his footsteps and this, in fact, determined the fate of Yamit. The bad guys hope that the same thing will happen in Gush Katif.
By the way -- if you leave, you're not really going to receive compensation. During the twenty years of de-legitimization following Yamit, we have been turned into second-class citizens. Why should they compensate someone when they rob him of his property, if they are already daily abandoning him to missile and mortar attacks?
But if you hold on and don't give in, you will gain the best of both worlds. Because you will win and save your honor, your property, the entire country, and all our lives. You will win and prove that the Eternal One does not lie. The good guys will win and sanctify the Holy Name.
In fact, you are winning all the time.
With love and admiration,
Moshe Feiglin
Views expressed by the author do not
necessarily reflect those of israelinsider.
 
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