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Disengagement Struggles

   



 
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Ellen W. Horowitz and her family live on the Golan Heights. She is a painter, columnist, and author of The Oslo Years: a mother's journal. website: http://www.artfromzion.com
ellen@artfromzion.com
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Standing Up
By Ellen W. Horowitz   August 14, 2005


There is something unique and quite inconceivable about the Jewish people and their epic journey through time. Whenever we stumble and regress, we simultaneously take leaps forward.

Sharon's plans have caused an incredible awakening among our people. Much to the dismay of our antagonists, this is hardly the death rattle of religious Zionism or the Eretz Yisrael camp. On the contrary. Our ranks and our enthusiasm are on the dramatic increase. Rather than splinter, we've become united in our differences, and that may very well be the definition of true Jewish unity. There are those who simply don't get it. But in the face of adversity and tribulations, the Jewish spirit soars.

Revolutionary change is certainly in the air. We are not being destroyed. Rather, we are being born - and it's a painful birth. But the Eretz Yisrael Camp is alive, well and kicking, as is evidenced by our immense spirit, hope and efforts.

It also seems that as brilliant testimony to our individual efforts and labors, the children that many of us have born and raised have blossomed into extraordinary and exemplary Jewish youth. Indeed, it is the children who will be comforting and supporting their parents over the coming days. It is also our children who will be leading this struggle, and it is our children who will continue to plant, settle, return to, and inherit the land

In the end of the day, Israel will once again stand tall -- but only after we have shed the corruption, lies and irresponsible leadership of a State and system gone mad. A moral and ethical Israel will emerge once we have cut the cords of physical dependence on America and ceased with our pathological quest for approval from the international community. The children of Jacob will assume the mantle of sovereignty and maturity when we recognize and internalize that our enemies want nothing more than to kill us, and when we realize that the pursuit of peace with murderers is a perversion of justice.

Make no mistake, as we do face the prospects of intense mourning on an individual and national level. But a large part of the lament has more to do more with the anguish and sorrow over our mistakes as a nation and the future human costs, rather than grief over shattered dreams -- as our hopes and dreams are very much alive.

You'll see something quite extraordinary over the coming days. The government of Israel, the police, and Israel's secular left wing society has no idea what they're up against. The Jewish soul unleashed is a site to behold, and it doesn't accept the concept of defeat.

We are not so shortsighted as to think that our entire future hinges on the success (sic!) or failure of a deranged Disengagement plan. But we are obligated to resist these plans with all our heart and with all of the resources at our disposal, because we know that over the next few grueling weeks and months, the Jewish People will be undergoing an important test of faith. And we know that there will be a miraculous deliverance sooner (G-d willing) ... or later.

Welcome to the labor room - where Israel is in the throes of a whopping contraction.

Transitional labor is intense and painful but, thankfully, short. It's also a dangerous time, and we hope to avoid hemorrhaging and tears which will be difficult to repair. But we're in for revolutionary change and after all of our strenuous and excruciating efforts, there will be a baby delivered.

Views expressed by the author do not necessarily reflect those of israelinsider.


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