By Paula R. Stern
August 15, 2005
My eyes fail with tears, my insides churn -- at the shattering of my people. (Eicha 1:11)
Over a decade ago towards the end of a hot summer, I landed in Israel. It was August 17 and exhausted as I was, I was still exhilarated to realize that I had finally fulfilled a childhood dream and brought my family home to Israel.
As I sat on the floor in my synagogue this past Saturday night and listened to the mournful tone of the reading of the Book of Lamentations, I thought of the irony that on the anniversary of the day I fulfilled my dream in finding the place I truly belonged, so many might yet experience the nightmare of losing their homes.
You made us filth and refuse among the nations. All our enemies jeered at us; panic and pitfall were ours, ravage and ruin. (Eicha 3: 45-48)
Back in 1993, just one month after my arrival, then Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin signed the Oslo Accords and over the next few months told me that I and tens of thousands of others were meaningless entities to him. He didn't care about settlers and apparently, because I had chosen to buy a house one kilometer to the right of a line on a map rather than one kilometer to the left, I was a settler. I decided that if Rabin didn't care about me, I didn't care about him, and gladly joined an opposing party, believing that they would deliver security and peace to a nation desperate for both.
One failed agreement after another followed. Madrid and Wye, Sharm el-Sheik and the illustrious roadmap to destruction were thrust at the people and still government after government failed to understand the most basic of principles. You cannot make peace alone.
We have become orphans, fatherless; our mothers are like widows. We pay money to drink our water, obtain our wood at a price. Upon our necks we are pursued; we toil, but nothing is left us. We stretched out a hand to Egypt, and to Assyria to be satisfied with bread...Slaves ruled us, there is no rescuer from their hands. (Eicha 5: 2-8)
Years of violence have yielded nothing. We have lost mothers and fathers, grandparents and children. Doctors and teachers, friends and neighbors. Finally, we were given a clear choice: unilateral action (Amnon Mitzna's platform) or security and peace, strength and conviction (Ariel Sharon's platform). We would not retreat under fire, Sharon promised again and again. We would not negotiate with terrorists. In a democratic election, a referendum of the people, we voted for security and peace. We demanded strength in the face of aggression. We chose Ariel Sharon, father of the settler movement, the lion of Judea, the bulldozer, the brilliant tactician. The man who kept his word.
And then, the unthinkable happened. The Lion of Israel, Ariel Sharon, became the Prince of Palestine. Black became white. Right became wrong. All that he promised turned into lies and betrayal. All that he stood for became as nothing in the face of his weak, corrupt manipulations. By their own admission, Sharon has handed the Palestinians a victory above all others they have achieved to date. Rabin handed them weapons in the desperate hope for peace, but it is Sharon who is handing them a terrorist state knowing there will be no peace, no security.
Perhaps Sharon's greatest sin of all is what he has done to Israeli society. In laying siege to his own people, by encouraging the police to violate the freedom to protest by blocking buses, and by ignoring the will of hundreds of thousands of people, Sharon has returned full circle to the days in which Rabin showed contempt for "the settlers." His endless promises of civil war are meaningless attempts to frighten the left and divide the nation further against the very people who brought him to power.
The Lord has trampled all my heroes in my midst. (Eicha 1:15)
The irony, of course, is that Sharon, father of the settler movement, has turned against the very core of his support and is likely to leave a legacy in which he is remembered most bitterly as the destroyer of Gush Katif, the thief who stole our votes to implement an insane plan of surrender. He will be remembered as the traitor who betrayed the Likud, and the weak leader who failed his nation.
This year, on August 17, Sharon plans to forcefully expel his most faithful followers. Rather than celebrating and renewing my dedication to this land on the anniversary of my aliyah, I will mourn for the loss of rights, the stolen votes, the lack of democracy and the insensitivity which has plagued this government for more than a year and was shown yet again by an army that turns the lowering of a gate symbolizing the imprisonment of thousands into a televised ceremony for the international media.
All your enemies jeered at you; they hiss and gnash their teeth. They say, "We have devoured her! Indeed this is the day we longed for; we have actually seen it." (Eicha 2:16)
On August 17, our enemies will celebrate. Ariel Sharon and Shimon Peres will celebrate, and Israel will mourn. But ultimately, as so many of our enemies have learned over the millennia, the will of the people of Israel will triumph over those who seek to destroy us. All that General Sharon has done for defense and security of the people of Israel is now in danger and could be defeated by Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's legacy of corruption, betrayal and deceit.
Gone is the joy of our hearts, our dancing has turned into mourning.... Bring us back to You, God, and we shall return, renew our days as of old. (Eicha 5: 15, 21)
Whether Sharon will fulfill the prophecy of the Book of Lamentations is yet to be seen. Redeemer or destroyer, the future, and his legacy, is his to decide in the next few days.
God will ultimately, of course, decide our future ... and Sharon's.
Views expressed by the author do not
necessarily reflect those of israelinsider.
 
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