By Reuven Koret
August 17, 2005
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On a black day like today, and tonight, I have little to write. The images and voices of destruction -- of a dozen living communities and their inhabitants -- speak for themselves.
I couldn't bring myself to go to the office. I watched multiple channels of TV, listened to the radio, and tried to keep the website up to date with the changing situation and process at least some fraction of the overload of information that accompanied the uprooting of thousands of lives and the trauma that the expulsion seared into the memories of the expellers and the expellees.
I have but one thing to ask, to beg, and that is an urgent prayer that the security forces will not rush to expel the nearly two thousands young people who have sought refuge in the two large synagogues of Neve Dekalim. One synagogue has about a thousand young women, and the other has about a thousand young men. Today and this evening they are crowded together, learning Torah, saying prayers, singing songs.
At the end of the day, the Yassam special police unit known for its brutality withdrew the forces that surrounded the synagogue, but vowed to return the following day, bright and early, to "evacuate" the building.
This order has disaster written all over it. The synagogue is crowded. Tempers are short. The people inside are desperate, and many of them are immature. Many of them are teenagers. They are just kids -- some a bit rebellious and will -- but most committed, idealistic, religious, Jewish kids.
Nothing -- nothing! -- is worth endangering their lives. There is no reason to rush to evict them. The security forces should pat themselves on the back for having made short work of more than half the communities of Jewish Gaza, removing most of the residents, making them refugees, and finishing their day way "ahead of schedule." Kol hakvod. More power to you.
Those young people are not going to escape. They will not be able to pass your human cordon of thousands of black-shirts, arms locked, fists at the ready. They are not going to last long. Let them come out, naturally, in their own time, with the cajoling and persuasion of their spiritual leaders, their friends, and -- who knows? -- even their parents.
You can congratulate yourselves for avoiding bloodshed, until now. Most of the soldiers and police officers showed restraint and humanity in the face of the cruel and un-Jewish task to which they were assigned. But you, Mr. Sharon, will risk everything -- all of your "accomplishments" and public credit -- if you rush to enforce your law and order on these young people.
There is an open account with the government of Ariel Sharon. Those expelled will never forgive nor forgive. We who see the government's decisions as unjust, pointless, and reckless will settle accounts later, at the ballot box.
But if the government and its overwhelming security forces dare hurry, without reason, to vanquish these young people -- whether in the synagogues or in the quixotic tents of Shirat Yam or in the bastion of Kfar Darom --- this will be nothing less than a trigger for civil war. This will be to light a match in a gas-filled chamber.
Yes, these young people have broken the law out of love for their land and concern for their fellow Jews. They, committed to non-violent civil disobedience, should be willing to pay the price. But they should not need to risk being wounded or killed by Israeli soldiers.
As if you -- Mr. Bulldozer, Mr. Doesn't Stop at Red, Mr. Just Forty Kilometers, Mr. Sabra and Shatila, not to mention Mr. Greek Island, Mr. Jericho Casino, Mr. Enough Evidece to Indict -- never stretched the law just a little bit in the service of your self-interest. These youngsters are non-violently disobedience for the love of their land.
Ariel Sharon, mazal tov. You have won this battle. Celebrate your victory as you see fit, as the Arabs and all those in Israel who hate the "settlers" celebrate.
There is yet to be a war -- one of Jewish values and Zionistic principles -- to be fought in this nation. May it be won, as the Gush Katif residents did, with love.
But if you hurry to impose your will on these young people, Mr. Sharon, to blitz them with IDF or police power, and they are injured, or worse, you will be setting fire to this land, and -- I do not say it lightly -- igniting a civil war.
Today the media made a big deal about a few desperate expellees "making use of the children" to demonstrate their desperation and outrage. Some of it was exaggerated, but no one was harmed.
What you did today, Mr. Sharon, was a crime of historic proportions, for which you will yet pay. "Attack me," you said. "Blame me. I am responsible." History will judge you, and your people.
But if you, Mr. Sharon, make use of these children, our children, to show -- as if more displays were needed -- your command of overwhelming force, then you will be committing a sin of an altogether different order. As horrible as today was, I dread tomorrow.
For your own sake, and for the Jewish nation -- if that still concerns you -- do not rush.
Please. Take your time. Let others work this out. There's no need to brutalize them.
Dare not raise your hand to harm these young men and women. Don't force our young soldiers to commit war crimes.
Leave our kids alone!
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