By Reuven Koret
August 29, 2005
I have gotten a few letters and articles from people who see in Hurricane Katrina evidence of the "Fist of God" punishing the U.S. for supporting the expulsion of Jews from Gaza and the destruction of their homes. This isn't my belief and some of the mental gymnastics I have seen -- such as GUsh KATif = GUlf KATrina -- suggest rather overactive imaginations, or perhaps sleeplessness, than brilliant insight into a DaVinci (or DaVidic) code of the universe.
Still, the bottom line for both "Disengagement" and "Hurricane" will be the same: People evacuated from their homes and homes destroyed. The difference, of course, is that victims of Katrina will be able to return home and rebuild after a few days. The Jews of Katif will not return nor rebuild, at least not where they were. Disengagement was a manmade disaster, a terrible misjudgment -- or, as some would have it, a crime to cover one family's corruption -- which the Sharon government, compelled by foreign powers and coddled by the left-wing media, brought upon the people of Israel, against the will of the Jewish majority (as polls in the end proved).
A week after the completion of the expulsion of Jews from Gaza and northern Samaria, we have already received a taste of what is to come. Rockets fired from Lebanon falling on Israel's northern borders towns. Rockets fired from Gaza falling on Israel's Negev towns. A gruesome stabbing murder in Jerusalem. Stabbing attacks in Hebron too. Another teen caught at a checkpoint with bombs. And of course the resumption of bombings: the explosion in Beersheva was intended to kill dozens. Only the alertness and bravery of a bus driver and security guards prevented a catastrophe.
The Palestinians make no secret of their view that the Gaza withdrawal is just the first of many ignominious flight leading to their conquest of Jerusalem, with Israel turning tail and running away in fear. The Disengagement taught them that terror pays, and pays well. It shows them that Israeli "settlements" -- and Israel itself -- is magically reversible, if only the Jews are scared enough, or paid enough, to run away. They are emboldened and openly say what they previously only expressed in code words and fevered whispers. We see this in their blood-thirsty celebrations.
Meanwhile, the politicians are acting as expected: Sharon, trying desperately to win back his alienated party, trying to "turn right" by making a move to fence in the over-the-line Jerusalem suburb of Maaleh Adumim and vowing -- really, he promises this time -- that there will be no more expulsions of unilateral withdrawals. And yet, the IDF says that the dozens of families in Hebron's market will be expelled before years end. There are reports that the IDF will go after the two dozen or so unauthorized "outposts" that Sharon has repeatedly promised the Americans to take down. Benjamin Netanyahu, after approving each stage of the Disengagement, now opposes it. Oh. Same old same old.
Personally, I am deeply disappointed in my country's foolishness. I am scarred by the scenes of expulsion forces removing families from homes and synagogues. I am not caught up in the patriotic frenzy to celebrate the soldiers who expelled their fellow citizens. The greatest heroes among them, to me, are those who had the guts to disobey orders. But I am pleased that there was no serious injuries among the expellers or expellees, although the senseless deaths of Arabs in Shfaram and in Samaria are despicable, and the death of the protester who set herself on fire seems tragically useless.
We are heading for dark times. Israel is on the run and the pressure for more concessions and expulsions will be relentless. Even so, I believe the "orange" opponents of Sharon made some gains in the battle for public opinion. We lost a battle, but gained assets and knowledge for a more long-term struggle. The most significant, I believe, is the fact that the use of "transfer" -- "ethnic cleansing" if you prefer -- was legitimized as a policy tool. Those Arabs who are aiding and abetting terror or those who are disloyal to Israel as a Jewish democratic state will get the message that the "sensitivity and determination" with which Jews were transported from their doomed homes will one day be used to repatriate them to a nation -- or perhaps an autonomous area -- with which they truly feel loyalty, not the one they seek to undermine as a "fifth column."
There is also some light at the revelation of the humanity, the dignity and the strength of the residents of Gush Katif. They shattered the false stereotype of the "settler" and revealed the best and most admirable qualities of the proud Jew and courageous Israeli. More than half of residents stuck it out to the end, defying the extortion of their government, and explained themselves beautifully and boldly to the soldiers and policemen that came to evict them from their homes. I will never forget the scenes of teenage girls singing Jewish and Israeli songs in front of the Neve Dekalim synagogue in the face of thousands of uniformed expulsion forces. THIS is the Israel I love. I rooted with pride for the brave young men, arms and legs interlocked, wrapped in tallitot and tefillin, who resisted expulsion from their synagogues. They were DAVID, courageous singer and inspiration. They were DEBORAH of the Book of Judges. They are our future, if the Author of History wills it.
We have the power to rewrite history, and to turn our present defeat into a heroic victory. There is indeed a demographic window in which the greater productivity of Jewish religious families and the nationalistic tendencies of Israeli young people will overwhelm the current anomaly of the Sharon regime, elected on a nationalist platform only to betray it utterly. A resurgent Jewish nationalism, I am confident, will fight for defensible borders for Israel, protect the places important to our heritage, and ensure that the demographic power of "Israeli Arabs" will find expression only in a future "Palestine."
We have the power to create a more Jewish Israel, where the common bond between the intermingled tears of settlers and soldiers, will water the tree of freedom from those who thirst for our eradication and let us once again be a free people in our own country.
We are hurtling toward a "fight to the finish" in which the true nature of the struggle is revealed to the world. Arabs bent on expelling or exterminating Jews from the region, Israeli Jews insistent on carving out "a place in the sun" in their Biblical homeland.
After the deluge, battered but unbowed, the Orange Wave must turn again -- with patient reason and not blind faith -- to their "blue" fellow citizens and try to rebuild a consensus that will wash away "the bums" and forge a fighting front that will reassert Israel's deterrent power and our national confidence in standing up for what is ours by right.
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