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Aryeh Eldad is a Member of Knesset from the National Union party.
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By Aryeh Eldad
August 31, 2005
The two police officers that grabbed her were much taller than she was; a seemingly frail woman in her 50s. In the newspaper photo she appears holding a protest sign in one hand while waving something, perhaps a flag, with the other.
The blue officer is wearing sunglasses, he is grabbing her elbow. The green officer is carrying a club under his arm, and his gaze is impenetrable. They appear to be trying to prevent her from beating someone with the flag in her hand. This is all the photo reveals. From there Yelena Bosinova was then taken to a detention facility.
Upon her release, she attempted to reach Gush Katif but was blocked by police officers at a roadblock in the entrance to Netivot. Were these the same officers? We do not know. An hour or two later she burst into flames. She remained in intensive care for a week, and then passed away. I have treated burn victims throughout my career as a doctor -- I know it is a horrible death.
The media reported that Yelena was a loner who took care of cats. There was no relative to say Kaddish on her grave, which was dug up with haste in Kedumim just before the Sabbath. I assume most readers simply categorized the report under "crazy" in the little drawer in their minds and moved on.
But perhaps it is us -- those who move on, who see how thousands are expelled, how entire communities are destroyed, how the government shamefully surrenders to terror -- perhaps we are the ones who are crazy? Perhaps it is us, those who give preference to a gradual national suicide and who are coming to terms with evil and the collapse of Zionism, perhaps our reaction is abnormal.
Maybe the broken-hearted Yelena, who understood that two officers will always be stronger than her, set herself on fire because she did not want to live in a country where a Jew expels another Jew? Perhaps there is some logic to this madness?
Those who reveled in our disaster, be it Mohammed Deif or Israel-haters from home, saw how easy it was to banish us.
Those who sat in history class and had a hard time imagining what a town looked like after a pogrom were finally able to see it for their own eyes last week.
To prevent us from reaching Yelena Bosinova's dead end, we must cast our rage, pain and existential fear into practical and legitimate political tools. When we call for political and legal and media-oriented action these days to oust Prime Minister Ariel Sharon from office -- we are not seeking punishment or revenge.
We demand his dismissal as an act of deterrence, so future prime ministers that while they may be able to expel, break hearts and destroy lives, they will pay for it with their posts; so that every defense minister will know that even though he can recruit thousands of soldiers that would obey any order -- the public will make him pay for the wall he built between the people and their army.
There is only one remedy that may prevent further destruction -- Sharon's dismissal. It would rehabilitate the settlement enterprise's ability to deter.
It turns out that a Jew can indeed expel another Jew -- but he must know that he would later be expelled as well.
Views expressed by the author do not
necessarily reflect those of israelinsider.
 
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