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Laura Ben-David made aliyah with her family three years ago from Boca Raton, Florida, to Neve Daniel. Inspired by the aliyah experience, Laura began writing and hasn't stopped. She is currently preparing to publish her first book, "Moving Up: An Aliyah Journal."
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By Laura Ben-David
February 4, 2006
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The Land of Israel is extraordinary. Ever varying landscapes range from scenic heights to picturesque beaches; from rolling green hills to velvety-soft sand dunes; from desert mountains to acres of farmland. In fact there is no other land in the world that contains so much variety in such a small area.
In addition to all that is natural, thousands of years of history have left their evidence throughout the land. Cities, tombs, holy sites and historical places fill the map in abundance.
But all this is not why we live here. We live here because of the essence of the land -- because G-d gave it to us. In these times we must remind ourselves regularly of the reason we live here; for it is such deep-rooted ideology that helps one keep his sanity in a time when
"ideology" has become a crime.
As elections for the next Israeli government loom closer, acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert is holding firm to his pledge: not to cave in to settlers. Settlers? What about terrorists? What about Hamas? No, it is settlers who are the enemy now. An enemy out of necessity.
Our friend's daughter, 17-year old Leora, was in Amona this week for the horrifying events surrounding the destruction of nine permanent homes by Israeli police. She went on an organized bus with 40 girls from her school; a respected school that is in "Israel proper", to join the thousands of "settlers" protesting. Why did she go? She felt it was her responsibility. She is not a soldier, she does not carry a weapon, nor does she strap on bomb-belts in the hopes of (G-d forbid) killing those who would destroy the homes she seeks to protect. She merely had to go.
They arrived on the bus Tuesday night. The high school in neighboring Ofra had opened its doors to many hundreds of people, providing them with warm meals and shelter. They then proceeded to Amona where the residents had opened their homes, set up tables outside with tea, coffee, soup; the people there were singing and dancing all night in a sign of optimism and support.
The next morning everything was different. Leora was there until the end. She was there to support her people. But aren't both sides "her people"? Sadly, after the day's shocking events, it just doesn't seem that way to her anymore.
She joined dozens of youth as they sat on the floor singing and praying, in a passive demonstration against the proceedings. Suddenly the police crashed the windows in from right behind them and started yelling: "We will break your bones if you don't get out!" Leora reports, "They were hitting us -- slapping us -- a group of 14, 15, 16, 17 year olds -- they were
just hitting and hitting -- rows and rows and rows of them.
We got out of the house, and right away they started breaking the house down. They were just standing there smiling." She adds, "These aren't Jews. I don't know what they are." Why did Olmert do this now, before the election? What did he hope to achieve? Olmert is nothing if not calculating.
The media in Israel is hardly noticing that the platform of Kadima fell apart when Hamas won the Palestinian election. Which Palestinians are they going to talk to now? Who are they going to make peace with? Olmert has a real enemy in Hamas who he can't admit is an enemy, nor can he fight the enemy. Therefore he has found a new enemy: those with a real Jewish heart, the true Zionists -- the ideologues.
What really happened in Amona? Not everyone protested peacefully. There were those who threw rocks and behaved in an otherwise violent manner. But they were in the minority.
Quite out of character from what was seen in the summer in Gush Katif, it seems to be a spillover of the frustration and rage that remained from then. The feelings being that "We let it go too easy; it won't happen again."
However, was the intense police violence truly warranted? Horrible things are being said now as a result. "they had horses running through crowds of kids," "not Russian Cossacks, but Israeli mounted troops," "unprovoked physical blows with clubs," "they smashed my brother on the head," and stories too numerous to count. Many cameras were taken from the protesters and broken. But many pictures of the brutal violence did make it to the press and it is truly devastating to watch.
Couldn't the evacuation have been accomplished without violence? Couldn't they have approached 14-year olds in a "sit-in" in some different way besides swinging their clubs repeatedly and indiscriminately? An even better question: will the Israeli government bother dismantling any of the 10,000 or so illegal Arab dwellings around Israel, and will they then go about it by smashing 14-year olds Israeli Arabs in the head with their clubs?
The wife of a noted Israeli politician was protesting there with her children. The interviewer questioned her as to what kind of education this could be for her children. She responded with fire: "How dare you speak about education! You are talking about the kids who are the best educated in this country. The cream of the crop! They are the only kids who really understand what is going on in this country and are willing to stand up for what they believe in."
Now I finally know who to vote for in the next election. I'm voting for those kids.
Views expressed by the author do not
necessarily reflect those of israelinsider.
 
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