Israel looks on in shock
By Yoel Bin-Nun
Yediot Aharonot, March 18, 2004
The “Land of Israel” camp (e.g. the settlers and their right-wing supporters) look on in fear, in shock, in (additional) disbelief, with deep frustration and helplessness at the tidal wave of “disengagement” created by Prime Minister Sharon, the great fighter for the land of Israel and the settlement movement, the one primarily responsible for the map of settlement with all its isolated settlements; the man who stood behind most of the efforts of settlers on the borders of legality, including outposts and hills in recent years. We still can’t really believe that the great bulldozer has changed course and now hurtles towards an unrestrained retreat.
Supporters of Peace Now have been looking on for years in fear, in shock, with continual disbelief, with deep frustration and helplessness at the obstacle of the “settlements” that Sharon created (that will be described in detail below), and with various ideas that he has promoted (like the separation fence and its path), and neither will they believe that the bulldozer has changed course. Both of these camps say, with deep shock: we don’t understand what he wants. Both accuse the other of total blindness and obduracy.
Our brothers, whether “settlers” or “leftists,” are not blind, nor are they obdurate, arrogant, evil, nor (perish the thought) traitors. Enough! We are already training a second generation in hatred for their brothers, which is endangering our existence more than any plan for peace or withdrawal, or settlement.
To my brothers the settlers of Yesha (Judah, Samaria, and Gaza):
Since the six day war, not one of nine Prime Ministers has done what we, the settlers, thought was right and necessary. There were leftists and rightists among them, religious and secular, supporters of settlement and opponents. Not one of them was prepared to fix Israel’s boundaries according to the settlement map, nor according to the map of military control. We can’t just dismiss all of them as “weak and witless” or “lacking in basic faith” among other meaningless expressions.
Even if we succeed in toppling Sharon’s government before or because of the disengagement plan, Netanyahu will return and will almost certainly implement a similar move, even if he does it through negotiations with Arafat. The only difference between Sharon and Netanyahu is the former’s unilateral move. The next Wye agreement will encompass more than just Hebron. And don’t count on the Palestinians to preempt every Israeli concession.
The Arabs are regular people, and they also learn from their mistakes. For too many years we counted on the Arabs’ refusal of every agreement that Israel officially proposed, and then came Sadat, and afterwards Oslo. Now we have disengagement, without even bothering to seek Arab agreement.
The settlers must convince the public of a positive plan based on reason and hope. The proper talk of belief and steadfastness are good and important, but without an acceptable plan, there is no chance of being persuasive, and the method of threats and the language of force will not work with Sharon. Arik is a general, and when he looks out from his “command post” he sees the settlers and settlements as army units and soldiers.
Only one thing can stop Sharon: a change in the political balance. I recommend, and not for the first time, renewing our ideological and political link with the Labor Party. The Likud has fed us bitter fruits in the Sinai and in Yesha (acronym for Judea, Samaria, and Gaza). The only Israeli leader who reached a cease-fire agreement with Egypt without uprooting the Sinai settlements was Yitzhak Rabin. The only Israeli leader who reached an interim agreement with the Palestinians while insisting as written in stone that no Jewish settlement would be moved or uprooted, was the late Yitzhak Rabin.
The first time we fought him politically until he fell, we elected the late Menachem Begin and he returned all of Sinai, and Sharon himself dismantled Yamit. The second time we fought him in a bitter and persistent way, and in a language of (mutual) hate, until he was assassinated by a criminal. We got Netanyahu, who evacuated Hebron, and now Sharon, who intends to dismantle all the settlements of the Gaza Strip.
Indeed, there is judgment and there is a judge. Until all the leaders and rabbis of Yesha ask for forgiveness before God at the tomb of Yitzhak Rabin, some blame will be placed on us. How is it that no rabbi is prepared to stand up and say simple things, the meaning of which can be immediately understood by anyone versed in the bible?
To my brothers on the left:
For how long will you distinguish between Jews and Arabs in granting the basic human right to live in their homes with dignity? For how long will you maintain that moral double-standard? To uproot a Palestinian village, to destroy it and deport its residents—that is a crime against the most basic human morality. The same deed against Jews, is in your eyes simply another “Zionist project” of moving people from one place to another. Close your eyes and think of a Palestinian village in place of a Jewish settlement, and think again—is your stance moral?
And why do you accept the racist axiom that says that there cannot be Israeli settlements in a Palestinian state (under peaceful conditions, of course) while it is clear that in Israel there will be many Arab communities who see themselves as Palestinian?
And to the Prime Minister, Sir:
I once said to Yitzhak Rabin the following: Mikhail Gorbachev led a historic effort to reconstruct soviet communism (Perestroika), but the process he started was stronger than him, and swept away both him and the entire regime. You also are leading a historic process, and you think that you can control it. But the process is liable to be more powerful than you, and you are liable to be its victim. Of course I wasn't thinking about assassination, but a political downfall. The point was even stronger than I imagined.
But even you, Ariel Sharon, are sure of your power to lead a process that you will control and impose boundaries and restraints. But like in Lebanon, withdrawal in stages is liable to bring us to the ’67 borders, and in a situation much more perilous than before the six day war. You think that the disengagement is a replacement for the road map and an agreement, but the international pressure and terror (and negotiations) will only begin from the place where you stop, and it is quite likely that your successors will have to deal with a difficult situation that you will create on the ground in the wake of the plan.
Please, think again. Don’t open floodgates that none of us will be able to close. Stop this plan. Your credibility is less important than the future of Israel.
(Translated by Daniel Breslau)