In all the ceremonies held to commemorate the second anniversary of the war, nobody dared tell the truth. And the destruction of the Jewish communities of Gush Katif and Northern Shomron is still called “disengagement,” even though it has created the strongest engagement ever between Israel and Gaza. Just ask the residents of Ashkelon when the disengagement ended and the engagement began.
For those people who wish to retain their liberty to think, I humbly proffer the following update. It contains a short, simple and uncensored synopsis of the “disengagement” and the “war”:
IDF Flees South Lebanon
Broadcaster Shelly Yechimovitz and the Four Mothers antiwar movement goad then Prime Minister Ehud Barak into a retreat from South Lebanon. Israel’s best interests turn out to be no match for cheap political populism. Barak orders the IDF to flee South Lebanon, abandoning Israel’s allied South Lebanon Army in the process. As a result of the humiliating retreat, the northern third of the State of Israel enters Hizbullah missile range.
The Temple Mount War
Barak’s attempt to give Jerusalem to the Arabs unleashes another round of violence that Israel calls “Intifada 2000.” The Arabs are more to the point, labeling the violence “The Temple Mount War.” Barak loses the premiership. The Israeli public, disgusted with the Oslo process, elects Ariel Sharon – a strong rightist leader – to restore Israel to a path of sanity and national pride.
“Restraint Is Might”
Just like the right-wing leaders who preceded him, Sharon sheds his rightist rhetoric as soon as he comes to power. Instead, he sings a new, leftist tune: “Restraint is Might.” The slippery slope of nationalism devoid of commitment to Jewish faith consistently leaves nationalist leaders captive to the Oslo disintegration mentality. Sharon’s corrupt dealings accelerate the process. Menachem Begin wanted the legitimacy of the Left and retreated from Sinai. Sharon needs more than legitimacy from the Left. He needs his freedom.
Sharon surprises the public with his total expulsion plan – typical of his bulldozer personality and his need to protect himself from investigations and prison. Unlike Begin, Sharon does not proceed in a democratic manner. He does not put his plan up for public approval, and cynically ignores the decision of his own party opposing the plan.
Winds Of Fascism
The power elites in Israel enthusiastically adopt the plan to destroy the Jewish communities of Gush Katif and Northern Shomron. Unlike the peace treaty with Egypt and its offspring, Oslo, the “disengagement plan” could not be sold to the Israeli public as a new dream. Instead, the government simply explains that it is necessary to carry out the non-violent pogrom because that is what has been decided, and that obedience to the state is above any moral consideration. Disengagement Israel totters dangerously on the brink of fascism.
Failure Of The Settler Leadership
If the Orange public had had rabbinic and political leadership with a Jewish liberty mentality and Jewish values system, the disengagement would have been relatively easy to stop. But at each of the three crucial junctions of the anti-expulsion struggle – conscientious objection, the struggle on Israel’s highways, and the physical presence of thousands in Gush Katif (Kfar Maimon) – there is a collapse. This collapse is first rabbinic, then political. The motivated multitude of people who came to save Gush Katif finds itself perfidiously led to nowhere. The fate of Gush Katif and Northern Shomron is sealed.
From the IDF reports on the disengagement, we learn that the soldiers who refused to take part in the crime were generally those who “were not under the influence of the rabbis.” It is hard to think of a greater desecration of God’s Name than enlisting the Torah to neutralize an effective struggle against the destruction of Jewish communities in the Land of Israel. But that is exactly what happened in Av, 5765.
(To be continued)
To learn more about Moshe Feiglin and Manhigut Yehudit (Jewish Leadership), or to order Feiglin’s newest book, “The War of Dreams,” visit http://www.jewishisrael.org/.
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