Posted on 09/11/2001 4:59:30 AM PDT by Israel
Before leaving her house each morning, Yaffa Hazut makes sure that it is in perfect order. Everything is dusted, all the washing folded and the dishes put away. Her reason: When visitors come to pay their respects during shiva (traditional seven days of mourning) following her death, they will leave with the favorable impression that she kept an orderly home.
When Esther Karash leaves her home in the morning, she never fails to give her children a long and emotional farewell. Uncertain whether she will return, she is anxious that her final words will a have lasting impact on those she loves.
These women are not politicians, army personnel or guerilla fighters. They are housewives and working mothers, living in Judea, Samaria and Gaza settlements and struggling to live normal lives under abnormal conditions. Despite the regular threat to their lives, they have no intention of moving or changing their daily routines.
How life continues its consistent schedule, as the roads surrounding settlements in Judea, Samaria and Gush Katif have turned into intermittent death traps for their Israeli residents, may, years hence, become the stuff of legend. In spite of the fatalism that results when relatives and friends die, the continuing terror has not only failed to shake the resolve of most of the settlers to follow normal life patterns, but has forged a consensus among these embattled people that under no circumstances can Yasser Arafat be allowed to win a psychological or moral victory.
Such stoicism is vital to the success of the on-going daily struggle taking place not just in the territories, but throughout Israel. Arafat´s low-level war is aimed at disrupting the lives of Israelis and creating so much emotional distress that there will be an inevitable mass outcry for the abandonment of settlements and the surrender of East Jerusalem.
His method is not new. Since the earliest days of the Yishuv (Jewish settlement) at the beginning of the 20th Century, attrition became the preferred technique among the Arabs for discouraging Jewish settlement and immigration. It almost always failed. The Zionist response was to strengthen the presence of settlements, by building stronger communities and ensuring safety through deterrence.
Yet this time around there is evidence in certain sectors of Israeli society that the Arab methodology is meeting with some success. The left wing-dominated media is riven with opinion pieces and editorials that call for abandonment of certain settlements and complete separation from the Palestinians. This, they claim, will not only save lives, but will go a long way to meeting Palestinian demands and bringing about a cease-fire.
They couldn´t be more wrong. The Israeli withdrawal from Lebanon in May 2000, carried out so hurriedly that Israeli weapons, armaments and even soldiers´ personal belongings fell into the hands of Hizbullah, was regarded by the entire Arab world as an Israeli rout. It gave the unquestionable impetus for the Palestinians´ armed rebellion four months later. In more recent months we have witnessed how the IDF´s occupation and then sudden retreat from such Arab towns as Jenin, Beit Jala and certain Gazan communities were celebrated as victories by the Palestinians - giving sustenance to the hopeless delusion that the Israelis can and will be defeated.
Similarly, even a limited abandonment of some of the more far flung and isolated settlements will not be interpreted by the Palestinians as a signal of peaceful intentions, but of weakness and evidence of further moral collapse. Nor will it save lives. Spurred on by their "victories", the Palestinian leadership will only intensify their attacks on existing settlements and will have no hesitation in bringing their sniper warfare into the heart of Israel itself.
"Modern warfare," the military historian John Keegan has written, "has become as much a contest of civilian will and morale, as the clash of military force." These words should certainly strike a chord in those communities absorbing the shock of death, injury and property damage with far greater regularity than anyone else in Israel had anticipated.
For this reason women such as Raphaella Segal, Yaffa Hazut and Esther Karash - and thousands of men and women like them - should not be regarded as obstacles to peace or as hapless sitting ducks. They are instead front line combatants whose heroism consists of answering Yasser Arafat´s terrorism with a steeled commitment to normalcy. While the army fights the military battle, their role in the psychological war should never be understated. They display an Israeli resolve that Arafat could not have expected and for which he may have no answer.
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Every Christian should support them: You were grafted into them, not they into you; They are the root, but you are acting like one who should be discarded.
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