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Posted on 06/14/2005 10:59:41 AM PDT by IAF ThunderPilot
Religious (IAF) F-16 pilot slated to head one of settlement evacuation teams talks to Ynet about the preparations, misgivings, and fears ahead of what is shaping up as one of the most controversial moments in Israel’s history
TEL AVIV – First Lieutenant A. knows this is not the mission he had in mind when he joined the Air Force.
The 22-year-old religious F-16 pilot, whose name cannot be disclosed due to security considerations, will head one of the teams slated to execute the Gaza Strip and northern West Bank pullout this summer. He says he enlisted in the army to fight external enemies, but now finds himself about to be pitted against his own citizens.
“It’s a very difficult mission,” he says, “but a failure to implement the mission would have disastrous implications.”
Fearing settler violence
In an exclusive interview with Ynet, A. talks about the misgivings involved in taking part in one of the most controversial missions the IDF has ever been tasked with.
“The first thing, when I get to the house and the family (to be evacuated,) I will attempt to talk to them as a human being, as a civilian talking to a human being,” he said. “If they’ll be in the middle of breakfast, I’ll leave and go to another house, in the most sensitive manner possible.”
“I will tell them ‘good morning, we came to evacuate you from your home, please leave by yourself’,” A. says.
He knows mere dialogue might not be enough to elicit the hoped-for response, but insists he will do his utmost to attempt to resolve the problem through words.
“We’ll do it in the least painful way,” he says. “If they tie themselves up, we’ll free them and if the resistance will be stronger we won’t be the ones to implement the evacuation, but rather, other forces, mostly the police.”
Although A. says he does not fear for his life despite the prospect of settler violence, he is very concerned about the possibility of settlers opening fire.
“If that happens, I don’t want to think about what will happen after that,” he says. “I really hope the other forces, who will be very skilled, will know how to handle it, because from here the rules of the game are different.”
‘It’s a trauma’
A. says most of the preparation work undertaken by troops slated to take part in the evacuation had been focused on psychological aspects, such as how to remove a baby from a home or separate him for his mother.
“At the end of the day, and that’s the most important thing, my objective is that (the evacuees) come out of this with as little mental damage as possible,” he says. “After all it’s a trauma, for both evacuators and evacuees.”
The pilot also says he realizes his actions during the pullout would be examined very closely.
“We assume the entire country and the world will be looking at us with a magnifying glass,” he says.
There are many questions A. and his crew are grappling with, he says, including how to behave during the evacuation and whether to engage in conduct that would be completely normal under different circumstances.
“Can we smoke, or should we not smoke. Laugh, or not laugh. We’re trying to formulate an answer,” he says. “We’re walking into the unknown, and there will be things we’ll have to deal with on the ground.”
‘Rule of law is more important’
Despite leading rabbis’ edicts against settlement evacuation, the kippa-wearing A. says he never considered following the rabbis’ orders as opposed to the army’s orders, even though the pullout also contradicts his ideological beliefs.
“This is a mission that in one way or another contradicts Zionism,” he says. “I asked myself this question, and answered that there are things more important than settling the land of Israel, namely the people of Israel.”
“This (pullout) puts a question mark on Zionism, but the law, the rule of law, is much more important,” he says. A. also says he assumes his parents and other relatives would do the same if they were in his shoes.
Finally, A. says he believes his team will be able to carry out the mission and evacuate the settlements, despite the pain involved.
“I don’t want to think about what will happen if we don’t succeed,” he said. “If the IDF doesn’t succeed, it’s a great danger for the State of Israel. Also in terms of the rule of law, the enemies around us and our citizens would think there is no democracy, and each person can do what he wishes.”
The pilot says he also asked himself whether he should be the one to execute the evacuation, and the answer was “yes.”
“I will do it. We’ll do it in the best way possible, and particularly in the most sensitive way possible,” he says.
-Eric
"The mobilization of IDF reserve soldiers has already
begun, in preparation for Israel's withdrawal from Gaza
and northern West Bank this summer, a senior IDF officer
said Monday. Addressing the Knesset's Defense and
Foreign Affairs Committee,the senior officer noted that
all of the army's reserve combat units will be called up
for military duty this summer. Reserves have been
mobilized, the officer said, to free up soldiers in
regular service to train for the evacuation. It is the
regular service soldiers who will carry out the actual
evacuation, while reservists take over their standard
duties."
-Jerusalem Post, June 5,2005.
What happens when a government that is democratic attacks its
own citizens? Americans are used to Warsaw Pact dictatorships,
Third World dictators, and factions in the former YugoNam doing
such things - but what happens when an elected government actually
uses its own military to attack its own people?
At some - yet unannounced - date this summer, the eyes of both
foreign elites and dissidents the world over will be on Israel. As
of last week, basically Israel's government put its plans to force
its own citizens out of a significant part of its own territory -
Gaza - on the same level as when Israel has been in its various
wars with Arab nations and Palestinian terrorists.
The eyes of governing classes abroad will - in many ways - be
less on what Israel's government does. Rather, they will be on
what Israelis do when their own government attacks them. What will
interest the elites abroad most is whether Israelis will meekly
surrender when they are attacked by their own government - or
whether they revolt like the Palestinians do when Israel's forces
attack them.
The reservist mobilization Israel's government is doing is
unprecedented - other than, of course, to fight Arab enemies in
all-out wars. There is no way of spinning the Israeli government's
plan as anything short of low-level war on Israelis. In fact, the
entire forced unilateral evacuation of Israeli citizens from
Israeli territory would be seen as "ethnic cleansing" - if it was
being done in Bosnia by the Serbs.
Most Americans cannot understand what the total reserve callup
means in Israel. It has a far different meaning than here - as
almost all Israeli adult men are in the reserves until middle age.
It thus means an elected government is dragooning a large portion
of its citizens into fighting another large portion.
Israel's "mainstream" media openly says that guns of settlers
will be confiscated - supposedly to be returned - before the forced
removal of the settlers. To understand what this means, understand
that Israel's government has never even tried to make Palestinians
in Gaza and the West Bank give up their guns.
Make no mistake about it, this isn't about Israel's government
just deciding to pull out of the worthless Gaza Strip or even also
the northern West Bank. If it were just about that, all that the
Israeli government would have had to do is tell its citizens there
that Israel was turning those areas over to the Palestinians - and
that they could either leave for Israeli-held territory beforehand
or live under Palestinian rule after. This is about an elected government
declaring war on its own citizens.
Granted, little of the coming Israeli conflict is analogizable
to larger nations - tactically, strategically, or politically.
Israel is a New Jersey-size nation - with a total population half
that of New York City. It's a garrison state where most of the men
are soldiers, active or reserve.
But will the Israelis being dispossessed and disarmed by their
own democratic government in the largest ethnic cleansing operation
by any elected government surrender meekly - or revolt? The whole
world is watching.
I'll be following this.
The Iraeli government has sold out its people. What will the people do?
We will face a similar dillema here in three to five years.
Imagine something like this happening in America. What will you do, what will you do?
We'll all know soon enough.
It always help to be religious if you're flying F-16s.
No, we won't.
Keep praying for the Israelis, and for Sharon to push for and get what he wants in exchange for this upheaval.
I agree with Alan Dershowitz's comment last week about the Gaza settlers. Israel should treat them as heroes. Their government wanted them to settle the land and help secure the border with Egypt (like Israelis who have moved to the Golan Heights), and now the government wants them to evacuate.
http://www.cfr.org/pub7914/press_release/trinational_call_for_a_north_american_economic_and_security_community_by_2010.php
http://www.cfr.org/pub8104/press_release/task_force_urges_measures_to_strengthen_north_american_competitiveness_expand_trade_ensure_border_security.php
It's all coming together.
Of course it was inevitable since the first land was bought from the Arabs. Jihad demands that ALL "infidels" be slaughtered.
Even you.
For once, words fail me! Ping!
At least he is onlly 22. Hopefully won''t leave a widow or too many orphans.
Seems like someone forgot.
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