Just damn.
If you want on the list, FReepmail me. This IS a high-volume PING list...
Posted on 08/17/2005 9:14:11 PM PDT by Nachum
NEVE DEKALIM, Gaza Strip - Jewish settlers sobbed and screamed, some of them ripping their shirts in mourning, as Israeli troops dragged them from homes and synagogues Wednesday — the beginning of the end of Israel's 38-year occupation of the Gaza Strip.
In the West Bank, a settler killed four Palestinian laborers in a shooting rampage, which Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon denounced as a twisted act of "Jewish terror" designed to stop the historic pullout.
Despite the escalation of Israeli-Palestinian tensions, the eviction of die-hard settlers and their nationalist supporters who flooded into Gaza in recent weeks moved forward — with anguish, anger and tears, but more swiftly and smoothly than anyone anticipated.
A convoy left before dawn Thursday, beginning the second day of the forcible evacuation. Troops entered the settlement of Kfar Darom, an extremist center where up to 2,000 settlers and backers have barricaded themselves in with concrete blocks, barbed wire and other barriers.
Sharon proposed his "disengagement plan" two years ago to ease Israel's security burden and help preserve the country's Jewish character by placing Gaza's 1.3 million Palestinians outside Israeli boundaries. Under the plan, Israel will remove all 21 settlements from Gaza and four from the West Bank — the first time it has removed veteran settlements from either area.
Some 14,000 unarmed Israeli soldiers and police entered six settlements throughout Wednesday, forcibly evicting residents who refused to leave voluntarily. According to the army, 1,842 people were evacuated Wednesday. Of 1,600 families in Gaza, only 600 remained by the end of the day.
Soldiers and settlers clashed, argued and hugged, reflecting intense and mixed emotions at the uprooting of settlers whose government years ago encouraged them to move to Gaza for the sake of Israel's security.
"It's impossible to watch this ... without tears in the eyes," Sharon said, but he insisted the pullout would make Israel safer.
Palestinian militants said they would refrain from retaliating for the West Bank shooting. Still, a mortar shell fell near Israeli soldiers in Gaza, without causing casualties, and Palestinian youngsters threw stones at an Israeli tank outside Neve Dekalim, Gaza's largest Jewish settlement. The tank crew responded with tear gas and fired shells into the sand.
Also, Israeli troops found a 22-pound explosives belt hidden in a water tank during a raid on the Palestinian town of Mawasi, near a Gaza settlement. Four Palestinians were arrested, the army said.
The day was filled with heart-rending scenes as troops carried settlers out of homes, synagogues, even nursery schools.
Soldiers joined anti-withdrawal protesters in prayer before evicting them. An elderly rabbi hugged a Torah scroll as he was escorted away. A young man read from his prayer book as soldiers carried him to a bus. Teenagers burned tires in streets in last acts of defiance.
Under a willow tree at a children's nursery, mothers clutched babies as troops loaded diapers and toys onto buses for evacuation.
A soldier with tears in her eyes held a toddler in her arms, gave him some candy and implored, "Where is his mother?" Another soldier waved away flies from a toddler lying in a stroller.
By evening, five of the six settlements that troops entered in the morning were cleared, with resisters remaining only in Neve Dekalim — for months the epicenter of resistance.
Palestinian militants are portraying the pullout as a victory for their suicide bombings and rocket attacks. Some fear militants will resume bloodshed once Israel's Gaza withdrawal is complete.
Israelis and Palestinians have been cooperating to prevent militant violence during the pullout, though lately Jewish extremists have caused the most concern. Wednesday's attack was the second on Palestinians by Israelis in two weeks. On Aug. 4, a 19-year-old Israeli deserter opened fire on a bus, killing four Israeli Arabs.
Sharon denounced the West Bank shooting as "an act of Jewish terror against innocent Palestinians out of twisted thinking." Still, the prime minister was unlikely to allow the incident to derail the pullout — an operation on which he has staked his political career.
The gunman, identified as Asher Weisgan, 40, from the West Bank settlement of Shvut Rahel, was a driver who transported Palestinian laborers to the industrial zone of the nearby settlement of Shilo every day. At the end of the work day, he picked up the workers and briefly stopped at a security post.
He got out of his car, seized the weapon from the guard at knifepoint and fired from close range on two workers in his vehicle. He kept shooting, killing a third worker and wounding two others outside the car. One of them died later.
Hamas said it would not immediately retaliate to enable the Gaza pullout to proceed.
"But if these crimes continue, factions will not stand by silently," said spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri
Several hundred settlers broke out of Kfar Darom, a settlement due to be evacuated in the next few days, pushed large cinderblocks off a bridge and tried to burn down an Arab house, witnesses said. Palestinians threw stones at the settlers until Israeli troops arrived, doused the fire and pushed the settlers back into the settlement.
In general, however, the evictions were peaceful. While settlers routinely carry weapons, they displayed none when the columns of soldiers and police marched into their communities.
Terje Roed-Larsen, who spent 12 years trying to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict on behalf of the United Nations, praised Sharon for keeping the promise he made nearly two years ago.
"However, if this is the first step and the last step, I'm afraid that within months we will be back into a situation where violence and terrorism will preavail again and the living conditions of the citizens of Gaza will continue to deteriorate," Roed-Larsen, who stepped down in December as the U.N.'s top Mideast envoy, warned in an interview.
The day's worst act of protest was the self-immolation of a 54-year-old woman from the West Bank at a police roadblock in southern Israel. She suffered life-threatening burns on 70 percent of her body, police and hospital officials said.
In Neve Dekalim, a man stood before a line of soldiers and held up his daughter, about 10 years old. "Here. Take her. Expel her. Please take her, you are such a hero," he said, pouring scorn on the troops. The little girl, crying, looked up at the policeman and her father in sad confusion.
___
Associated Press writer Edith M. Lederer contributed to this report from the United Nations.
Anti-Semitic troll alert.What, precisely, did he say that couldn't have appeared in a speech by President Bush or Condoleeza Rice?
-Eric
bush? thinking? oxymoron!My tagline is getting to be prophetic.
-Eric
Jen Griffin understands that most of the protesters are not actual settlers, but people from Israel proper showing support.West Bank settlers, more likely. I'd be willing to bet Hebron is well represented. In fact, if the IDF wanted to pull a fast one and evacuate the Hebron settlements, it might be easier than normal right now.
-Eric
There is no record of the two brother ever fighting or not getting along. INfact there is an account of the two embracing and consoling each other for the loss of their father Abraham.
Since the two came from Abraham, they would be sharing into the same religion as Abraham. that means, pre-judaism.
Now, shoot forward about 400 years... Moses a descendant of Isaac, marries a Descendant of Ishmael... Zapporah the arab priests (Jethro) daughter. According to the Mossaic Law, Jews/hebrews could not marry outside of thier religion, so Mosses would have been breaking the law.
Isaac and Ishmael, brothers to the end. Both would have been Jewish, one Hebrew, the other Arab. They had the same faith at one time. It wasn't until a false prophet clouded this, and put brother against brother... Why? Because there was an outside religion trying to take Jerusalem and used this tactic to do it.
Just damn.
If you want on the list, FReepmail me. This IS a high-volume PING list...
A near equal percentage of Israelis faver the expulsion of Arabs from Gaza, btw.I doubt it. Herut got less than 1% of the vote in the last election.
-Eric
A good analogy. And if they're true to form, we'll be seeing a tantrum of epic proportions soon enough.
My only hope is that the Palis find that the Israelis have razed the area, leaving nothing standing.
Even if the Israelis left everything in perfect condition the Palis would turn it to sh/t in short order.
I think this is heartbreaking. All of these people/families losing their homes....because of barbaric savages (Pali's). Its horrifying. I dont know how Sharon can sleep at night.
Any buildings left standing should be razed to the ground.The Palestinians actually requested that at one point.
-Eric
As I understand all buildings are to be torn down. As a fitting conclusion to the mess of the last few days I would also suggest a generous application of salt spread upon the land.
On a full stomach. Looks like he's gained about 150 lbs in two years. He's approaching a perfect sphere.
Your points are well taken, but the majority represented by its government is responsible for the actions of the rogue minority. The Iraelis have arrested and will prosecute the Isreali protestors who shot Palestinins this week. When have the Palestinians ever pursued, arrested and prosecuted their criminal terrorists? They don't, because the terrorists are idolized and in fact run the show.
"Any buildings left standing should be razed to the ground."
The Palestinians actually requested that at one point.
-Eric
I heard that too. The Israelis should do all in their power to accomdate the wishes of the Palestininans in this regard.
The fractions aren't equal. Not even close, in fact.
Of course not all Palestinians want Israel's destruction, but the percentage is still alarmingly high. Sure, they want peace. .....a peace without an Israel.
" I doubt it. Herut got less than 1% of the vote in the last election."
Logical fallacy in use action. Only Herut members would favor such a thing?
z
Any buildings left standing should be razed to the ground
"The Palestinians actually requested that at one point. "
Unbelievable! Like Dennis Miller said: "Other then then the bombs they strap to their bodies, I have no idea what makes these people tick". Insanity is the norm with these idiots.
Great! Now if the Palesites, including Abbas, believed in a two-state solution, we'd be in business. It takes two to negotiate.
Melanie Hunter, CNSNews.com
Wednesday, June 12, 2002
"More than half of Palestinians not only want the end of Israeli occupation of the West Bank, but the destruction of the nation itself, according to a new poll.
In a poll of 1,179 people in the West Bank and Gaza Strip conducted by Palestinian Jerusalem Media and Communication Center, 51 percent said the goal of the 20-month-old uprisings should extend to "liberating all of historic Palestine," the territory that includes present-day Israel. Only 43 percent said they would be satisfied with the establishment of an independent Palestinian state in the West Bank.
Furthermore, 79 percent expressed support for the revolt in some way, and 68 percent endorsed suicide-homicide bombings against Israelis.
These figures demonstrate an increase in Palestinian hostility to Israel, as a similar poll taken in December revealed that only 48 percent of Palestinians wanted the liberation of all historic Palestine, and 44 percent wanted only the creation of an independent West Bank state. The poll had a margin of error of 3 percent."
Moral lesson: Become a terrorist
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.