Ideas for Preparations for Gov't Plans to Destroy Outposts

www.arutzsheva.net ^ | 14:46 Jun 13, '06 / 17 Sivan 5766 | Hillel Fendel

[Esther Ruth]

Ideas for Preparations for Gov't Plans to Destroy Outposts 14:46 Jun 13, '06 / 17 Sivan 5766 by Hillel Fendel

The B'Sheva weekly newspaper asked several public figures how the Yesha-supportive public should prepare for the government's plans to uproot outposts. Excerpts:

Nadia Matar, a resident of Yesha - Gush Etzion, south of Jerusalem - and the co-founder, with her mother-in-law Ruth Matar, of the Women in Green activist organization:

"We must understand that we, the Jewish Camp, find ourselves in a war with an internal enemy, the Hellenist Camp, which has taken over all the centers of power in the country and has joined up with the external enemy, and whose entire objective is to liquidate the Jewish character of the State of Israel and turn it into a 'state of all its citizens.'

"The first stage in their war against the Jewish Camp is to liquidate the settlement enterprise in Yesha. In the first battle - Gush Katif and northern Shomron - they won. Instead of fighting back and protecting the Land of Israel like a lioness for its cubs, the Jewish Camp responded with restraint and by embracing the executioner. Now comes the second stage of the campaign: the convergence plan, i.e., the liquidation of the Jewish presence in Judea and Samaria.

"Since it is not easy to begin by uprooting a large and stable community, the internal enemy wants to start with the outposts. If they find it to be easy, this will weaken our camp. But if for each outpost there is a fight that is even stronger than what happened in Amona - the regime will think twice before daring to touch our communities.

"So how should we prepare? It's very simple. Precisely the same way the hareidim would prepare if the government was planning to destroy their yeshivot and synagogues; or the way the Arabs would prepare if the government was preparing to destroy a mosque; or the way any American would prepare if the President would have gone crazy and said, after 9/11, that he was planning to evacuate all American citizens from Brooklyn in order to transfer the area to Al-Qaeda."

Geulah Hershkovitz, a resident of Ofrah in Samaria. Her husband Aryeh was murdered by terrorists in January 2001, and her son Assaf was murdered by terrorists three months later; the Givat Assaf outpost was built between Beit El and Ofrah in his memory:

"First of all, a body must be formed to track the illegal construction throughout the Arab sector, especially in the Negev, and to appeal to the Supreme Court against every violation. This must make a media racket, just like the left does.

"Secondly, as one believes that G-d gave us the Land of Israel as a gift, [I say that] gifts are not returned! Especially one that we paid for with so much blood. In a place where a Jew is murdered because he is Jewish, we must never forget; a community must be built and flourish and grow in the place where a Jew's growth and flourishing was stopped by the murderers. In cities, there is no physical option to build a community in this manner, but outposts that have already been built in memory of precious Jews who were murdered in this way, we cannot allow ourselves to think of uprooting and destruction.

"If the government decides otherwise, we will have to prepare ourselves with large forces to protect what already exists, of course without violence, but with dialogue and explaining. Whoever has legs must come to an outpost threatened with uprooting. When large numbers come out, they must talk with the soldiers there and persuade them not to take part in the act. The decision-makers must be invited to the area, and they will hear from me and others why we cannot leave the place. Givat Assaf is a strategic point for the defense of Israel, and this has been ascertained with senior army officials.

"If this too does not work, we won't fight the army, because the army is the people. Arik Sharon promised me personally that in place of Givat Assaf, an army camp will remain. If we can't persuade the army, perhaps it would be worth it to have an army camp there named Machaneh (Camp) Assaf."

Avi Rath, columnist and educator: "The same way we prepare for every important juncture in our history, that is what we must do now: with gifts, prayer, and war preparations [as the Patriarch Jacob did for his encounter with his brother Esau], within the boundaries of Jewish law, ethics, responsibility and logic.

"We must prepare with repentance, prayer, and charity, and with real unity. We must prepare with very much strength, and with exactly the same measure of humility. We remember that G-d hates the arrogant of all types and camps. We prepare and remember that there is also a tomorrow, and that our Father in Heaven is allowed to tell us No, even if we have tried hard and prayed.

"We prepare with great zeal, and with exactly the same measure of love. We prepare for the struggle for the outpost, and we remember that the real battle is for the soul and heart, for the identity and the meaning, for the culture and the Torah, for the education and the faith.

"We remember that there are no shortcuts in life... We remember that truth will win out in the end, even if sometimes it appears that it is momentarily losing... We remember that with all due respect to ourselves and to our efforts, in the end - and in the beginning - there is a master to the universe. We remember that from every crisis, it is possible to be rebuilt, and that those who sow with tears, reap in joy. We remember the promise that 'not one word of Your promises will return unfulfilled.' And we remember to thank G-d that we are meriting to fight for an outpost in the Land of Israel, and not for a potato peel in a musty attic in the Warsaw Ghetto."

Published: 13:45 June 13, 2006 Last Update: 14:46 June 13, 2006

[SJackson]

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