Settler leader says 'road map' vote is "national treason"

Jerusalem Post ^ | May. 26, 2003 | THE JERUSALEM POST INTERNET STAFF

[yonif]

Reacting to a poll published Monday in the Yediot Ahronot daily showing that 51 percent of Israelis believed the 'road map' would not lead to an agreement, but 56 percent believed Israel should agree to the plan regardless, former MK and staunch settelement proponent Elyakim Haetzni said supporters of the plan reminded him of Holocaust-era Jews who "willingly boarded those trains believing everything that the Germans told them."

Calling the Cabinet's decision to adopt the internationally backed 'road map' "an act of "national treason" and a "national catastrophe", Haetzni said Sunday's decision was "a historic day in the same sense that the destruction of the Temple was historic".

"The Jews are a people who are very dangerous to themselves. They are a people who have brought Holocausts down on themselves throughout the course of its history," Haetzni said on Israel Radio.

"It is a people that has extraordinary powers of construction, and extraordinary powers of destruction. It builds and destroys, and this is an intrinsic part of Sharon's personality - Sharon is the greatest builder that we have had, and the greatest destroyer. Today he is in a destruction phase," he added.

Haetzni, a Hebron resident and a spokesman of the Yesha Council (Council of Jewish Communities in Judea, Samaria, and the Gaza Strip), vociferously opposes the possibility of evacuating Jewish settlements in the West Bank and Gaza Strip and has said in the past that settlers may resort to physical violence to prevent the handing over of land to the Palestinians.

Reacting to Haetzni's comments, former deputy defense minister MK Dalia Rabin-Pelosoff said Sunday that Haetzni had not changed his extremist views since the assassination of her father, former Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin.

Right-wingers sprayed graffiti on major roads throughout Israel Sunday night, calling the ministers who voted in support of the 'road map' 'traitors" and "sellouts".

[Publicus]

If Israel chooses to give up some settlements, what does the other side give up in exchange?

[ImpeachandRemove]

Where Israel is admirable is in its response to terrorism. The settlements aren't admirable and the settlers say things that are loony.

[ContentiousObjector]

the settlers are squatters, no one owes them anything

[HiTech RedNeck]

They believe that God does, since the place where they squat is part of biblical Zion, even though it's not part of today's secular country of Israel.

Still, this roadmap looks like roadkill to me. The Pallies will never settle down enough to form a stable country. How can they, with rabble rousers constantly whipping up their frenzy?

[ellhow]

If I move into your house because I think that god promised it to me (let's say I'm kooked up like that), what are you going to give me in return for leaving?

[ContentiousObjector]

and my house is in the middle of what was Indian territory for most of the last 10,000 years, does that mean they can pitch a bufflo skin tent in my driveway?

[ellhow]

The fact is that most settlers want to get the hell out of the territories (the minority extremists get all the press). Unfortunately for them, no one wants to buy their house -- especially with Ariel Sharon saying it'll be given up. If the Israeli government started a program to buy back settlers' homes at a good price, then the settlers (bar a few) would go back willingly by themselves.

[HiTech RedNeck]

Isn't Israel socialist to the point that the settlers, when removed, will be guaranteed houses elsewhere?

[ellhow]

Yeah it's plenty socialist. I wonder if anyone here knows what the deal for the settlers removed from the Sinai after the peace treaty with egypt was. Anybody remember/miss those settlements?

[rmlew]

Which settlers want to give up their homes?
Those in Jerusalem or its suburbs know that they will never be expelled by Israel. Only the outlying communities are at risk. Those are home to the true believers.
If Israel forces them to give up the land, then the government should purchase the homes.

[ellhow]

That's quite wrong, lots fo settlers, I'm saying the majority, are there because of the strong finacial subsidies they recieved. Not all of them are religious at all.

[rmlew]

Isn't Israel socialist to the point that the settlers, when removed, will be guaranteed houses elsewhere?

You mean Israel will reimburse property holers for siezing their property? That is socialist, unless one reads the debates surrounding the Bill or Rights. I would suggest that you read the last clause of the Fifth Ammendment to the US Constitution
nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.
Follow the reasoning here. If the US were to cede territory, it would be taking private property for public use (aka a treaty) and compensation would be mandatory. Israel would be doing the same thing. Unless you think the first Congress to be socialist, perhaps you should review your opinions.

[ellhow]

So as long as they are given "just compensation", it could happen in America, correct. IN any case it isn't America, and I think you misunderstood Hitech Redneck.

[rmlew]

That's quite wrong, lots fo settlers, I'm saying the majority, are there because of the strong finacial subsidies they recieved. Not all of them are religious at all.

There are many subsidies (including cheap land) for the communities. These exist specifically because of their precarious position and because the inhabitants and communities are a buffer.
I have cousins who are in three camps:
suburbanites living in the Etzion Block, which will never be given up. (how is it that land owned by Jews became occupied, when Jews live there?)
Religious and Secular Nationalist Jews respectively in Samaria and near the Syrian border.
Finally, moderates living on subsidized housing who cannot afford to move.

[rmlew]

How did I misunderstand Hitech Redneck?
He calls Israel socialist for doing something the Federalists would have supported. Anti-Zionism blinds.

[mysterio]

The Palestinean state should be conditional. Each suicide bombing after the state is recognized should result in a loss of a chunk of land. I bet their government would crack down if they lost land every time a terrorist struck Isreal.

[Publicus]

Who owns the house?