Posted on 05/05/2005 5:17:06 AM PDT by SJackson
Gush Katif settlers who want to destroy their homes prior to their eviction should be entitled to do so. No government official has the moral or legal right to tell them what to do with their private property, the splendid homes or flourishing greenhouses they have owned for 30 years.
The technocrats engaged in the uprooting of thousands of Jews will immediately be outraged and cry out that the settlers must do with their property what the government decides, since the government is awarding them compensation in the form of alternative accommodation and land for agriculture.
But this is a false argument, put forward by those who are insensitive to the plight of the settlers: the Ministry of Justice, the Supreme Court and the bureaucracy. The compensation specified in the evacuation and compensation law is for the personal injustice and suffering being caused to the settlers. After all, they were prepared to remain in their homes for generations, as demonstrated by their courageous and sacrificing stand, mainly in the last four years of this unfinished war.
The moment the government declares it is uprooting more than 20 settlements – a population exceeding 8,000 – for the sake of "security and peace" for all of Israel and its Jews, the compensation is for the eviction, whose pain cannot be measured in financial terms. This is not a situation of "a willing buyer from a willing seller," as is usual when selling property.
Consequently the cabinet's renewed discussion about what to do with the settlers' property – after it decided in summer 2004 that the homes would be destroyed – is very strange. It is an argument held in the absence of the real owners, the wretched settlers, on whom the government is bringing this earthquake.
The lawyers, profit-seekers and publicity seekers, those generals who have taken on the role of peace lover and argue that the settlers' property should be handed over to the Palestinians from the Gaza Strip, ought all to consider how they themselves would act if the planned disaster were to be visited upon their own magnificent villas located in the country's prestigious areas.
This hypocrisy is exemplified by Deputy Prime Minister Shimon Peres who, in this week's cabinet meeting, argued that the property should be handed over to the Palestinians for use as recreational villages for the Palestinians.
This may well be naivete, or the political blindness the 1994 Nobel Peace Prize recipient has long displayed. It was Peres, after all, who brought the current, terrible and ongoing war to Israel.
It was, therefore, a good thing that Finance Minister Binyamin Netanyahu put Peres in his place by telling him, scornfully, that following his advice would turn Gush Katif into a summer camp for Hamas and a prize for terrorism. Netanyahu called for the destruction of everything, as stated in the original government decision of 2004.
It is true that the original decision was made while Yasser Arafat was driving Palestinian terrorism and the disengagement plan was presented as a unilateral step. However, Mahmoud Abbas has done nothing to halt the terrorism, and in fact arms are continuing to be smuggled through numerous tunnels in preparation for the next round.
In light of the increasing deterioration of the dubious Palestinian "quiet," it is doubtful that Palestinian fire won't increase as the date of the uprooting approaches. Consequently, in addition to not only the right, but also the obligation, of the settlers to destroy their homes, the government has the obligation to carry out its original decision. If the homes are abandoned and/or handed over to the Palestinians, the latter will see it as confirmation of their belief that terrorism pays off and that they are on the right road in a war that will eventually return them to Jaffa, Haifa, Acre and Jerusalem.
Israel's momentary profit from being represented in the world media as a peace lover giving the keys of Jewish displaced persons' homes to the Palestinians will be swallowed up by a long-term loss: unambiguous encouragement of the enemy to continue its war against the kibbutzim in the region, against Ashkelon and Ashdod, from the Gaza Strip, and against the heart of Israel from Judea and Samaria.
Ariel Sharon, as defense minister, destroyed the Yamit settlements in 1982 with government approval because he didn't want Egyptian president Anwar Sadat, with whom Menachem Begin had signed a peace agreement, to implement his program to transfer between half a million and a million Egyptians to a region close to the overcrowded Gaza Strip. You don't need a great deal of imagination to realize how terrible Israel's situation would be if another two million Egyptians were living there today. If it was right then, during the withdrawal from Sinai, after signing a peace agreement with Egypt, it is even more right to follow that path today in the Gaza Strip, in the face of Hamas's and Islamic Jihad's plans to continue the war.
So – destroy it all!
But wait until the Palis move in...then raze it.
Bulldoze everything that cannot be carted off and used in the resettling of these people.
IMHO I think they are going in the wrong direction. I would move the Israeli settlements more into Gaza, build a wall there and then give whatever is left back to Egypt.
Whatever Israel gives the Palestinians will never be enough. They're a bottomless pit.
Looks like if the FR “goons” didn’t exist, you’d have no reason to live.
Buh Bye
Destroy it all. Salt the earth.
Apparently the handicap you are referring to is a mental rather than physical disability.
But that's what they want! They want the Israelis to go through the trouble and expense of tearing everything down and cleaning it up and then they expect(and will get, sadly)that some UN or NGO will build something more to their liking free of charge. No! Let the Israelis haul everything away that has the slightest value and leave it like it is. Don't go to one more bit of effort for them. They can use the greenhouses as refugee camps or whatever. It will all fall to pieces anyway pretty soon with no maintenence.
Pistols or swords?
It those homes at 30 years old their probably not in tip top shape - leave em. It will only cost more to build new.
And you are also correct that the Palis would like to have everything cleaned off the land for free, and then have UN and EU grants build them new concrete apartment buildings to Pali specifications. And they will get that UN / EU support too.
But in the end, it SHOULD be up to the individual settlers as to what becomes of their homes. If they feel vindicated by razing a home that is being occupied by the Palis, then they should be allowed to do so. Then leave the pile of debris where it lies and wipe the dust from their feet.
Since the violence has not stopped, there should be NO withdrawl... that said, I believe if they are going to withdraw, they should leave everything intact. It shows a spitefulness to destroy everything (not that it's not deserved) and if they are withdrawing to promote peace, spitefullness is not a way to promote peace.(again, not that I think they can ever achieve peace because the bible says they can't and the situation confirms it..., but if they are going to show good faith and promote peace, they need to do everything they can to promote it then let the escallation of violence after they withdraw show the world no matter what they do there will never be peace so they don't have to keep wasting time and energy trying...(kind of like how after 8 years of clinton there was NO prescription drug program, then when bush pushed one through, all they could do afterwards was complain it wasn't enough. That should have shown all republicans that no matter what they do they cannot make the liberals happy so QUIT TRYING!!!))
They can have the land. Nothing grows there. All the produce grown in Gaza is raised in hydroponic greenhouses.
FRmail me to be added or removed from this Judaic/pro-Israel ping list.
WARNING: This is a high volume ping list
Can you please take me off the middle east Ping list? I like keeping up with news from Israel but I get so many pings from you guys that it's impossible for me to see my other comments.
I thought it was because they could film the destruction and use it for propaganda; e.g., "look at how the evil JOOOOOOOZ destroy houses rather than let them be used by poor oppressed Palestinians!" (I realize that these goals are not mutually exclusive.)
The Arab dietary staples seem to be hummus, lies and bull****.
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