Destroy it all--Turn the homes of Gaza settlers over to the Palestinians? Never!

Jerusalem Post ^ | 5-6-05 | URI DAN

[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!

[Evolution]

If the government is compensating the settlers then the government owns the houses and facilities, and can do with it as they wish. If the settlers want to burn the houses then fore go the compensation and flame away.

The Settlers dont have a choice they are being forced to leave , so therefore they should be allowed to destroy their homes!

[anotherview]

Finance Minister Netanyahu, as is often the case, gets this right. The Palestinians want an end to occupation. Fine, since we're giving them just that we should do a proper job of it. Give them precisely what they say they want and remove all sign of the Israeli presence: the homes, the crops in the fields, the greenhouses, everything.... Not a thing should be left standing. See, no more occupation! It was barren desert before we came and we'll give barren desert back, precisely as you have demanded.

Perhaps the Palestinians will learn to be careful of what they demand next time. Nah! Won't happen.

Oh, and yes, Peres is terminally naive and I sometimes wonder if he is suffering from a touch of senility. He's 82 now and is entitled to a very nice, long, peaceful retirement from Israeli politics. We'll all be better off when that happens.

[SJackson]

Give them precisely what they say they want and remove all sign of the Israeli presence: the homes, the crops in the fields, the greenhouses, everything.... Not a thing should be left standing.

I'd tend to agree. You'll see images of the destruction internationally, but Israel isn't going to get any good publicity out of the withdrawl anyway.

It seems to me that the fact that the PA want not only homes destroyed, but commercial facilities as well, and industrial parks shut down, argues definitively against their ability to manage a viable "state".