Posted on 08/31/2005 7:23:10 AM PDT by SJackson
An army of twenty public relations professionals sold a self-serving message that was (gullibly?) bought hook, line and sinker
In the long span of Jewish history, the uprooting of 8,500 Jews from Gaza will not rank as one of the worst tragedies, though it was unique in that those doing the uprooting were themselves Jews. This was not 1492 and the expulsion from Spain or the Holocaust. And the attempts by some in the settler community to appropriate symbols of those earlier tragedies — yellow Jewish stars, concentration camp uniforms — and by implication, and sometimes explicitly, to cast the soldiers executing the evacuation orders in the role of Hitler's S.S. troops, only infuriated secular Israelis.
Yet if the expulsion from Gaza was not one of the worst tragedies in Jewish history, the trauma inflicted on the Gaza residents and indeed on the entire national religious community, is nevertheless overwhelming. Rarely has a democratically elected government treated a part of its own population so harshly.
The loss for those uprooted from their homes took place on many levels — personal, communal, theological, and sociological. The faith in the imminent redemptive process that has animated the national religious community since Israel's miraculous expansion into the Jewish people's historic heartland in 1967 has now suffered an immense blow.
(Excerpt) Read more at jewishworldreview.com ...
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Not only have the Gaza settlers witnessed the destruction of their lives' work, they are without any clue as to what the future holds for them. An army of twenty public relations professionals working for SELA, the body charged with overseeing arrangements with those uprooted from Gaza, has skillfully spread the message in Israel and abroad that all the settlers walked out of Gaza with checks for hundreds of thousands of dollars, an amount sufficient to reestablish themselves anywhere in Israel.
That is a seriously distorted picture. Those who were renting homes are entitled to only modest checks based on the number of years living there. Most of those were teachers or otherwise employed by the Gush Katif Regional Council, and now have neither homes nor jobs. Even those who had large homes — in many cases 250 square meters or more — with lawns and gardens, will, in the best case, be relocated to caravans of 60-90 square meters, for the next two to three years. Those caravans have no room for their ovens or refrigerators, which will be stored for years on Negev army bases, in containers where the internal temperatures are estimated to reach close to 200 degrees Fahrenheit. Far worse, from their point of view, there is no room for their Shabbes (Sabbath) tables or their seforim, holy books. It will be a long time before they can again host for Shabbes their married children and grandchildren, who, in many cases, were living right next door until last week.
But the image of the generously compensated settlers misses the point in a far more fundamental way. They never wanted the checks in the first place. The idea of providing checks and leaving the former residents of the Gaza Strip to make their own arrangements was to make life easier for the government.
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The Gaza Strip settlements were not suburban housing developments; they were faith communities of people animated by a shared vision and depth of commitment. Together they built lush, verdant communities out of the sand dunes, and together they mourned many sons and daughters killed in battle and terrorist attacks. Many of the younger generation have never known any other home. And their most fervent wish was that they could remain together.
Those hopes, too, now appear dashed. According to Yitzchak Meron, an attorney with the Legal Forum, less than ten per cent of the Gaza settlers know what their final housing solutions will be. The largest site planned for the refugees on the Nitzanim sand dunes south of Askelon will hold at most 300 (of the 1500 families uprooted from Gaza), and likely take 3 years to complete. In addition, the government inserted a contract clause that if it does not secure all the necessary permits by the end of the year, the whole deal can be cancelled.
Worse, no more than one-third of those removed from their homes even have temporary housing solutions. The government purchased less than 500 caravans all total, and has explicitly said that it will purchase no more.
As of the start of the evacuation, SELA had procured only a thousand hotel rooms around the country for 1,000 families, many of them very large, with no place to go. Only at the last minute, did it scramble to come up with another 1,500 rooms. The exiles from Gaza were shepherded onto busses with no idea where they were going, and, in many cases, when they arrived, they were told that there were no rooms for them. Even at the first stage, the different communities were split up. Residents of Netzarim, for instance, are now housed in eight different hotels in Jerusalem.
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With the school year about to begin, parents have no idea where their children will be attending school. Even if the original ten day stays granted by SELA are extended, families will have to move a number of times in coming months, as the hotels fill up for the Yom Tovim. Those groups that found places for themselves in different dormitories around the country will also have to be relocated at the end of summer vacation. Psychologists have said that each of these moves is a separate trauma for the families already traumatized by the loss of their homes, support groups, and entire way of life.
The recitation of these heart-wrenching facts requires no explanation. Jews must know when other Jews are suffering. And particularly so those who believe in the uniqueness of every Jew and our common mission from Sinai.
I'm sad for them but their predicament is far overshadowed by the situation in New Orleans.
They are both historical events and there is bandwidth here to discuss both.
"I'm sad for them but their predicament is far overshadowed by the situation in New Orleans."
Which may be overshadowed by the situation in Biloxi.
Why did you even comment on this thread?
Should posts on no subjects other than the hurricane be allowed? The world didn't stop.
This is tragic on so many levels, but those settlements were a gamble. They knew from the start that some in the govt. believed Gaza settlements to be illegal. Not Sharon, at first, but something changed his mind. I suspect it was Uncle Sam and the 'roadmap to peace'. All they can do is pick up the pieces and go on, and Israeli's are up to any challenge.
Warning! This is a high-volume ping list.
The rest of the world didn't stop because of Katrina.
Stay on the hurricane threads if that is the most important thing to you.
The Gaza situation is a government-caused disaster.
The government created this class of homeless people, and now the government has to deal with them, not wash its hands of them. What should they do, blow up people on buses and in pizza parlors to show how "hopeless" and "desperate" they are?
They will. Now, can we make the Negev bloom?
"though it was unique in that those doing the uprooting were themselves Jews."
Not true. Jewish setllers were forcibly evacuated from Sinai by Israeli army and police under a scheme masterminded by another devout Christian, James Earl Carter.
New Orleans? They have been overshadowed by Cindy Sheehan for a month now. What is your point?
This is more tragic than you may think and to most of the settlers this was not a gamble, but a patriotic duty.
Most people believe that these settlements were just a way for Israel to colonize areas in order that they might have a claim to the land. While this is true in part, the major reason for the settlements were the defense and security of the country itself. Most of these settlements are not located in areas ideal for habitation, but are instead located in places that overlook Israel and are key to the countries defense. Settling these positions took away from their enemies key points of attack.
Instead of putting the military in these locations, Israel instead chose to settle them with people that would be the eyes ears and first line of defense of the country. They convinced the settlers that it was the greatest patriotic act to put themselves in harms way in these settlements so that the rest of the country might be safer.
Only the most patriotic Israelis moved into these settlements. Willing for themselves and their families to be shot at, harassed and murdered, that Israel might be safer. Now the same government that asked for their sacrifices has abandoned them for public opinion. It is only for appearances that these settlers are being moved. For even though their houses are being razed to the ground, this land is not being given back to the Palestinians, but instead will now be controlled by the Israeli military.
Only the most patriotic Israelis moved into these settlements. Willing for themselves and their families to be shot at, harassed and murdered, that Israel might be safer.How, precisely, did the settlements make Israel safer, in a way that corresponding military bases would not?
Hershey's right....they were a gamble. Not only did some in the Israeli government know the settlements were illegal, but they knew that no government on Earth thought Israel had the right to move civilians into the occupied territories.
No one moved to Gaza or the West Bank not knowing this was likely to happen someday.
-Eric
My heart is broken for them. They settled there with great risk to themselves and this is how their country rewards them .
I just heard that the government says that other areas need to be "returned" as well and other settlements in other areas disbanded.
Does this man think that he can ever satisfy them? What a fool ! He can not make his last stand at Jerusalem and expect them or the world community to reward this cowardly approach.
They will simply be told look you gave them everything else, so why not this too?
God gave them this land in 6 days , there is biblical significance to that.
"It took just 12 days from completion of Israel's withdrawal from Gaza before rockets started raining down on the Western Negev area from the now-unoccupied territory."
Ping
How, precisely, did the settlements make Israel saferIt's the PA's responsibility to deal with that just as much as it's the IDF's responsibility to defend against it. Until the Palis prove they can handle this responsibility, as well as others incumbent on a real government, Israel should not withdraw its military from any additional occupied territories."It took just 12 days from completion of Israel's withdrawal from Gaza before rockets started raining down on the Western Negev area from the now-unoccupied territory."
Nevertheless, this did not answer my question. The settlements did not make Israel safer. Military occupation of the territories did.
-Eric
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