Rebellion and
Re-engagement:
Can
we reconcile our many religious, communal and ethnic
identities with the more modern idea of statehood?
Rebellion:
The
settler rebels have declared a ‘state of war’
against the government of
It
was the political and religious mentors who were
behind the massive infiltration into the Gaza Strip, which did not halt
disengagement but made it more painful; behind the determination to
make life
for the soldiers and policemen involved in disengagement that much more
difficult and distasteful; and in urging settlers caught in last-minute
personal dilemmas to come down on the side of intransigence, to their
eventual
detriment. The pain caused by the settlers has failed to prevent the
disengagement; have they lost more? They once had a considerable base
of
support; have they lost the respect of the majority of Israelis? If so
have
they made it easier rather than harder to close down other settlements?
Diaspora
Orthodoxy may sympathize with the settlers,
but they have rejected this state of war against the elected government
of the
Jewish State. Both the Orthodox Union and the Rabbinical Council of
The
Expulsion:
The
soldiers and police did most of their task with
heart-rending gentleness; they have shown a tolerance in the face of
resistance
that is simply foreign to soldiering. With one hand a soldier grasps
the leg of
a settler being carried to the bus; a second hand is tenderly placed on
the
head to make sure his kippa doesn't fall off. When one fell the soldier
stopped
and picked it up and put it back on his head. Soldiers hug the
extremists
cursing them. Given the passive and active violence incurred the mental
preparation given the evacuating forces was clearly very impressive.
Despite
the noise, trauma and violence they also accomplished the task planned
for six
weeks in one week.
Some
of the residents make a ceremonial tear in their
clothes and the stated the prayer to the eternal Judge, as if in
mourning for a
death, and left. Some on foot, others wish to be carried by the
soldiers so as
not to look submissive. “We will not forget, and we will not forgive."
Maj.
Gen. Yiftah Ron Tal was the top officer Kfar
Darom on Thursday when his soldiers were injured. His son,
daughter-in-law and
grandson were settlers sitting in Shirat Hayam that same morning. He
said "I
think the pain here is not just personal pain, it is general pain, I
feel that
everyone is my son. We are all from the same side in
For
the religious Zionist community, this withdrawal
is a theological disaster; it is an implosion of their mental universe.
The
national fabric of Israelism is being torn; how soon it will be
repaired is
difficult to know.
Some
claim that the Settler movement chose to make
the disengagement as ugly as possible to make further disengagement and
a peace
process impossible. Will they succeed? There will be further
disengagements but
of a smaller scale. It is unlikely that there would be other large
settlements
to be evacuated; the large settlements will remain in Israeli hands,
they are
behind the security fence. The smaller ones west of the security fence
will either
leave voluntarily or be evacuated.
We
have already seen settler violence against
Palestinians, was it provoke Palestinian counter violence? (What is
amazing is
that the Palestinians did not react violently.) The disengagement tone
unfortunately has been set by the extremists. Given that the Yesha
Council knows
Sharon and his ‘bulldozer’ tactics they must have known that could not
stop
him. Will
The
rift between the upholders of a democratic
Are
the Yesha leaders trying to generate a messianic
and more religious
The
Re-engagement:
Some
begun even before the disengagement ended.
Rabbi
Yuval Cherlow, head of one hesder yeshiva
(students who study and accept Army service) of Petah Tikvah said we
must ‘stop
speaking in terms of absolute right and start seeking the widest
possible
national consensus on the important issues, including the Land of
Israel, the
Jewish people and Jewish identity.’ After the disengagement he stated
the need
to consider that perhaps the validity of the redemption narrative
itself needs
to be reassessed. "We cannot allow
ourselves to view reality as another `complication' in the process of
redemption, as something that we didn't succeed in and that we'll
surely
succeed in the next time. We need to reexamine the basic assumptions."
Otniel
Schneller, who served for four years as the
secretary-general of Yesha said the national religious community must
learn
some lessons from disengagement. It must expand its agenda to include
more than
just the question of the
A
week after the disengagement Rabbi Haim Druckman,
the head of the Bnei Akiva yeshivot and a major disengagement foe drew
the
conclusion that "a bad government of
Aviezer
Ravitzky, an Orthodox Professor of Jewish
Thought at the
Rabbi
Rafi Peretz anti the disengagement from the settlement
of Atzmona stated “My left hand doesn't fight my right". Rabbi Aharon
Lichtenstein
recently stated "one has to obey every letter of the Bible, but also
has
to obey every letter of the law of the land" (quoted by Hirsch Goodman
in
What
the disengagement proved is that the State of