This was Sharon's answer to continuing terrorism. The unilateral Israeli move to basically do what the terrorists were demanding – uproot Jewish homes in Israel.
The confusion generated by Sharon's move has been all-consuming. It has already led to splits in two political parties, and threatens to rend asunder Sharon's own Likud party – until now the most powerful party in Israel. And still, no one can figure out why. But what's even worse – no one can figure out how to stop this insane measure from being implemented.
In all this time, there has been a distinct lack of any meaningful response from those who should be defending the Land of Israel from such a nemesis. The Likud's elected Members of Knesset stand powerless in the face of Sharon's apparent omnipotence, unable to implement the policies decided upon by the party's Central Committee or the votes of its membership. Not one single Likud Member of Knesset deserves to remain in the Knesset if they cannot find the strength to uphold their party's platform against Disengagement, which has been reinforced by a poll of all party members held in May 2004.
And what is still more worrying is that the parties to the right of the Likud cannot find the strength to stop the plan. The National Religious Party, for all the noise its leaders make about opposing the plan, remained in the government far too long for them to be taken seriously by their supporters, and the machinations that led to the resignations of party leader and one-time savior Effi Eitam, and of elder statesman Yitzchak Levy, should give any prospective NRP voter cause to think about whether they should continue to support such an ideologically bereft group.
The National Union has proven to be very ineffective in its opposition to the plan. While they remain ideologically committed to their voters and their platform, they have done nothing concrete to strengthen either.
And the extra-parliamentary groups, such as the Yesha Council, Matot Arim, and others, have made do with relatively weak street demonstrations that have not led to any political results or any change of heart by any politician.
The threat of any media outlet or politician labeling any opposition activity as incitement has caused opponents of the Plan to ignore many of the protest measures that would work. Opposition to the plan is therefore directionless, disorganized, and ineffective.
So the Disengagement Plan proceeds apace, and 8000 people slated to be uprooted from their homes, communities and jobs, cannot find any real assistance from anyone. Many of them have therefore given up hope and indicated a willingness to be relocated.
But the whole Plan reminds me of the pre-war Diaspora – a time when Jewish communities were shunted about at the whim of often hostile governments: the Pale of Settlement in 19th-century Russia, the ghettos of Eastern Europe, the expulsions of whole countries' worth of Jews and the forcible relocation of others. Israel was meant to be an answer to all that – the ultimate protector of Jewish rights to territory, stability and safety. If any other country in the world forcibly relocated its Jewish communities or forcibly evacuated them from homes in certain places, the State of Israel would – I would hope – raise such a clamor in international spheres that the rest of the world would force that country to back down. Yet in Israel, it is perfectly acceptable to uproot Jews from their homes and force them to flee to other cities to find living arrangements.
The reason is that Israel has become bereft of ideology, bereft of true visionary leadership. What is left of the Israeli right is weak. The Israeli population is tired and spent from four years of terrorism. And in the final summation, by threatening Jewish safety, Yasser Arafat and his heirs have won.
In July 2000, Arafat walked away from Camp David, preferring to renew the wholesale murder of innocent Jews rather than sign an end of conflict declaration. 52 months of terrorism later, what he rejected on paper he has won in blood. 1063 Israelis lie dead. 7400 more have been injured. Billions of dollars have been lost to the Israeli economy.
Ariel Sharon was elected in 2001 to reinstitute Jewish defense of the Jewish state – something his highly decorated predecessor completely failed to do. But instead of renewing Jewish safety through the activity of the Jewish army, Sharon has presided over more death and injury than at any other time in Israel's history. And now, he is about to relinquish the Jewish right to territory in the Land of Israel and once again uproot Jews from their homes.
The Disengagement Plan was conceived as a surrender to terrorism. If we give the murderers what they say they want, perhaps they'll leave us alone. It is a complete reversion to the Jewish Diaspora mentality of 'Please leave me alone, I'm just a Jew.' Its implementation, however, will be the fault of a leaderless and powerless Israeli right wing that has been unable to inject in Israeli society the ideological backbone we so need, and without which we are no different from the Ghetto Jews of Europe.
Copyright 2005. All rights reserved. Yehuda Poch is a journalist living in Israel. Reproduction in electronic or print format by permission of the author only.
