Destruction of Gush Katif: Lessons of the Gaza withdrawal 15 years on - by Michael Freund

Leaving Gaza was a human, strategic and political disaster, one for which Israel continues to pay a heavy price

Michael Freund..
Pundicity/JPost..
30 July '20..
Link: http://www.michaelfreund.org/24427/gaza-withdrawal-lessons

Fifteen years ago today on the Hebrew calendar, on the 10th day of Av, Israel committed one of the gravest self-inflicted catastrophes since the founding of the state in 1948.

Hiding behind the harmless-sounding euphemism of "disengagement," the government of prime minister Ariel Sharon revved up the bulldozers and utterly destroyed 21 thriving Jewish communities in Gaza while forcibly expelling over 8,000 Jews from their homes, their livelihoods and their land.

In addition, four Jewish communities in northern Samaria were also demolished.

Synagogues and yeshivot were left behind, only to be desecrated and set aflame by Palestinian rioters celebrating Israel's retreat. And decades of pioneering and devotion to rebuilding Jewish life in Gaza were brought to a sudden and screeching halt.

The events of those painful and traumatic days may seem like a distant memory, with little relevance to our current lives. But nothing could be further from the truth. We owe it to ourselves and to the thousands of Jews who were banished to distill the lessons of that disaster and ensure that it never again recurs.

There are many such lessons, but I would like to highlight just three which I believe are especially pertinent.

The first has to do so with the need to promote greater historical memory. Prior to the expulsion in 2005 as well as in the years since, I have had countless debates with people about Gaza's rich Jewish past, with many confidently albeit ignorantly asserting that our nation has no time-honored connection to that particular strip of land.

So let's set the record straight.

The Critical Debate Over What Should Be Learned from the Gaza Disengagement - by Maj. Gen. (res.) Gershon Hacohen

The debate over the interpretation of the clear and present danger emanating from Gaza in the wake of the 2005 unilateral disengagement holds the key to saving Israel from the dangers attending the creation of a Palestinian state in the West Bank.

Maj. Gen. (res.) Gershon Hacohen..
BESA Center Perspectives Paper No. 1,257..
16 August '19..
Link: https://besacenter.org/perspectives-papers/gaza-disengagement-lessons/

In the summer of 2005, as Israel’s unilateral disengagement from Gaza drew near, the self-styled “Council for Peace and Security” issued a declaration – signed by hundreds of former senior officers and security officials – that promised that “the disengagement will improve Israel’s security situation.” Fourteen years later, many of these “security experts” – including newly retired general turned leftwing politician Yair Golan – continue to maintain that the disengagement from the Gaza Strip altered Israel’s security situation for the better. They base their claim mainly on comparisons between the number of wounded and killed in the period preceding the disengagement and in the years since.

They do not take into account, however, the massive disruption of the normal life of the country – from the ongoing suffering caused to many Israelis, to the huge investments poured into protecting communities and building another barrier with a price tag far exceeding 4 billion shekels, to the heavy cost of the three large-scale operations (2008-9, 2012, 2014) and the numerous rounds of fighting. The costs of Operation Protective Edge (2014) alone – including total military and civilian outlays and calculations for lost productivity – came out to over 10 billion shekels. The “experts” also ignore the balance of terror, and consequent loss of Israeli freedom of action, that Hamas has established with its rockets and that enables it to upset routines on the Israeli home front at will.

Above all, by making the number of casualties the main criterion by which to assess the security situation, as US generals did in Vietnam to cover up their abysmal failures, the “experts” ignore the fact that a national-security equation does not by any means depend primarily on the number of wounded and killed. If that were indeed the key criterion, most struggles for national liberation would not have happened.

It is no coincidence that those claiming that the unilateral disengagement improved Israel’s security situation are also those who favor further withdrawals in the West Bank. The inevitable linkage between what has transpired in Gaza since the IDF’s departure and the uprooting of the communities in the summer of 2005, and what is likely to occur if a similar step is carried out in the West Bank, calls for comprehensive and critical reassessment of all that has happened in Gaza over the past 14 years.

A frustrating event that left a feeling that it was all for nothing - by Mati Tuchfeld

..."If the disengagement from Gaza contributed anything to history, it did so by proving that terrorism has nothing to do with the settlement enterprise, but there was no such advantage in northern Samaria. There was no advantage to this eviction. None. Zero. Nothing has changed for the better there. It had no added value to security or to anything else. It was a frustrating event that left a feeling that it was all for nothing."

Mati Tuchfeld..
Israel Hayom..
16 June '17..

Maj. Gen. (ret.) Yair Naveh retired from the Israel Defense Forces nearly three years ago. His last role was as IDF deputy chief of staff, but he is most remembered for his role as the GOC Central Command who was involved in the disengagement from the Gaza Strip in 2005.

In the unilateral disengagement from the coastal enclave, Israel evicted Gush Katif, a bloc of 17 communities in southern Gaza, and pulled back to its 1967 border with the Gaza Strip. It also evicted four secluded settlements in northern Samaria. The disengagement, during which 8,600 Israelis lost their homes, remains highly controversial to this day, as many believe it is directly linked to the increased terrorist activity and rocket fire emanating from Gaza since then.

As head of Central Command, Naveh oversaw the eviction of the northern Samaria communities of Kadim, Ganim, Homesh and Sa-Nur. The operation was far smaller and less dramatic than in Gush Katif, but Naveh's membership in the national-religious sector presented him with a personal challenge.

Twelve years on, as a group of coalition lawmakers plan to introduce legislation that would allow the residents of the four Samaria settlements evicted in 2005 to re-establish their communities, Naveh says the unilateral disengagement from Gaza was a mistake, telling Israel Hayom that reality has proved the move failed to generate any security or diplomatic advantage for Israel.

He also believes that Israel should seriously consider turning back the clock for two of the Samarian settlements, Homesh, northwest of Nablus, and Sa-Nur, northwest of Jenin, as repopulating them could serve Israel's security interests.

(Continue to Full Post)

Updates throughout the day at http://calevbenyefuneh.blogspot.com. If you enjoy "Love of the Land", please be a subscriber. Just put your email address in the "Subscribe" box on the upper right-hand corner of the page.Twitter updates at LoveoftheLand as well as our Love of the Land page at Facebook which has additional pieces of interest besides that which is posted on the blog. Also check-out This Ongoing War by Frimet and Arnold Roth. An excellent blog, very important work. 

.

Sometimes the Best Deals are the Ones You Don’t Make. - by Jonathan S. Tobin

...As Israelis learned when they withdrew every soldier, settler, and settlement from Gaza in 2005 only to see the strip soon become a terrorist state ruled by Hamas Islamists, the unforgiving law of unintended consequences hangs over all land-for-peace deals in such a dangerous neighborhood.

Jonathan S. Tobin..
Commentary Magazine..
01 December '16..
Link: https://www.commentarymagazine.com/foreign-policy/middle-east/2165753-land-for-peace-past-future-golan-heights/

Sunday’s attack on the Golan Heights, in which the Israel Defense Forces fended off an assault by ISIS, ended with the four terrorists dead and no IDF casualties. The incident was the first direct confrontation between ISIS personnel and the Jewish state. Few would bet that it will be the last. Most Israelis are likely offering a silent prayer of thanks for the failure of past efforts by Israeli leaders to cut a deal with Damascus that would have given up the strategic plateau that dominates the Galilee. Those—in Washington and elsewhere—who are pushing Israel to concede more territory that might one day come to be dominated by Islamist terrorists refuse to learn an important lesson.

In 1992, when Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin was elected, he thought Syria was Israel’s best option for peace. While Shimon Peres’s deputy Yossi Beilin was beginning the secret talks that led to Oslo without Rabin’s knowledge, the prime minister was concentrating on an effort to broker a different land-for-peace deal with Hafez Assad, the current Syrian dictator’s equally murderous father. Historian Itamar Rabinovitch, whose scholarly work was devoted to the notion that Israel had passed up opportunities to make peace with previous Syrian dictators, was appointed ambassador to the United States and chief negotiator with Damascus. But despite Rabin’s genuine desire to do a deal, the indirect talks with the Syrians failed. Assad senior had no interest in further hostilities with the Jewish state and wanted the Golan, but he never had any intention of making peace. The effort was eventually superseded by Beilin and Peres’s coup in getting the Palestine Liberation Organization to accept Israel’s offer, which brought Yasir Arafat into power in the West Bank and Gaza.

But that wasn’t the last Israeli flirtation with Damascus. During his first term in office later in the decade, Benjamin Netanyahu also dabbled with the idea of a deal with the Assad clan. He exchanged secret messages with Damascus via American philanthropist Ron Lauder. Netanyahu and his advisors have vociferously denied that they offered a full withdrawal from the Golan as others have claimed. But they admit that Assad asked for a map that would detail the border the Israelis were prepared to accept. It may be that this effort failed because Assad demanded a withdrawal up to the shore of the Sea of Galilee or due to the fact that, as was the case with Rabin’s attempt, the Syrian was never serious about peace. But either way, it’s clear that Netanyahu was at the very least prepared to give up most of the Golan.

The Arab Attitude toward Israel’s 2005 Unilateral Disengagement - by Brig.-Gen. Yossi Kuperwasser

Brig.-Gen. Yossi Kuperwasser served as the head of the Research Division for Military Intelligence of the Israel Defense Forces in 2005 at the time of the disengagement from Gaza and parts of Northern Samaria. Because of his special vantage point he is able to bring a new insight to the subject.Intelligence professionals were not consulted in the decision-making process. While the Prime Minister and his confidants hoped that this initiative would result in a political advantage for Israel and strengthen its security, it is clear that they did not take possible Arab and Palestinian reactions into account, particularly those of Hamas. In this article Brig.-Gen. Kuperwasser presents the issue of disengagement from a fresh perspective and describes its unintended consequences, which could have been foreseen.

Brig.-Gen. Yossi Kuperwasser..
Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs..
18 February '16..






A First-Hand Account from an Israeli Insider

The Arab Perspective

Israel’s disengagement from the Gaza Strip had undeniable consequences for the Arab world, including the Palestinians, but those consequences were not taken into account in the process leading to the dramatic decision. In this essay, I shall provide my own reflections as former head of the Research Division of Military Intelligence at that time when the fateful decision of the disengagement was made. It is noteworthy that intelligence professionals were not consulted in the process at all and their assessment was not requested before the decision was taken. Instead, a small group of decision-makers carried out this plan. Their attitude and thinking suffered from a number of weaknesses characteristic of Western political and strategic thought in the region.

I also will show that the Arabs had mixed responses to the disengagement. Each player, including the different groups in the Palestinian political system, emphasized what was important to its own outlook and interests.

On the one hand, the disengagement was perceived as an achievement of the Palestinian struggle and as a positive precursor to an eventual Israeli withdrawal from parts of the disputed territories in the Land of Israel/Palestine. The precedent of the withdrawal from Lebanon in May 2000 opened the way for similar moves in the future. It is important to note that the decision to pursue disengagement was taken at a time when Palestinian terrorist activities, including the area of the Gaza Strip, reached their highest levels. Thus, from the Arab point of view, it exposed the failure of Israeli society to cope effectively with that challenge. This perspective is further supported by the fact that the actual disengagement was implemented at a time, toward the undeclared end of the Second Intifada, when terrorist activities slowly began to subside. In addition, the policy of terrorism failed to produce long-term gains for the Palestinians who regarded their campaign as ultimately ineffective because it came at a heavy price and yielded no tangible results. Nonetheless, the Palestinian leadership appropriated the disengagement and used it as a sign of success in their otherwise futile struggle to motivate other radical actors in the region. The disengagement may have been one of the factors that encouraged Hassan Nasrallah, secretary-general of Hizbullah, to intensify his efforts to carry out an additional kidnapping. This eventually materialized in July 2006 when two soldiers were kidnapped – an act that led to the Second Lebanon War. Later Nasrallah admitted that it was a mistake.

Whereas the radical actors of the Palestinian leadership celebrated the disengagement as a victory, its more pragmatic elements regarded it as problematic. They feared that it would further fuel terrorism and hence harm internal stability within the Palestinian political leadership. Given that the leadership was going through a period of internal strife and instability, they felt that the disengagement might further complicate relations with their political opponents and that they would be forced to cooperate with the extremist factions.

In the neighboring region, the disengagement created far-reaching consequences particularly for Egypt, which – in light of Israel’s decision to evacuate also the border area, the Philadelphi Route – was forced to come to terms with Fatah and Hamas and allow increased smuggling from Sinai to Gaza, particularly by Hamas. Moreover, at the time, Egypt suffered domestically from increasing Islamic terror, especially in Sinai. (Before the disengagement a mass-casualty attack took place in Sharm el-Sheikh on 23 July 2005, and Egypt convened an Arab summit to discuss the disengagement and the terror attacks.)1

The Palestinian Sphere of Influence

Concurrently, the Palestinians claimed the disengagement as an achievement and felt vindicated by the dismantlement of the settlements and the Israel Defense Forces’ departure from the Gaza Strip. The Palestinians began to think that the pressure on Israel should continue, which could then bring them closer to their next objective – a unilateral withdrawal from Judea and Samaria, and from Jerusalem. To ensure that Israel would not retract the decision at the last moment, the Palestinian factions resolved to keep things quiet during the disengagement itself, which they did.

The irony of the expulsions from Gaza by Caroline Glick

...The settlements of Gaza were destroyed 10 years ago. Israel has been paying the physical price of the strategic lunacy of the withdrawal ever since. But due to a significant degree to Hacohen’s leadership, ironically, Israeli society emerged stronger, more Zionist and prouder of its Jewishness than ever before.

Caroline Glick..
Column One/JPost..
23 July '15..

Israel's withdrawal from Gaza 10 years ago was a strategic disaster. But it could have been much more devastating if the ideologues behind it had had their way.

Formally, the withdrawal was supposed to do two things. It was supposed to strengthen Israel’s diplomatic position vis-à-vis the US and Europe by demonstrating Israel’s commitment to Palestinian statehood, and it was supposed to enhance Israel’s security by redeploying the IDF along more defensible lines.

Neither argument for the withdrawal was particularly plausible. But due to the media’s lockstep support for it, neither was seriously challenged.

The truth is, these justifications were never anything more than a smoke screen to hide the true purpose of the withdrawal from the public. The real purpose of the withdrawal from Gaza was to deal a strategic blow to Zionism and the Jewish character of the state.

The destruction of those communities – and the expulsion of the 350,000 Jews who live in them – was also not an end unto itself. For the leftist ideologues who invented the idea of unilaterally withdrawing from Gaza, destroying the settlement enterprise is a necessary precondition for destroying religious Zionism.

And religious Zionism has to be destroyed in order to destroy Zionism.

This true purpose of the Gaza withdrawal was made clear by leftist ideologues in the months that preceded the withdrawal.

For instance, Haaretz published an editorial a month before the withdrawal explaining, “The real question is not how many mortar shells will fall, or who will guard the Philadelphi Route [between Gaza and Egypt], or whether the Palestinians will dance on the roofs of [the destroyed communities].

“The real question is who sets the national agenda. The disengagement of Israeli policy from its religious fuel is the real disengagement currently on the agenda. On the day after the disengagement, religious Zionism’s status will be different.”

As the leftist ideologues perceived things, it wasn’t enough to simply kick the settlers out of their homes and destroy their communities. They had to be humiliated and made to suffer in order to ensure that no one would dare to identify with them.

As a consequence, when the idea of building a new settlement for the evacuees in southern Israel was floated a few months before the withdrawal, the Left firmly opposed it.

Haaretz columnist Avirama Golan explained that doing so would empty the expulsions of political significance.

In her words, “Transferring the evacuees from Gush Katif to a brand new neighborhood built especially for them along the beautiful strip of Nitzanim transmits a problematic implicit message. This is a message that says to the Jewish settlers in the territories: ‘You are a chosen group. You will not be like all the other Israelis.’ If this is what the government does in the evacuation of Gush Katif, the main sting of the evacuation of the settlements will be neutralized. It will be as though nothing has been done.”

The goal of the Left in destroying the Jewish communities, and indeed the goal of the so-called peace movement was laid out explicitly in November 2013 by Ron Pundak, Yossi Beilin’s partner in negotiating the Oslo Accords with the PLO in 1993.

In an interview with the International Crisis Group Pundak explained, “Peace is not an objective by itself. It is a way to transition Israel from one era to another: to an era of what I consider is a normal state. Israelization of society rather than its judaization.”

Demonization and disenfranchisement were key components of the Left’s campaign against Jewish Israel. For the withdrawal from Gaza to serve as a stepping stone toward a withdrawal from Judea and Samaria, the public needed to become fully alienated from its fellow Israelis whose lives were being shattered.

Opinion-makers from Dan Margalit and Ari Shavit to Yair Lapid jumped on the anti-religious bandwagon and sought to outdo one another in stirring up irrational hatred for the 8,500 Jews of Gaza and their supporters.

In spite of it all, the faith, love and determination remains

...When I was taken around the synagogue by my beloved friend Anita Tucker and given explanations of each part of this beautiful, meaningful, and special synagogue, it was even more moving because in spite of the pain of the destruction of Gush Katif and the wonderful community of Netzer Hazani, the faith, love and determination remains.

Yehudit Tayar..
Zion's Corner..
14 December '14..

As the world deliberately ignores who the Palestinian Authority is, what the Arab world really represents and again directs accusations against Israel and what they term "occupation" I believe that it is time to wake them up.

If you begin with the history of our Land- the Land of Israel- our eternal homeland and the connection of our Nation to Israel throughout history even during the darkest pages of our Nations history it will be clear that this connection is unbreakable. Throughout our history our Nation has had a connection with this Land, both spiritually and the dream of redemption of our Land after the horrific expulsion of our people by our enemies.

No matter where a Jew is in the world, during prayer one faces to Israel- to Jerusalem our eternal capital. This is not politics - this is the eternal connection both spiritually and physically to our Torah our Land and people.

For us, who are blessed with growing up here and serving our country, raising our families and settling the Land it is something that we do not take for granted. So many of our holidays are connected with the blessings of the Land and not merely prayers that it is clear how important and inseparable a part of us it is.

I remember the joy as a young girl of the establishment of new communities in Gush Katif and the wonder of literally witnessing the transformation of barren sand dunes to thriving communities with wonderful agricultural and beautiful Jewish life there. I remember the determination and love of our families there to continue to live and build and work there despite many challenges.

The beautiful sea shore and the beaches and the sea shells - the hot houses and the miracle of "yishuv HaAretz" . Those memories are with me always along with the endless pain of the destruction of Gush Katif and the beautiful synagogues, successful agriculture the homes, gardens not to mention the unbearble pain of removing our loved ones from their graves and having to go through the nightmare of re-burying them again.

In a few days we will B"H gather together in the new Netzer Hazani in order to dedicate the new synagogue that was built there and finally completed after so many years. The synagogue was built with love and so much faith. The ceremony will take place B"H on the evening of the lighting of the 8th candle of Hannukah, the festival of lights which represents bravery, faith, determination and yishuv HaAretz.

The dance of the flames in the eyes of the Palestinian arsonists

The 19 synagogues that stood in Gush Katif in Gaza were left in place after the Israeli government had voted 14 to two, with one abstention, to leave them there and hope for the best. Hours after the vote, the smoke began to rise from the burning buildings. But instead of intervening to stop the ruin, the government chose to issue a statement to reporters. "Israel expects the Palestinian Authority to maintain the dignity of the structures of the synagogues," a spokesman for prime minister Ariel Sharon declared. 

Michael Freund..
michaelfreund.org/JPost..
13 August '13..


This week marks the eighth anniversary on the Hebrew calendar of one of the darkest chapters in Israel's recent past.

It was on the 8th of Elul, 5765, (September 12, 2005), that Israel stood by and watched as Palestinian mobs ransacked synagogues abandoned by the Jewish state after the withdrawal from Gaza and the expulsion of its Jews.

Even before the IDF's then- OC Southern Command, Maj.-Gen. (ret.) Dan Harel, had a chance to issue a signed proclamation that day formally ending Israel's military rule over Gaza, the Palestinian orgy of destruction had commenced.

At 2:30 in the morning, a crowd of Palestinians from Khan Yunis descended upon the ruins of the former Gaza Jewish community of Morag. Amid celebratory gunfire, they set Morag's synagogue ablaze, waving Fatah and Hamas flags and setting off fireworks as they chanted, "This is merely the first step in the liberation. Tomorrow we will liberate all of Palestine!" Palestinian policemen stood by and watched as youths looted the building, carting off the tables and chairs that had once been used by Jewish worshipers pleading for Divine mercy.

In the former community of Netzarim, bulldozers dispatched by the Palestinian Authority proceeded to knock down the walls of the deserted synagogue, while in Neve Dekalim, Palestinian rioters attacked and damaged the iconic Jewish house of worship.

In a statement issued that day, PA President Mahmoud Abbas did not utter a word of condemnation over the demolition of the synagogues. Instead, he justified it, stating that the synagogues would be destroyed because "the Israelis left behind empty buildings which in the past had served as synagogues. But since they removed any religious symbols they are no longer holy places."

Watching the scenes on television, I could not believe what I was seeing, nor could the rest of Israel.

The loss of Gush Katif, the human story

This is a moving collection that documents the human story of Gush Katif: the founding of the communities, the development of agriculture, daily life, contending with terrorism, taking final leave of their homes. The painful evacuation and burning of the synagogues are almost the only images that the Israeli public has seen. But before the storm, there was a full and vibrant life there. Dreams, pain, love and hope.

Emily Amrousi..
Israel Hayom..
16 July '13..

There is no sadder annual reunion (aside from memorial ceremonies for terror attacks and wars) than the anniversary of the uprooting of Gush Katif and northern Samaria. To see Avner Shimoni, the last head of the Gaza Coast Regional Council, who suffered a stroke about a year after the disengagement and can no longer speak or to see the Cohen family, three of whose children lost their legs in the November 2000 school bus bombing is an experience virtually unparalleled in its somberness.

To see all those dear people who have sprouted white hairs and look old and tired; with their eyes closed, they will forever be able to reconstruct every last drawer in the houses they left, every pathway in their destroyed communities.

Last week in Jerusalem, a gathering was held to launch the visual documentation project of the Katif Center. This is one of the more fascinating projects of recent years. Eight hundred and twenty two of the people uprooted from Gush Katif sat opposite the cameras and unburdened themselves over 3,600 hours of video. This is a moving collection that documents the human story of Gush Katif: the founding of the communities, the development of agriculture, daily life, contending with terrorism, taking final leave of their homes. The painful evacuation and burning of the synagogues are almost the only images that the Israeli public has seen. But before the storm, there was a full and vibrant life there. Dreams, pain, love and hope.

(+Video) Rosh Chodesh Av - The Nine Days of Orange

...Perhaps it’s inappropriate to compare the destruction of the Temple to the destruction of Jewish life in Gaza. I don’t know. I’m sure there are those who could passionately make the case on both sides of the argument. But one thing is for certain, while one might find it difficult to cry over our losses from centuries ago during these nine days, it’s hardly challenging to shed tears over the loss of an entire Jewish society, and an entire way of life, here and now.

Josh Hasten..
Times of Israel..
08 July '13..

Today is the first day of the Hebrew month of Av. While Rosh Chodesh, or the beginning of the new month, for all the other months of the year is marked with joy, this is the beginning of a nine day mourning period leading up to Tisha B’av, the darkest day on the Jewish calendar.

From the sin of the spies, to the destruction of both holy Temples in Jerusalem and many other calamities throughout Jewish history, more than anything it’s a day which symbolizes both the spiritual and physical exile of the Jewish people from the Land of Israel. We fast, we mourn, we reflect on what was, and try to decipher how to move forward, and better ourselves as human beings and as Jews to bring about the final redemption.

For some, it’s understandably difficult to feel that sense of loss. With the focus on the destruction of the Temples and the fall of Jerusalem, we’re talking about events that happened approximately 2000 years ago. The Babylonians, the Romans, those who ransacked and desecrated Judaism’s holiest shires are long gone. But we the Jewish people, we are still here as proof that our enemies have failed.

That being said, unfortunately it seems that in recent years we have become our own worst enemy, which has led only to further Jewish death and devastation. In the early 1990’s, our leadership secretly and illegally initiated the negotiation of a peace deal with our new ‘partners.’ 20 years later and with over 1,500 Jewish souls lost, has anything really changed? Even this week, rumors indicate that yet another round of talks with an anti-semitic enemy that glorifies Jihad, and incites to violence is in the cards.

All you need to do, is listen to two little girls on official Palestinian Authority television saying that Jews are the “most evil among creations, barbaric monkeys, wretched pigs,” condemned to “humiliation and hardship,” to see that not peace is not possible – not in this generation or even in the next, with such hate indoctrination being the norm.

But our enemies are in fact saying these things, and we’re moving forward still, either out of ignorance, denial, or both.

That was also the case in the summer of 2005. Despite the warning signs indicating that from a strategic perspective the expulsion of every last Jews from Gaza, and the destruction of those communities, would endanger not only the residents of the South but those in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, it was our very own government that carried out what is probably the most catastrophic, self-inflicting, and senseless policy decision in our young history.

But the exile from Gaza is more than just a travesty in terms of delusional promises offered of a better security reality. I would go as far as to call it a crime against the humanity which existed in that paradise oasis embedded within the sand dunes and the sea.

What 7 years have wrought - Some 9,400 rockets fired at the Israeli civilians and communities

Frimet/Arnold Roth..
This Ongoing War..
13 September '12..

Seven years ago, on September 12, 2005, the government of Israel withdrew its defense forces from each of the 23 hitherto-vibrant Israeli communities in the cluster known as Gush Katif. All public buildings including schools, libraries, community centres, office buildings, industrial buildings, factories and greenhouses which could not be taken apart were left intact [source].

The hyper-productive Israeli agricultural and horticultural greenhouses that had generated sales, profits and jobs are gone - promptly destroyed by the new masters of Gush Katif and of Gaza. Terrorist training facilities have sprouted on the ruins of the abandoned Israeli towns. The vision of a self-sustaining, forward-looking, peace-seeking Gaza has vanished. Some ten thousand Israelis left Gush Katif to make their homes elsewhere.

The Rocket Fire That Never Ends

Gilad Skolnick..
The Times of Israel..
29 August '12..

I was fresh out of boot camp when a fellow soldier stared straight into my eyes, perhaps trying to assess my sanity, and asked why I would make a choice to live in a nation threatened with annihilation. I had chosen to return to Israel, leaving the calm America I had lived in since I was six. Israel was relatively quiet, but the tension in the air caught me by surprise. Israeli television tries to make light of such fears, with the popular news satire show “Eretz Nehederet” (“A Wonderful Country”), showing Israeli survivors of a nuclear holocaust trying to find something to watch on television, but this looming fear is very real and present in Israel.

It was now my turn to serve in the Israeli military, the third generation of my family to do so. My grandfather had to drop out of high school to defend his homeland, Israel, from invading Arab armies whose leaders were publicly promising the country’s annihilation. My mother grew up in northern Israel where she was often awakened in the dead of the night with a warning of mere seconds to run to the nearest bomb shelter. She spent many sleepless nights huddled with others in a cold underground shelter, as the Syrian regime pounded her community with rockets. At 18 she was on the front line, in a guard tower, protecting Israeli villages from attack.

My grandmother, now an octogenarian, can no longer run to the nearest shelter, so when she leaves her house to buy groceries and Palestinian rockets target her city of Ashdod, she hopes for the best. At home at least she has a bomb shelter, as is the law for all new construction. Works great unless you ever need to use the bathroom. My village of Kissufim, where I spent the first years of my life, is routinely hit by indiscriminate rocket fire from Palestinian controlled areas, striking homes, kindergartens and my former preschool.

Marking the 7th Anniversary of the Commencement of a Very Long Disengagement

Gabriel Scheinmann..
Times of Israel..
16 August '12..

August 15th marked the seventh anniversary of the commencement of Israel’s “Disengagement” from the Gaza Strip, whereby Israel unilaterally dismantled 21 settlements—in addition to 4 in the West Bank—and withdrew every last of its 9,000 settlers and soldiers in the hopes of separating itself from the entity once and for all. The Palestinian reaction, however, to the demonstration of Israel’s ability and willingness to remove settlements in order to permit Palestinian self-governance underscores that territory and occupation are not the primary drivers of the conflict. Instead of peace, security, and prosperity, Israel has received genocidal terror and unseen levels of international hostility. Hamas, designated a terrorist organization by the United States, the European Union, and Japan, has been strengthened and the international community has sought to prevent Israel from exercising its natural right of self-defense. Disengagement, as these seven years has shown, is impossible so long as the Muslim world refuses to accept a self-governing Jewish presence in its midst.

The decision to withdraw from Gaza was a soul-searching decision for the Israeli body politic. I was in Israel that summer, imbibing the bitter Israeli debate over the future of the Zionist enterprise. Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, the once pro-settler Likud hawk who had declared in 2002 that the Gaza settlement of Netzarim would share the same fate as Tel Aviv, bulldozed the plan through the Knesset, triggering the fall of his government and a new coalition with the leftist Labor party. Activists lined every streetcorner in Jerusalem, handing out ribbons and wristbands, blue in support or orange in opposition. Human chains of resistance crisscrossed the country—an impressive feat, but one that also laid bare the Jewish State’s thin waist line of 9.3 miles near Tel Aviv and its total area slightly larger than Maryland. Some protesters had even slicked Israeli highways with oil or launched nails and tacks off of overpasses. Young Israeli hardliners were infiltrating Gaza through car trunks, preparing to battle the military forces of their own elected government. Israeli society was literally tearing itself apart as the Israeli government was doing precisely what it had been created to remedy: making a part of the Holy Land Judenrein.

Formerly Neve Dekalim; Now Nitzan: Meet the The Wechsler Family:

Jewish Press Staff..
27 July '12..
H/T Sarah Layah..

The family: My name is Liora and I made aliya from Toronto when I was 16. That was 29 years ago and I came without my family. I lived in Neve Dekalim for 18 years. I met my husband Elimelech during my first year of college. He was studying in Yeshivat Hesder Yamit which was located in Neve Dekalim. When we got married we decided to stay in Gush Katif until we completed our studies.

Back in 1987 when I arrived in Neve Dekalim there were about 80 families living there. It was like living in a little “Legoland.” All the houses looked the same. There were gardens but the sand was everywhere – outside, inside, in the beds and sometimes even in the food. I also started to fall in love with the place and when we decided to buy a home somewhere in the country, it was obvious to us that we were going to invest in Neve Dekalim.

The community was made up of families from different backgrounds; yet, there was a feeling of belonging. Whenever you had a simcha the neighbors and the members of the community prepared the food for you. If it was a brit mila or kiddush you didn’t cater it, the community automatically got together to make up the menu for you, bake the cakes – and it was something taken for granted.

We were all young families. Most of us lived far from our relatives. I saw the community blossom to about 500 families. Our six children were born there.

Gush Katif Seven Years Later - No, It's Not Fine

Sharon Katz..
Voices Magazine..
29 July '12..




It's Tisha B'Av.

My family went to synagogue to read Eicha (Lamentations). The Jewish people have plenty over which to lament - from the first major Tisha B'Av disaster (the sin of the spies in the desert) up through the destructions of the Holy Temples, the Spanish Inquisition, and most recently the Destruction of Gush Katif and Northern Shomron and the Expulsion of Jews from their homes.

On my way to sleep, I decided to check the news. Nothing special. IDF Home Front Command's Search and Rescue soldiers are training for chemical warfare. Opposition leader Shaul Mofaz said that attacking Iran could be catastrophic for Israel. The CIA says Israel is breaking into the homes of CIA agents in Israel. Republican Presidential Candidate Mitt Romney has landed in Israel.
Regular day of news.

Then I saw a message from my niece. "On Tisha B'Av, remember the destruction of Gush Katif. Watch this movie - UNSETTLED - Documentary on the Disengagement from Gaza."(Click here)

Looking at the Expulsion from the eyes of settler, soldier and politician, it is done in such a true-life human manner without anyone banging your head with messages, it doesn't seem like a documentary.Up-close, personal, compelling, excellent! Directed by Joel Blasberg and Oreet Rees, produced by Arnold Peltz and Joel Blasberg, it is also magnificently filmed and edited.

In addition to the interviews done with the subjects of the documentary, the film brings us right up close to the interactions between soldier and settler at the moment of the Expulsion. We hear their dialogue, their thought processes, their reasoning, their arguing.

"It will be fine," the soldiers told the sobbing residents of Gush Katif as their were being thrown out of their homes. "It will be fine."

(Video Documentry) UNSETTLED - The Disengagement from Gaza

Gaza Withdrawal..
27 July '12..

This Tisha B'Av, as hundreds of thousands of Jews around the world mourn the tragedies that have befallen them throughout history, we are reminded of the heart wrenching episode the State of Israel underwent seven years ago - the disengagement from Gaza. The 90 minute film, UNSETTLED, offers a personal behind-the-scenes look, both before and during the evacuation, at the people whose lives would forever be impacted by the events which unfolded during those difficult weeks.


UNSETTLED - Documentary on the Disengagement from Gaza from Gaza Withdrawal on Vimeo.

With the ramifications of the disengagement from Gaza still very evident today, this emotional documentary film takes you back to experience the event from the perspective of both the settler and the soldier.

Free stream sponsored by TheLandofIsrael.com.

Please send comments to the producer at GazaWithdrawal@gmail.com.

Updates throughout the day at http://calevbenyefuneh.blogspot.com. If you enjoy "Love of the Land", please be a subscriber. Just put your email address in the "Subscribe" box on the upper right-hand corner of the page.Twitter updates at LoveoftheLand as well as our Love of the Land page at Facebook.
.

Amrousi - Remembering Gush Katif

Emily Amrousi
Yisrael HaYom
07 August '11

http://www.israelhayom.com/site/newsletter_opinion.php?id=289


“This is a very hard fight,” said Stav Shafir, one of the organizers of the social justice protests sweeping our country, on Saturday. “There are very powerful forces standing in our way.”

What forces, Stav? Why is it so hard? The media are going out of their way to carry you and your friends around like royalty. Every Facebook group is aggressively promoted, every five students are a new “hotbed of protest,” every 200 protesters to enter the fray enjoy adulation and extensive broadcast coverage. Current affairs presenters Orly Vilnai and Guy Meroz encouraged viewers on live television Saturday night to go out and join the demonstration, which was basically a free rock concert in the middle of the summer vacation.

All their friends in the journalism world have aching hands from their automatic applause for the revolutionary council that has replaced democracy.

I don't know if you know this, Stav, but in two days we will observe the Hebrew anniversary of the disengagement, which uprooted the communities of Gush Katif and northern Samaria in 2005. “This is a very hard fight,” you said on television last night, and as I looked at you I remembered how our protest was silenced six years ago.

I remember the 250,000 people who poured into the streets demanding a national referendum. “Let the people decide,” they cried. I remember the hundreds of thousands who visited Gush Katif on Independence Day. The thousands who took part in prayer assemblies. The throngs of shouting citizens whose voices were not heard. The media did not make our lives easy.

Two months before the disengagement, 40,000 vehicles took part in a “Stop for a Moment and Rethink” demonstration, turning off their engines along highways. About 150,000 people got out of their cars and quietly hoisted signs. To the media's great disappointment, no one blocked traffic or burned tires. The next day a small news item about the demonstration appeared below a small headline saying, “The protest stayed on the margins.”

I can give you countless examples, Stav, of how we were denied our simple democratic right to protest that summer. When the prime minister betrayed his voters by disregarding the platform on which he had been elected, journalists' most urgent concern was who would carry out the evacuation -- police or soldiers? When he fired two ministers on the eve of the government's vote on the disengagement, newscasts were preoccupied with the question of when settlers' weapons would be appropriated. When he ignored the referendum of registered Likud voters, journalists wondered about how much settlers would get in damages. The disengagement was a divisive issue, but in the media there were no divisions.

In the past few weeks the Israeli media have once again become a unified front. Whoever dares set foot outside the circle, as singer and telelvison personality Margalit Tzanani did, is publicly whipped. Yesterday, precisely six years after those homes collapsed, I read the signs and rubbed my eyes in disbelief. The signs were a little less red and more patriotic this time. “Don't be a homewrecker,” they said. “Save our home.” “We're all responsible for each other.” They're the same slogans, Stav. Try to find the difference.

If you enjoy "Love of the Land", please be a subscriber. Just put your email address in the "Subscribe" box on the upper right-hand corner of the page.
.

A Snippet from the 2011 Herzliya Conference

24 February '11

In David M. Weinberg's "Snippets from the 2011 Herzliya Conference", he shares with us the following exchange that took place between former Israel ambassador to the UN Danny Gillerman, and JAFI Chairman Natan Sharansky.

Here is the question:

1. Should Israel launch a diplomatic initiative on the Palestinian front to offset and deflect international pressure?

In an impassioned address, former Israel ambassador to the UN Danny Gillerman argued for the necessity of an Israeli initiative similar to the disengagement from Gaza, especially given the unwillingness of the PA to engage Israel in direct talks and the deterioration of Israel’s international standing.

Gillerman described with great enthusiasm the dramatic turnaround of Ariel Sharon’s personal standing, and that of Israel too, upon announcement of the Gaza disengagement plan. “Sharon was an international pariah. Yet when he came to the UN General Assembly after the Gaza withdrawal, world leaders elbowed their way forward to hug him and have their photos taken with him,” Gillerman gushed. “I was there as UN ambassador. You should have seen the warmth in which Sharon was received. Today too, Israel needs to embark on a dramatic gambit to turn world opinion around,” concluded Gillerman.

Red in the face and clearly annoyed, JAFI Chairman Natan Sharansky took the podium to respond. “I was in Sharon’s government, and as you know, I resigned when it became clear that Sharon was going to push through disengagement. I warned in my letter of resignation that while the world would applaud, the unilateral withdrawal from Gaza was going to be bad for the Jews, bad for the Palestinians of Gaza, and good only for the Hamas. I was right, unfortunately,” said Sharansky. Turning angrily to Gillerman, Sharansky said: “So now, Danny, what do you suggest? That Israel withdraw from eastern Jerusalem so that the world will applaud and Netanyahu will become an international saint?! Washington and London may applaud such a move, but it will be bad for the Jews, bad for the Palestinians of Jerusalem, and good only for the Hamas! I’m sorry, but we need more intelligent thinking!”

(B"H, Sharansky gets it! Y.)


If you enjoy "Love of the Land", please be a subscriber. Just put your email address in the "Subscribe" box on the upper right-hand corner of the page.
.

Synagogues Burning

Eileen F. Toplansky
American Thinker
27 August '10
Posted before Shabbat

On November 9, 1938, nearly 200 synagogues were set afire throughout Germany under the direction of Josef Goebbels, Hitler's propaganda minister. Known as the "Night of Broken Glass" or Kristallnacht, it was a time of horror as thousand-year old Jewish houses of worship were destroyed and vicious planned acts of violence against Jews ensued.

I was reminded of this period of horror when five years ago this week, the synagogue of the former Jewish community of Netzarim in Gaza was burned by Palestinians after Israel handed over the Gaza Strip in hopes that the Palestinians would form a peaceful country of their own.

Repeatedly, the Israelis have tried to negotiate peace with the Palestinians and all to no avail. And again there is talk of a two-state solution. It cannot work.

Between the winter and spring of 1982, the settlements in the Sinai Peninsula were evacuated as part of the peace treaty with Egypt. Eighteen settlements consisting of about 6,000 inhabitants were evacuated during those months. The climax was the evacuation of Yamit in April 1982, just prior to transferring the Sinai Peninsula to Egypt as part of the agreement. Before that, three settlements were evacuated: the cooperative settlements [moshavim] of Di Zahav and Neviyot on the Red Sea coast, and the city of Ophira in the south of the peninsula. Hopefully, Israelis thought, this would help lessen tensions. It was not to be.

(Read full article)

If you enjoy "Love of the Land", please be a subscriber. Just put your email address in the "Subscribe" box on the upper right-hand corner of the page.
.

This Time, We'll Wake Up on Time

Moshe Feiglin
Manhigut Yehudit
11 Menachem Av 5770
22 July '10

Translated from the Makor Rishon newspaper

I sat in the garage waiting room. The air conditioner in my car was no match for the July heat. Yehudah the mechanic understood that I was on my way to the hospital and took care of me right away.

"Excuse me, perhaps you are Feiglin?" asked the man sitting next to me.

"Yes, pleased to meet you."

"Do you mind if I ask you a question?"

"Feel free. Maybe I will have an answer."

"Are you really as extreme and dangerous as they say?"

"Maybe you can explain what you think is extreme so that I can answer."

"Look, before the Disengagement, people from Gush Katif came to my moshav and attempted to explain their point of view. I invited them in and they were happy because not everyone was excited about allowing them into their living rooms. They explained themselves pretty well, until they said that the East Bank of the Jordan is also ours. That is where they lost me, because I understood that nothing will satisfy them. Even if all the Arabs get up and leave, they will still want more. That is what I call extreme," he declared.

"I am loyal to the entire Land of Israel and its borders as they are delineated in the Bible," I answered him. "I do not think that we have to initiate wars today to conquer the East Bank of the Jordan, but it must be clear that this is our Land. In the event that parts of that territory fall into our hands in a war of self-defense, we must declare sovereignty over them, just as we did in the Golan Heights. Israel should enact a Law of Return for land. That, by the way, will bring peace, because the Arabs will have what to lose from wars."

"I think that it was right to retreat from Gush Katif, but that we should have responded with more force the moment that they started to shoot," the man continued.

"What is your dream?" I tried to get him onto a more substantive track. "What are you ultimately trying to achieve?"

"I don't believe that we will have peace with them, but we can achieve some sort of calm if in addition to retreat we also display determination," he added.

"In other words, your dream is calm, or some sort of peace," I said to him. "So why not in Australia? Or New Zealand?"

"No, no," said the man. "I believe that this is my place because of our history, and I have no intention of giving that up. But what do I need Shechem for? Do you want to tell me that you want to return to Gaza? I prefer to leave the places that have Arabs."

(Read full story)

If you enjoy "Love of the Land", please be a subscriber. Just put your email address in the "Subscribe" box on the upper right-hand corner of the page.
.