August 16, 2005 One glove comes off, Tuesday,
One glove comes off, Tuesday, August 16, 2005
Yesterday’s images of senior officers listening patiently to settler harangues – sometimes filled with contempt for the officer’s willingness to follow orders to evict the settlers – apparently had an impact on the defense establishment. The scenes seemed to say the army, which has been instructed to operate with ‘sensitivity and determination,’ was a little too sensitive and not determined enough to do its work.
The work, yesterday and today, is supposed to be about enabling settlers who want the army’s help to pack up and leave, to do so. Trouble is, hundreds or thousands of mostly teenage West Bankers who managed to get into Gaza over the past few weeks and months, were doing everything they could at some of the ideological settlements to prevent any IDF presence inside the settlement. In some cases, those hard-core elements went so far as to physically clash with actual inhabitants of the settlements, who were awaiting the formal order to leave their homes before they did so. Teens – and some adults -- in orange t-shirts and true belief in their eyes punctured the tires of army jeeps and moving trucks, stood in the way of trucks invited in by residents to move their belongings, and physically prevented settlers from communicating with the senior officers on the scene.
Yesterday, the army and police seemed to do nothing to put an end to the lawlessness. Overnight, however, the authorities appeared to change their approach. Hundreds of would-be protestors trying to reach Gush Katif were detained and in some cases arrested in the Negev, including the three main leaders of the settlement movement’s opposition to the disengagement – Bentzi Lieberman, chairman of the Yesha Council, Pinchas Wallerstein, head of the Binyamin Council (settlements in the Ramallah area), and perhaps most importantly, Ze’ev ‘Zabish’ Hever, the extremely taciturn executive director of the settlement movement’s logistical arm who among other things is the man behind the ‘illegal outposts’ of the West Bank. The three were halted by police on their way to Gush Katif. The three, all founding members of Gush Emunim, have been very instrumental in the enormous logistical effort to organize not only protests but active efforts to prevent the disengagement.
Early this morning, police used power tools to remove the gate at Neve Dekalim, one of the holdout settlements where yesterday settlers and their supporters blocked police and soldiers from delivering eviction notices and prevented trucks from pulling in to pick up settler belongings. And later this morning, Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz told a press conference that the army would now ‘distinguish’ between settlers and ‘outsiders who are breaking the law.’ He also said pointedly that he has received information about Yesha Council officials who have been providing behind the scenes help to those ‘lawbreakers,’ indicating that legal action would be taken against those officials. It was unclear if he was referring to the three arrested Yesha Council leaders.
But while there were some physical clashes between police and protestors this morning, the real confrontations between evacuating forces and the evacuees, whether settlers or protestors will come tomorrow, which could mean as early as midnight, today. There is no doubt that the overwhelming force being applied by the army and police will easily sweep aside the opposition to the disengagement, though there will likely be some nerve wracking scenes of protestors hunkering down in fortified bunkers threatening suicide, for example. In 1981, a group of Israeli students did just that at Yamit, climbing a tower at the Sinai settlement with canisters of propane to do so. They didn’t, of course. But their leaders achieved what they wanted: the kind of ideological credentials that paved the way for a political career in the Likud. Tzachi Hanegbi and Yisrael Katz ended up as ministers.
The army now is telling the press that it expects to finish removing the civilians within ten days, which is a third of the time allocated to the operation. Perhaps. In any case, Mofaz pointedly told the Palestinians today that none of the areas evacuated by Israel will be handed over to them until all the settlements and military facilities have been demolished, as per the agreement reached with the Palestinian Authority. Maybe he was trying to dampen the celebrations underway in Gaza, where the narrative is that the armed resistance to the occupation is what drove the Israelis out.
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon certainly didn’t say that last night in a speech to the nation that was roundly criticized as being too little too late if it was an attempt to win the hearts and minds of the settlers or the disengagement opponents. He offered no detailed explanations about how he changed his mind from mocking the Labor Party’s proposal in 2003 to unilaterally withdraw from Gaza to a year later promoting unilateral withdrawal as a stroke of genius that would enhance Israeli security. He did offer the Palestinians an olive branch – if they fight terror – and said that he, too, once had a dream of holding onto Gaza ‘forever’ but reality made that impossible.
As a speech meant to be historic, it was eminently forgettable. But so is the scuffling yesterday and today in and around the settlements of Gaza. The media tried hard to turn the embarrassing bathos of the settlers weeping on the shoulders of soldiers into the historic image of the events yesterday and today. But as of tonight, when the authorities presumably will take off the gloves and determination, rather than sensitivity will guide their actions, it is entirely possible that other, violent images, will become what Israelis remember. That’s exactly what the disengagement opponents want, believing it will make impossible any more withdrawals in Judea and Samaria. But that’s what the demonstrators of Yamit thought they would achieve, 25 years ago.
Yesterday’s images of senior officers listening patiently to settler harangues – sometimes filled with contempt for the officer’s willingness to follow orders to evict the settlers – apparently had an impact on the defense establishment. The scenes seemed to say the army, which has been instructed to operate with ‘sensitivity and determination,’ was a little too sensitive and not determined enough to do its work.
The work, yesterday and today, is supposed to be about enabling settlers who want the army’s help to pack up and leave, to do so. Trouble is, hundreds or thousands of mostly teenage West Bankers who managed to get into Gaza over the past few weeks and months, were doing everything they could at some of the ideological settlements to prevent any IDF presence inside the settlement. In some cases, those hard-core elements went so far as to physically clash with actual inhabitants of the settlements, who were awaiting the formal order to leave their homes before they did so. Teens – and some adults -- in orange t-shirts and true belief in their eyes punctured the tires of army jeeps and moving trucks, stood in the way of trucks invited in by residents to move their belongings, and physically prevented settlers from communicating with the senior officers on the scene.
Yesterday, the army and police seemed to do nothing to put an end to the lawlessness. Overnight, however, the authorities appeared to change their approach. Hundreds of would-be protestors trying to reach Gush Katif were detained and in some cases arrested in the Negev, including the three main leaders of the settlement movement’s opposition to the disengagement – Bentzi Lieberman, chairman of the Yesha Council, Pinchas Wallerstein, head of the Binyamin Council (settlements in the Ramallah area), and perhaps most importantly, Ze’ev ‘Zabish’ Hever, the extremely taciturn executive director of the settlement movement’s logistical arm who among other things is the man behind the ‘illegal outposts’ of the West Bank. The three were halted by police on their way to Gush Katif. The three, all founding members of Gush Emunim, have been very instrumental in the enormous logistical effort to organize not only protests but active efforts to prevent the disengagement.
Early this morning, police used power tools to remove the gate at Neve Dekalim, one of the holdout settlements where yesterday settlers and their supporters blocked police and soldiers from delivering eviction notices and prevented trucks from pulling in to pick up settler belongings. And later this morning, Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz told a press conference that the army would now ‘distinguish’ between settlers and ‘outsiders who are breaking the law.’ He also said pointedly that he has received information about Yesha Council officials who have been providing behind the scenes help to those ‘lawbreakers,’ indicating that legal action would be taken against those officials. It was unclear if he was referring to the three arrested Yesha Council leaders.
But while there were some physical clashes between police and protestors this morning, the real confrontations between evacuating forces and the evacuees, whether settlers or protestors will come tomorrow, which could mean as early as midnight, today. There is no doubt that the overwhelming force being applied by the army and police will easily sweep aside the opposition to the disengagement, though there will likely be some nerve wracking scenes of protestors hunkering down in fortified bunkers threatening suicide, for example. In 1981, a group of Israeli students did just that at Yamit, climbing a tower at the Sinai settlement with canisters of propane to do so. They didn’t, of course. But their leaders achieved what they wanted: the kind of ideological credentials that paved the way for a political career in the Likud. Tzachi Hanegbi and Yisrael Katz ended up as ministers.
The army now is telling the press that it expects to finish removing the civilians within ten days, which is a third of the time allocated to the operation. Perhaps. In any case, Mofaz pointedly told the Palestinians today that none of the areas evacuated by Israel will be handed over to them until all the settlements and military facilities have been demolished, as per the agreement reached with the Palestinian Authority. Maybe he was trying to dampen the celebrations underway in Gaza, where the narrative is that the armed resistance to the occupation is what drove the Israelis out.
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon certainly didn’t say that last night in a speech to the nation that was roundly criticized as being too little too late if it was an attempt to win the hearts and minds of the settlers or the disengagement opponents. He offered no detailed explanations about how he changed his mind from mocking the Labor Party’s proposal in 2003 to unilaterally withdraw from Gaza to a year later promoting unilateral withdrawal as a stroke of genius that would enhance Israeli security. He did offer the Palestinians an olive branch – if they fight terror – and said that he, too, once had a dream of holding onto Gaza ‘forever’ but reality made that impossible.
As a speech meant to be historic, it was eminently forgettable. But so is the scuffling yesterday and today in and around the settlements of Gaza. The media tried hard to turn the embarrassing bathos of the settlers weeping on the shoulders of soldiers into the historic image of the events yesterday and today. But as of tonight, when the authorities presumably will take off the gloves and determination, rather than sensitivity will guide their actions, it is entirely possible that other, violent images, will become what Israelis remember. That’s exactly what the disengagement opponents want, believing it will make impossible any more withdrawals in Judea and Samaria. But that’s what the demonstrators of Yamit thought they would achieve, 25 years ago.
posted by solitarioh2005 at
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