I just want to let you know about Brit Tzedek v’Shalom’s “Call to Bring the Settlers Home”. At its essence, it is a call for the U.S. to spearhead an international effort to provide housing grants to settlers who wish to relocate to within Israel proper and thus vote against the occupation with their feet. There is polling data that indicates that as many as 80% of the settlers would avail themselves of this option.
This is something you’ll hear much more about when school starts up again. For now, please sign the petition and pass it on to your friends and families.
Just so that everyone knows that there is an alternative for telling Jews that they need to leave their homes in order to satisfy the whims and wills of terrorists and their various benefactors (Brit Tzedek v’Shalom and SPIP included apparently), I want to mention the plan of yet another peacenik who was, unfortunately, killed by an Arab some years back. Rabbi Meir Kahane argued once that Arabs should be given economic incentives to leave Israel, including Judea and Samaria (as it was becoming, to him, more and more clear that a mutual “peace” was unlikely given the irrational attitudes of Islamic terrorists against Jews.)
Cry foul all you want about calling Kahane a peacenik or even mentioning his name at all on a message board that finds itself so much at odds with his philosophy; the plan you are talking about differes from Kahane’s in only a couple of ways:
1.) Your plan calls for the “relocation” (read: all but forced removal) of Jews, rather than Arabs.
and
2.) Your plan gives in to the desires of terrorists who have demonstrated a willingness to kill innocent people, and who have stated repeatedly that there will be no peace until ISRAEL IS PUSHED INTO THE SEA, while Kahane’s plan gives into the desires of Jews, who from the foundation of the State of Israel have been motivated, in large part, by the hope of one thing: an eventual peace. (This perhaps deluded hope which has overcome rational thought is the only thing I can attribute to the recent betrayal of Ariel
Sharon, among other events in Israel’s short but war-plagued history… I only wish the Arabs would entertain similar delusions instead of the delusion that one day Israel will not exist, and all if its Jewish inhabitatns will be sent to their maker).
“A”, I have only two questions (since I’m supposed to e-mail you with questions):
Why, in your estimation, is your plan any better than Kahane’s? (For despite the flaws of Kahane’s plan, yours takes the cake in terms of its lack of justice and sensibility)
Why do you remain under the twisted notion that Hamas and the PLO, which have dedicated themselves to the destruction of Israel (and about whom the PA has dedicated itself to doing nothing), will be satisfied with the removal all Jews from Judea and Samaria?
There are lies, damn lies, and statistics. But what if someone lies about the statistics? According the the statistics that Brit Tzedek v’Shalom mentions in its longwinded support of the “relocation” (read: all but forced removal) of Jews from their homes in Judea and Samaria:
-68% of settlers will obey a democratic decision for withdrawal. 6% will resist such an order. 2% will resist “with all means.”
-59% view financial compensation as preferred over forced removal (without compensation)
-77% chose to live in the “settlements” because of quality of life.
What, here, “indicates that as many as 80% of the settlers would avail themselves of this option [of accepting money in return for leaving their homes].” Judah seemed to pull that statistic out of the air. The number 80% doesn’t appear once in the report. The report merely indicates that almost 80% live in Judea and Samaria due to quality of life issues. That doesn’t meant that they’d be happy to leave! This report doesn’t, and any point, discuss a willingness of settlers to move to “Israel proper” (which the PA,
PLO and Hamas all agree is still a “settlement”) given any financial incentives whatsoever. This merely asserts that many Jews would move if they were forced to move by the government, and that many Jews view financial compensation as preferable to being forced.
The question is this: Will you take this money in return for moving, or am I going to have to come in there with guns and drag you out screaming? Not surprisingly, many Jews claimed that they would rather be dragged out screaming! I sure would rather be dragged out than willingly evacuate my home due to the twisted will of some leftist Islamic-radical sympathizer.
By the way, this just in: 80% of the members of Hamas would invite over Brit Tzedek v’Shalom for dinner. (my statistic is as valid as A’s, although mine is more believable)
“A State is not handed to a people on a silver salver”
Chaim Weizmann, first President of Israel
The Earth grows still.
The lurid sky slowly pales
Over smoking borders.
Heartsick, but still lving, a people stand by
To greet the uniqueness
of the miracle.
Readied, they wait beneath the moon,
Wrapped in awesome joy, before the light.
– Then, soon,
A girl and boy step forward,
And slowly walk before the waiting nation;
In work garb and heavy-shod
They climb
In stillness.
Wearing yet the dress of battle, the grime
Of aching day and fire-filled night
Unwashed, weary unto death, not knowing rest,
But wearing youth like dewdrops in their hair,
– Silently the two approach
And stand.
Are they of the quick or of the dead?
Through wondering tears, the people stare.
“Who are you, the silent two?”
And they reply: “We are the silver salver
Upon which the Jewish State was served to you.”
And spekaing, fall in shadow at the nation’s feet.
Let the rest in Israel’s chronicles be told.