Pointed questions for the orange olam
Okay, you don't want Israel to leave GK; you worry and cry for the 8000 settlers who are being asked to sacrifice for the state by moving. Exquisite -- and I don't mean to minimize the sacrifice of the settlers. In my book, the ones who obey the law are heroes. Seriously.
But, we're not discussing the settlers, orange olam, we're discussing you - and here are my questions:
(1) What does your morality say about the fact that those thriving communities we're about to abandon were built on stolen land with stolen water? When screaming about the raging injustice of the expulsion, do any of you pause to suffer guilt pangs about the origins of the community about to be expelled? Update: Some PC minded thugs, perhaps correctly, have objected to my use of the phrase "stolen land." I apologize, and reiterate that I have no wish to offend. Please suggest a substitute phrase, recalling that the land did not belong to Isarel before 1967, and that it was through the (justified) use of force that it entered Israel's control. "Stolen" is the wrong word, perhaps, but what is the right word?
(2) Have you noticed, orange olam, that GK sits on land the Jewish people seem not to want? Only 8000 settlers, remember. Tell me: if GK is as wonderful, as beautiful, and as idyllic as your current propganda campaign insists, why have so few people chosen to live there? Isn't it true, that over the last 30 years we're voted with our feet, and made it clear that we do not want Gaza?
(3) Have you considered that returning stolen land, and allowing the Arabs to attempt to create a life for themselves there, is simply the moral thing to do? Yes, the withdrawl might not lead to a peaceful solution. Yes, some terrorist scum are certainly going to use Gaza for evil purposes. And yes, many in the Palestenian leadeship are outright thugs who wish to destroy Israel. Maskim. But that's all 1000 percent irrelevant. Va'asita et hatov v'hayashar... Jews are required to do what is good and what is right and to let the chips fall where they may. They aren't supposed to justify evil, and forcing 1 million Arabs to live as second-class citzens for the pleasure of 8000 settlers is evil.
Like you, I love Israel (promise!) and yes, for 2000 years we Jews have thought about Israel, and dreamt about Israel, and remembered Israel in our prayers. Pleasent sentiment, to be sure but not license to to impoverish her children, bulldoze her rose garden and put our boots on the dining-room table.
Our rights as Jews -and we, Jews most certainly do have rights in Israel, and even in Gaza- do not obviate the co-inciding rights of other people.