Gush Katif It is now a week later. Now we can sit shiva for Gush Katif. The last Sifrei Torah were taken out today. Today they also came to remove the contents of Avi and Shira’s house from what remains of Neve Dekalim. I am on my way to see the tent camp set up by the evacuees from Atzmona: Jewish refugees in a Jewish state. Their only sin is that they want to stay together as a community. My children are “safe” in a hotel in Upper Nazareth, that is, until they are thrown out of the hotel with the rest of the yeshiva on Erev Shabbat. My daughter Dina recovered from her two-day ordeal in the Bet Knesset in Neve Dekalim. Nowadays, she is busy running to the Kotel to meet the evacuees, entertaining some of their children in a hotel in Yerushalayim, or visiting one of her summer campers from Netzarim (who lost 4 family members by terror). Now the recriminations, now the
soul-searching, now the wander at our youth, now the determination to
rebuild shattered dreams. Now the resolve to do a Tikkun, now the time to
pray, now the time to reach out, now the time to ask questions. Now is the
time to pick up the pieces. -- M.P. Mr. Kahn first challenges my reference to a "wave of looting and burglary," during the standoff in Kefar Maimon, because the government siphoned so many forces away from the major cities that it knowingly left them with insufficient police to maintain law and order. In fact, numerous news broadcasts and newspapers corroborated what I stated. Channel 1 ("Mabbat") even showed televised footage from various business establishments, whose closed-circuit cameras captured thefts in progress. Unfortunately, as the newscasters noted, despite promptly alerting the police to the crimes as they were taking place, there were no officers available to capture the criminals in person. Mr. Kahn's second criticism concerns my statement that the people of Gush Katif "have already buried, in the young and unnaturally expanded cemetery of Gush Katif, their parents and grandparents and siblings and spouses and children - victims of Arab terror and government indifference." This is clearly an emotionally charged issue. I certainly do not intend to "insult our martyrs", as Mr. Kahn accuses me. However, nothing in my statement could possibly justify his conclusion. Undoubtedly, even the present government occasionally deemed military actions unavoidable, because of the terror threat to Sederot and other communities within the "GreenLine" or to communities Israeli governments built over more than three decades in the Gaza strip. This included posting soldiers in Gaza, to thwart terrorist attacks inside and outside the "Green Line." Obviously, we salute and revere every soldier who answered his people's call and forfeited his life protecting them. But does our holy soldiers' selfless dedication excuse an official policy that was halfhearted or worse? More specifically, do occasional concessions to security considerations absolve this government (or its predecessor) of ongoing indifference to the fate of Gush Katif citizens, during a five-year relentless terror war unilaterally waged against them? I personally witnessed endless artillery shell barrages and even Qassam rockets raining down on Neve Dekalim with nary a firecracker shot back by the IDF in response, because the government forbade it to return fire. I reiterate, too, what I reported in my first article from Gush Katif: Even when two middle-aged grandparents were ruthlessly murdered on the Kissufim road in a hail of bullets, the army remained under orders to refrain from any response. The terrorists were eliminated only by the swift intervention of the local civilian security chief, who was wounded in the process. Mr. Kahn, is there anymore charitable description of this deadly program than "government indifference" - perhaps "criminal negligence" would be a more apt designation? Moreover, having thoroughly compromised the IDF's role in combating and deterring terror, did the government's decisions accomplish anything other than emboldening the terrorists and exacerbating their murderous campaign against us, with inevitable consequences? Indeed, if Mr. Kahn is truly
animated by righteous indignation over those who "insult our martyrs", there
is manifestly one address only to which he should direct his rage. This
government cynically converted the IDF into an instrument of its political
agenda. It is the government's indifference, together with its political
machinations, that makes a mockery of our holy, martyred soldiers' supreme
sacrifice and the bereaved families they left behind. - Chaim Eisen (edited
and shortened by PC) [The
Parshat Eikev Homepage]
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