As seen in this picture, with the stroke of his pen Sharon has officially signed away the entire Gaza Strip and part of the Shomron to the Palestinians (along with the homes of 8,500 individuals who live in those areas), effective July 20th, 2005. It remains amazing to me that the pioneer of the settler movement could do such a 180 degree turn and give away the land he felt it was so important to fight for. Everyone's talking about the painful decision and yet, unfortunately, I think that this is just the beginning of a painful period. Obviously this a very sensitive subject and I'm sure some people will disagree with me but I don't know that at this current juncture it's the best move. Maybe I'm wrong, I hope I am. But this is probably the saddest picture one will see today.
posted by Michael at 5:39 PM
6 Comments:
Mass civil disobedience is the only way to defeat this.
Dear !!!,
I'm not sure that even civil disobedience will disrupt the process at this point because even the massive rallies in front of the Knesset etc. didn't seem to have any impact. But I do agree that would be the only-THE ONLY-responsible way of registering your protest with the Israeli government. "V'hamaivin yavin."
There's no comparison. The massive rallies in front of the Knesset were poorly organized as was the tent camp. Visiting them possibly the most depressing experience I've ever had. It brought the sheer futility of the Yesha effort home. The top brass ignored everything... Every child lined up with brochures, every prayer, every speech. Sach hakol, the events made for some nice pictures on the news.
Practically, they were useless because they were JUST demonstrations, nothing else about the country was affected at all.
I wish you people would identify yourselves! First we had "!!!" writing in, and now "..."
Tangentially, I must admit I'm incredibly thankful that readership has skyrocketed lately, with 200 hits today alone. I'm not sure who you are, but thank you, and I do appreciate your thoughts, too!
I did say that the rallies didn't have much of an impact, as sad as that is. I guess you're "on the ground" so to speak (if so, you're up really early in the morning!), so you know much better than I do how the mobilization effort went and how truly effective (or ineffective) the whole thing was. In general, rallies and protests are the first step in voicing a complaint in a large-scale on an extremely important issue. It was necessary, but perhaps not the most effective. And now, it may be too late.
I think a problem was that they didn't have a clear message. Did they want a referrendum or not? Were they totally against it or not? I think, as was proven by John Kerry in the American elections of '04, if you don't have a clear message to start out with you don't have one bit of a chance of winning in the end.
Speaking of depressing, I think this might be among the saddest days in the history of the State of Israel and Zionism-when Israel gives away land unilaterally with no real promise of peace on the other side. I saw Saeb Erekat on TV tonight saying how he hopes this will be the beginning of Israel changing its ways and blah blah blah and I thought to myself "If Israel changes its ways to the ways Erekat wants, Israel won't be around much longer." I mean, if giving up all of Gaza and part of the Shomron isn't enough, what is? And it won't stop with all of the Shomron, chas v'chalilah.
But if the orders have been signed and the political will exists to carry out those plans, will civil disobedience on a mass scale even work?
Furthermore, is there a public will to organize and carry out such an effort?
Perhaps you, "..." know the answer to that question.
I look forward to your response.
I apologize, but I suspect that author of the last post ("...") is not unknown to me, but actually the author of a blog that can be found here: http://www.overthesea.blog-city.com/
Very funny.
Michael- accord me the same dignity I accord you. I take no credit for the post above, but should I ever want to remain anonymous, I trust you'd respect that wish.
Lastly, the very idea of mass civil disobedience is foreign to the Israeli culture and mindset. It's a military state with socialist underpinnings and an overlay of democracy. Very beautiful but very mixed up. I do think that were it to be exercised "kehogen", mass civil disobedience would work. Whether the will and the capability exist to carry off such an endeavor, G-d knows. "Sheyavin Hamayvin".
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