Segacs's World I Know

Posts Tagged ‘disengagement’

I haven’t done one of these in a while. And some bloggers have been writing very, very good posts. So it’s high time, I guess.

Here’s Lynn on so-called “messianic Judaism”:

We Jews have been fighting this battle for nigh on two thousand years. Christians have been trying to explain to us where and how we went wrong since the dawn of Christianity. Whether it’s the threat of eternal damnation or death by the sword, the noose, the bullet or the gas chamber, whether it’s physical violence or gentle persuasion, we’ve been there and done that. We have all the tee shirts. Those of us with any historical education at all are way too familiar with these ploys to fall for them. Unfortunately, we live in an age when too many of us lack that education. Jews today are generally smarter about everything else and (except, perhaps, in Israel) stupider about Judaism than they’ve ever been. So we’re ripe for the picking. And, with a little help from their friends, the missionaries are eagerly anticipating the harvest.

Lisa eloquently sums up – as only she knows how – the overwhelming sentiment in Israel these days about disengagement:

The situation is heating up here; it’s not pleasant; it’s very complex; as usual, the people with the least power are paying the highest price; and I really wish this painful enterprise had been planned and executed in a more organized, sensitive fashion.

And closer to home, Debbye has some of the most reasonable commentary on the gay marriage issue I’ve seen so far from the right:

To reiterate: the one prospect I find insupportable is that of allowing gays to marry yet a future Conservative Party government suddenly declaring those marriages null and void. Try to put yourselves in the position of marrying, making plans for a future together and even making joint financial investments and then imagine being told your marriage is no longer legitimate.

Forget the circusy atmosphere we see on television and some of the wilder “activists” showcased by a sensationalist media and focus on the human face of this issue. Gay couples love one another – in probably the same variables of intensity and committment as straight couples – and I believe their love is entitled to respect.

The damage to the institution of marriage was done long before gays emerged from the closet. We can blame easier divorces, the pill, Roe vs. Wade, or the sexual revolution and even the “disposable society” but we simply cannot with any honesty blame gays much less instituting gay marriage.

Hmmmm, all women today. Well, I guess that’s fair, seeing as how the guys usually get all the linky love. Once I’m highlighting women bloggers, I should direct everyone to Meryl, Imshin and Allison while I’m at it, not for any particular post but more for all of them in general.

The sun’s come out and dried up all the rain. It’s gonna be a nice day.

We in Quebec are no strangers to colour wars in politics. Just three days after the sea of red at Canada Day, and ten days after the similar sea of blue at the St-Jean Baptiste Day celebrations, it’s hard to deny that complicated political and identity politics are too often reduced to a colour of the rainbow.

Witness what’s been going on in Israel, where a colour war of their own is raging over the disengagement issue. And it seems like it’s all anyone there can talk about these days. Here are thoughts from Allison, Imshin, Imshin again, and Brian, just to name a few. And here’s a Ynet analysis of the colour war.

The thing is, there’s nothing simple or trivial about the current situation in Israel, that seems to be leading the country to the brink of civil war. Protests are turning violent and there are even worries of potential assassination attempts on Sharon or other key members of government. To Israelis who feel that this is the only way to break the stalemate and ensure Israel’s security, the protesters are divisive extremists creating disunity at a critical time. To Israelis being asked to leave their homes, uproot their communities, and – in their view – reward terrorists for years of attacks and bloodshed, this is nothing less than a catastrophe. Are there any issues more serious than one’s home, one’s safety and security, and one’s identity?

Maybe the colour war has emerged precisely because the issues are so serious. Discussing orange or blue takes the focus off the agonizing choices and potential consequences, and places them on the often absurd things emerging from the whole issue. Humour as a defence mechanism is not exactly new for Israelis as a way of coping.

Or maybe it’s just politics. A colour is an easy symbol to represent a political view, and makes a powerful visual statement in a crowd. Perhaps this is just simply smart marketing on the part of the disengagement protesters.

One thing is for sure: this colour war is nothing like the kind we used to have in summer camp. And it’s going to get worse before it gets better. With many Israelis supporting the plan, many more vehemently opposed, and a whole host of people caught in the middle and unsure of what to think, it’s making for a long, hot summer.

(Hmmm, now that I’m ready to publish this, I notice that the button on Blogger to “save as draft” is blue and the one to “publish post” is orange. Will you take my word for it that I’m not making a political statement by choosing to publish the post?)

The news keeps happening much faster than I can keep up on it. Funny how that happens, ain’t it? At any rate, until I can successfully build my time machine that will allow me to “pause live reality” and catch up while everyone else is in freeze-frame, here’s an in-brief recap:

• Sharon’s Gaza disengagement plan was approved by the Knesset after some typically-Israeli political jockeying that’s still ongoing. Netanyahu’s threatening mutiny unless Sharon agrees to hold a referendum, but so far, Sharon’s not budging. The settler fringe is of course up in arms – somewhat literally – and on the anniversary of the Rabin assassination, some can’t help but wonder if Sharon is looking over his shoulder these days. Despite being uncomfortable with the idea of the plan being perceived by the Palestinians as a reward for terrorism, and my general overall pessimism about the whole conflict, I can’t help but think that despite the mess, Sharon will land on his feet. He always does. For more, see Allison and Jonathan.

• The CJC has Issued another statement responding to the remarks by Canadian Islamic Congress leader Mohamed Elmasry that said that all adult Israelis are ‘legitimate targets’ for terrorism. The CJC statement called the CIC marginal and irrelevant, no matter whether Elmasry resigns or not. The CIC, you will recall, likes to believe it speaks for all Canadian Muslims. I personally am waiting to hear a huge outcry from Canadian Muslims who believe that this organization does not represent them. I’m still waiting. I think I’ll be waiting a while. The police, by the way, are investigating Elmasry’s remarks as a hate crime.

• Speaking of the CIC, they’re the same group that issued an election report card urging Canadian Muslims to vote for or against specific candidates (seemingly based on how pro- or anti-Israel they are). Damian points to anti-American remarks by Liberal MP Yasmin Rantisi, the first Muslim woman elected to Parliament. Something tells me the CIC would give her an “A”.

• Arafat’s ill health continues to dominate the news. My feeling is that this is an overexaggeration designed to cause panic and an outpouring of sympathy for Arafat. Meryl’s not betting on anything but she does have an interesting idea for a Magen David Adom matching fund if any Arab dictators croak. Arafat would be included in this, it seems. MDA is one of my favourite charities and the irony just seems deliciously appropriate.

• Less than a week before the US election and it’s still too close to call. I’m thinking Tuesday might be a good time to actually get some work done, since everyone will be preoccupied with voting and watching the results. Hmmmm.

• There was a lunar eclipse tonight. I didn’t get much of a view of it but I hear that people who had clear skies and lines of sight were wowed.

• Oh yeah, and the Red Sox won the World Series, breaking an 86-year “curse”.

According to a new poll, 83% of Palestinians want a “mutual cessation of violence”. That’s good, right?

Not exactly. The poll also says that:

• 77% of Palestinians supported the Beersheva bus bombings
• 75% support the firing of rockets from Beit Hanoun into Israel
• 74% see Sharon’s disengagement plan as evidence of a victory for armed struggle
• 64% believe that armed conflict have helped the Palestinians achieve their national rights in a way that negotiations could not.

I can only assume that the 83% of Palestinians who want a mutual cessation of violence figure that the violence will stop when there are no more Israelis.

A vote by Likud to reject a coalition with Labor to push through Gaza disengagement is being presented as a major setback for Ariel Sharon:

Likud’s Central Committee, its decision-making body, voted by a 58% majority to prevent PM Ariel Sharon from negotiating with the opposition Labor party. By a narrow margin, even Sharon’s modest proposal to allow him to talk with any Zionist party was rejected. The PM vowed to pursue his course and talk with Labor anyway. Most Likud Ministers and Knesset Members supported him.

In his speech, interrupted by frequent catcalls and boos, Sharon attacked the “rebellious and irresponsible” parts of the body that opposed him. “Unfortunately, there is a group within the party that has been plotting against the government since its establishment,” he said. “This is not the behavior expected from members of the ruling party.”

That last bit sounds like Jean Chretien speaking to Paul Martin. But anyway…

This is one of the problems with fighting a war in a democracy. All the decision-making is done in public; all the dirty laundry gets to be dissected by the international press. Arafat, in contrast, can just shoot anyone who opposes him. Much less messy or controversial, I suppose.

Anyway, the opposition is busy talking about how bad this is for Sharon’s government:

A Labor Party spokesman said that the decision would inevitably lead to elections: “The Likud convention decided that it wants to see the Likud refusing peace and destroying any chance of ending violence in the region. If this position is adopted elections will be required.”

But ultimately, the disengagement plan will happen. Ariel Sharon is – politically – the cat with nine lives. Every other week, some media outlet predicts the collapse of his government and the end of his political career. They’ve always been wrong until now. We’ll probably see that repeated again here.

Ariel Sharon is opting for minority government rule rather than trying to launch talks with Labor to form a unity government.

It makes a lot of observers wonder. After all, the disengagement plan that Sharon is trying so hard to push through – over the objections of the religious right that formed part of his coalition – is very similar to the plan that former Labor leader Amram Mitzna campaigned on last election… and that Sharon dismissed as unrealistic. Israeli politics can be funny that way. But still, one might think that Sharon would welcome the opportunity to broaden his power base and earn more support for his plans.

Or maybe not. After all, most analysts agree that in Israel, the left proposes the tough concessions but only the right can get them passed. Post-Oslo, the Israeli public does not trust Labor to look out for their security interests. So if Sharon wants to win support for his plan from the hard-line elements, he can’t be seen getting to cozy with the opposition, I suppose. No doubt this is a calculated gamble.

The good news is that the religious parties will lose some influence in government with the NRP ministers’ resignations. As the religious parties become more fractured, their power base will diminish and they might lose some of their grip over aspects of secular Israeli life. One can hope, anyway.

Allison on Sharon’s firing of cabinet ministers in attempt to push through his disengagement plan over the objections of his party. Too funny.

Incidentally, I don’t agree with Sharon’s political manoeuverings. If this plan is in fact supported by the population, as he contended, he should have put it to a referendum vote from the start, instead of only a vote in the Likud party. That would have given him the mandate to go forward. Instead, he’s trying to short-circuit democracy, and on an issue as divisive as this one that can’t be a good idea.

Still, Sharon – the ultimate cat with 9 lives – is probably only on his third or fourth. He keeps bouncing back as analyst after analyst underestimates him. The world would be wise to realize this and understand the popular support he enjoys among Israelis, instead of writing him off as merely a hard-liner or yet another corrupt politician.

A Ha’aretz editorial says Sharon’s leadership is over:

From a position of leadership, Sharon yesterday became a prisoner of his ministers, who undermined his plan to withdraw from the Gaza Strip and the northern West Bank.

The rebellion of four ministers – Benjamin Netanyahu, Limor Livnat, Silvan Shalom and Danny Naveh – who rejected even Sharon’s watered-down version of the plan left him lonely at the top. Sharon lacks political support for his preferred policy, and any attempt to present a mini-disengagement will lose him the support of the American administration. President George Bush offered extensive promises in advance to Sharon, who is now unable to fulfill his part of the bargain.

[ . . . ]

It seems that in order to take another step, it will be necessary to stake the whole pot and call elections.

Contrast this with the Jerusalem Post, which is calling for a unity government:

That the current political moment is of such magnitude goes without saying. The prospect of settlements being evacuated in general, and in the wake of a unilateral move in particular, makes the likelihood of civil strife high. This will be no time for Israel to be politically fractious. A government led by Ariel Sharon, Yosef (Tommy) Lapid and Shimon Peres will solidly represent the Israeli mainstream, and be difficult to delegitimize as it carries out tough policies.

[ . . . ]

With Labor alongside him not only will Sharon’s plan become easier to execute, it will also make Labor a partner in the unilateral vision, and thus passively concede that its peace-in-our-time rhetoric and policies of the 1990s have ended up in history’s dustbin.

So the rightist Jerusalem Post wants to avoid a far-right government by calling on the left-wing to join under Sharon’s leadership. And the leftist Ha’aretz wants to risk a far-right coalition government by calling for elections at a time when it knows Labor can’t win. Something seems backwards, no?

One thing both editorials have right is that disengagement from Gaza, while supported by a majority of Israelis in some form, won’t be an easy sell politically with such divided factions. In order to really accomplish change, some sort of uniting force will be necessary to bring together diverse political factions.

Meanwhile, Ariel Sharon is the cat with nine lives. He’s been branded as “finished in politics” countless times, and yet he always seems to survive. I don’t think that it’s so easy to dismiss him quite yet. He may appear to be fighting for his career now, but it wouldn’t be the first time.

Any murder is wrong. To take the life of another human being for no legitimate purpose is sick and disgusting and never justifiable.

But when the murder victim is a child, it tugs on our heartstrings even more.

Meryl has angry words for the murderers of Meirav Hatuel, aged two, and her pregnant mother and three older sisters:

Meirav was two. She and Rebecca have something in common. They’re both Jewish. Meirav lived in a town in the Gaza Strip with her three sisters. Rebecca lives here in central Virginia with her three brothers. Rebecca giggles a lot, and dances a lot. I’ll bet that Meirav giggled and danced, too.

Meirav was two. She was killed by palestinian terrorists while strapped in her carseat in the back of her mother’s car. Meirav’s body was riddled with bullets. The terrorists shot Meirav, her nine-months-pregnant mother, and her three sisters at close range. Then they ran up to the car and shot each of them in the head — to make certain they were dead.

[ . . . ]

Meirav was two. PA radio hailed her murderers as “heroic martyrs.”

Meirav was two. The palestinians celebrated throughout Gaza and the West Bank. Worse still, the murderers brought a video camera and recorded the deaths of the mother and children.

This is why I loathe them. This is why I don’t believe they want peace. This is why I have slowly but surely lost any sympathy I once had for the palestinians.

Rebecca is two. She is Jewish. If she were living in Gaza or the West Bank, she would be considered a legitimate target by the palestinians.

Meirav was two.

This was no case of an “innocent bystander” getting in the way. This was not an accident. No, this was a cold-blooded, deliberate attempt to murder an innocent woman and her children. I’m with Meryl on this one.

Update: Israpundit posted the e-mail address for anyone who wishes to send condolences to David Hatuel on the loss of his wife and daughters:

Expressions of sympathy for David Hatuel of Katif, whose wife and daughters were murdered by Palestinians, can be sent to him via his neighbor, Irit Ben-Aryeh, whose email address is abirit @ zahav.net.il

Hebrew preferred, but English would still be very much appreciated.

Ariel Sharon’s plan to unilaterally withdraw from Gaza was soundly defeated in today’s referendum in Israel, with exit polls indicating 60% of votes against and only 39% for:

In an initial response to the resounding defeat of his disengagement plan in a Likud Party referendum on Sunday, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said that while he and the Israeli public were disappointed with the results, he would respect them.

[ . . . ]

“I know that much of the Israeli public supports my plan. I know that they feel, as I do, disappointment with the results of the referendum. We have difficult days before us where difficult decisions need to be made,” Sharon said in a statement.

This could put Sharon’s job in jeopardy, although initially he said he would not resign. In fact, he vowed tonight to continue pushing the plan. Still, few politicians recover from this kind of defeat, and what will happen in the days and weeks ahead remains to be seen.

Results and reactions are, of course, mixed, as they tend to be with any controversial result. I’m not an Israeli Likudnik, so my opinion really doesn’t matter… but for the record, my reaction is more of a qualified disappointment. Disappointment that a plan that seemed like it might have a real chance of success will probably not have a chance to be put into place… but qualified because the terrorists will interpret any unilateral withdrawal as a sign of weakness.

What next? We’ll have to watch and see, I suppose.