To my sister the tsfoni - an open letter
Note: Please read both this and the previous post together. This is not a pro or anti disengagement post (I can appreciate both sides of the argument), please keep the comments off that angle if you can.
(A tsfoni is a name generally used for an Ashkenazi Secular North Tel Aviv person)
You sit there in your salons in Savyon sipping on Uzi Landau's wine and cheese. As they say, salvation comes from the most unlikely source, your old arch-enemy, the hated Arik Sharon, demagogue supreme, butcher of Sabra and Shatilla, the settler idealogue, has agreed to turf settlers out of their home. A good start. If Peres, Beilin, Sarid et al could get their act together, we'd be able to recreate the spirit of Oslo, the good times, those heady days when the world loved Israel.
Those 8,000 settlers in Gush Katif needed thousands of soldiers to protect them. Many of our finest boys gave their lives there. That particular nightmare is nearly over. But what happens next? Will the rockets stop falling on Sederot? Will they develop stronger rockets that can reach Ashkelon, Ashdod, Rechovot? Maybe even Tel Aviv? Well, Southern Tel Aviv wouldn't be too bad, it would clear more parking spaces. As long as they miss Susan Dellal.
Would you expect with similar equanimity a decision to forcibly remove 8,000 Arabs from their home? Wouldn't Haaretz, Peace Now and their cohorts be up in arms, filing Bagatsim to their man on the inside Barak, following it up in the European Court of Human Rights, the UN, the ICJ, maybe even bring the Belgians in again - they seem to like this stuff?
Can you totally accept the "Transfer" of thousands of fellow Jews who settled there with the blessing of every Israeli government, Likud and Labour? Is this as part of a final stategy of overall peace? At least Chamberlain's detente had a piece of paper, which he could frame or show his grandkids. What did Sharon get?
You are asking these people to leave everything valuable to them, their homes, sentiments, land and to hand them over to the very people who have been trying to kill them? You have no compunction in doing so? You want to win me over to your cause? Show some compassion. Have some feeling.
I understand you. I want you to understand others.
TRK
posted by TRK @ 12:50 AM
17 comments
17 Comments:
so then... what ARE we supposed to comment about? your fine erudition and prose?
If you insist! You can comment about the ideas contained in the post. I'd prefer the thread not to spiral into a straightforward pro/anti argument, if we can do that. It's meant to be more of a perspective piece.
TRK
I actually have to say that I agree with both pieces. I have been torn about the dissengagement for a long time now. On the one hand I think we need the dissengagement, and at the same time I fear for what might be the day after.
with that said I also think that the Settler piece is exactly the point I try to make to my firends all the time.
Good Job TRK
i bought a gush Katif T-shirt today. Not to express any sort of political statement, but as an investment. i think the retro value of it will appreciate tremendously after they give gush katif back...
also, excellent comma usage. sparce, yet precise.
menachem, I agree with your opinion about buying the T-shirt. It'll also make a good conversation piece later on. TRK, I don't know if you read my piece on the disengagement. I wrote why I think it has to be done. What's in my heart? I have the same debate w/in myself that you write here. I think it's an excellent portrayal of the debate that's had w/in our heads and our hearts. You feel for the people and also try to look at reality. It's nowhere near being black and white. There's so many gray areas, you don't know where to look first. It's heart-wrenching. What can you do? Thanks for putting those thoughts into words, TRK.
i think the disengagement is wrong, but i am not naive enough to believe that it will not happen. it is sad to see Israel again commit national suicide. what bothers me though is how incompetent the government has been at avoiding the growing rift that has emerged as a result of this plan. that out of all things is the worst outcome of this "disengagement" plan, land we can always take back, but the pain and hatred that has been stirred up by all of this is nearly impossible to breach. there is a refusal on both sides to respect or understand each others opinion. it is this that i find most troubling.
Thanks for the comments guys - Menachem, is that all? Olim Chadashim and Yashanim, glad you approve. Chai - is it the government or the people who have caused the rift?
People - if you identify with one of the viewpoints, please respond and tell me what you think - you know you are out there.
TRK
it is a little bit of both, the government should have gone about this whole thing with a little bit more sensitivity to both sides, instead of arik Sharon's normal bulldozer style. the blame can also fall on the people for it is them who are drifting apart and fighting. though, perhaps i am biased, but i sense that there is more hatred for the right wing on the left wing side then there is hatred for the left wing amongst the right wing.
People arent blocking traffic and wearing orange stars to win suport. It's to show that the right wing will not go quietly. If everyone would sit and sing "We shall overcome" noone would be hurt, but the settlers wouldnt have a home. Their only way to get somewhere is by attacking-as we've learned from the Arabs. If they block one highway once, it just pisses people off. If they block every highway,break every piece of equipment, interrupt whatever they can, then the government will have to stop and think if the cost is worth it. Passive is nice to prove a point, but it doesnt accomplish.
That said, I dont agree with disengagement, but also dont agree with keeping things as they are, with so many people dying there for no purpose. The right wing has to stop being an anti-movement and come up with a feasible alternative of their own. Criticism is only useful if its constructive.
What about your brothers the tsfoni and settler, hmm?!
CB, It was a cute alliteration for sisters. I'm still waiting for Menachem to comment on it.
Well... Regarding the settlers--- I don't think violence is the answer. What hurts me most is to see one jew hurting another jew physically. I am all for passive resistance, despite being a kachnik yishuvnik. Debate and trying to convince people logically against the disengagement are good first steps- thats why I and my seminary have gone door to door, with Panim el Panim, trying to convince people that the dissengagement is a terrible mistake. But that hasnt seemed to work. People still are in favor of giving these terrorists a reward for their work.
Sometimes, desperate situations call for desperate measures. And if those desperate measures are burning tires, to block traffic, causing people to think about the disengagement, then fine. Let them be pissed. Angry. Whatever. They have every right to. But so long as they realize that this has to do with the disengagement, and that they dont disattach themselves (halevai this were in hebrew, and i would be able to pun about them mitnatkim et atzmam mehamatzav) from the situation. People can't just go on their every day life as if nothing majorly drastic is going on, as happened when they evacuated Yamit. Let them be pissed. But at least let them realize.
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BAD,
Thanks for the comment. A few points:
1) What is their aim? To get people to sit up and take notice? To topple the government? To annoy people sufficiently?
2) Israel gave back Yamit and seemed to live through it ok.
3) You want people not to disattach themselves from the situation. If you piss them off, won't they just lean to the other viewpoint?
TRK
to 3) Nope. They did a poll. This doesn't affect peoples opinions at all...
2) Israel "lived" through it, but its a different story. At least then they were promised something. And it wasnt thousands of people who've been attached to this land for over 20 years.
1) Many aims. The biggest aim is to show the israeli govt that they arent afraid of jail, to take away the strength of israels biggest threat "we'll put you in jail". We say "Go f--- urself. we dont care. we WANT to go to jail." And another aim is to show the israeli gvt that israeli police will be needed elsewhere during the evacuation, and then there wont be enough to carry it out.
i feel that, while no one will really say this explicitly, all the protests, all the tires burned, all the mass rallies organized by the YESHA council they are all to show the government and the rest of Israel how hard expelling Jews from their homes and giving back land will be. i feel that most of the upper echelons of the settler movement while never saying so outright, recognize that the disengagement plan will go ahead and that there is little chance of stopping it, so the plan is now to make this disengagement as hard and as painful as possible, without creating backlash to the cause. thus making any future "disengagements" all the more unlikely. i hate the disengagement plan, but i do not see anyway for it to be stopped, so go out and protest, but don't think that it will do any good in the short term, in the long run, yes that is the hope, that the painful images that come out of this evil plan will change the heart of the nation. that the image of Jews being expelled from their homes once again, that it wasn't good enough that the gentiles did it to us, that we have to do it to ourselves, will cause a dramatic shift in the national conscience. thus making it extremely hard for any future "government" of Israel to try and expel the brave Jews of YESHA all over again.
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