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Israel Resource Review |
21st August, 2005 |
Contents:
Evicting a Concentration Camp
survivor from Atzmona in Katif
Harvey Tannenbaum
He is known as
the 'Grandfather' of Atzmona.
Mr. Zadok is 82 years old, a concentration camp survivor who
fought the Nazis in the forest for 4years in World War II, is
the 'oldest' Jewish refugee in Israel in 2005. Mr. Zadok was
awarded a badge and medal by the Allies and another medal of
honor by Israel for his valor in his battle against the Nazis.
He arrived in Israel in 1947 and fought in all of its wars through 1967.
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Mr. Zadok's son was transferred at Yamit in 1982 and his grandson was evicted from Katif today by the Israel Eviction Forces(IEF) of the SHaron family. Tonight on national TV, we watched Mr. Zadok crying like a baby in front of the officer sent by the Sharon family to evict him from his pastoral home in Atzmona. His living room was filled with his children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren sitting next to the war hero who fought the Nazis in the pre state of Israel.
As the officer sent by Sharon's family of the IEF ordered the Zadoks to leave their home, Mr. Zadok took out a note to read on live TV asking if he fought the Nazis to be evicted by Jews from his home 62 years later in Israel? The TV cameras scanned the large family of the Zadoks as the patriarch cried and suddenly Mr. Zadok handed his medals of the heroism of his battle against the Nazis to the IEF officer who stood there and began to tear as he too listened to the story of Mr. Zadok of Atzmona.
The children, grandchildren, and the great grandchildren began to weep with their grandfather. The piercing sounds of the newest Zadok great grandchild born in Atzmona months ago provided the inability of the newsreporter to complete his 'reporting.' The cries of the Zadoks together with the 'return' of his medal of honor to the IEF officer of the Sharon family was too much to hear and see tonight.
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Intelligence Premonitions of
Disengagement
by Guy Bechor
Intelligence Expert
How can the Palestinians be prevented from copying the Kassam rocket fire from the Gaza Strip to Judea and Samaria?
In other words-how can Israel put a stop to what the Palestinians consider the successful logic whereby Kassam rockets = Jewish evacuation. After all, this rocket fire will no longer be on "peripheral" places like Sderot and Gush Katif, but fall in the heart of Jerusalem, at Ben-Gurion Airport, Petah Tikva and Kfar Saba. This logic is not just imaginary. Senior Hamas officials repeatedly say this at this time, just before the military victory parades that will be held in Gush Katif. This, after all, is Hamas's reason for being, it explains the evacuation of Gush Katif, it is behind the logic of the military expulsion of the Jews from there, it is what the Hamas calls the "el-Aksa victory," the direct continuation of the el-Aksa Intifada. Just
as the withdrawal from Lebanon was perceived as flight from Lebanon and
led to the idea of the Intifada, the withdrawal from Gaza is liable to
step up the battle over Judea and Samaria. This is a complex question,
since the idea of a unilateral withdrawal from both Lebanon and from the
Gaza Strip is correct, we just have to know the right way to carry it out.
Parliament First
Hamas will be in no hurry to expand its use of rocket fire and
terror. It isn't stupid. Therefore, it will reserve this until after
elections in the Palestinian Authority, which are expected to take place
early next year. The reason for this is because it wishes to present
itself as being a fair-minded organization, worthy of taking control of
the Palestinian parliament from the inside, and therefore also
controlling all of the Palestinian Authority. But after this seizure,
it will embark on another battle, this time for Judea and Samaria, now
backed by the independent territory of Gaza and perhaps also with a
seaport, as well as the historic precedent of Jewish uprooting.
The best way to prevent this expected trouble is to prepare a balance
of profit versus loss for the Palestinians, whether this is the
Palestinian Authority, whether this is Hamas and whether these are
civilians, when they weigh the idea of beginning a war of Kassam rockets
in Judea and Samaria. To our great consternation, the Israeli government
today is only offering them a balance of win-win.
There are many ways to create a balance of loss for the
Palestinians-military, infrastructure or political loss-when the
Palestinians do not only act on the basis of emotion and arousing
passions against Israel, but also on the basis of the clear and cruel
logic of profit and loss. In Arab culture, the fear of losing is much
greater than the desire to reach achievements, as the Palestinian saying
goes "make the calculation of loss before the calculation of profit
("ahsab hasaab al-khasara kabal hasaab al-makasab"). And indeed, in the
five years of the Intifada, the Palestinians made sure that their
society did not fall apart and that the symbiotic connection to Israel
remain in place despite everything.
This article suggests a strategic balance of loss, and if it is
carried out, it can perhaps prevent the worst, or at least create
dilemmas that today do not exist for the Palestinian leadership. This
balance is based on the word "disengagement" and on implementing it to
the letter, i.e. after the withdrawal from the Gaza Strip, that Israel
turn its back on the Palestinians there, basically give it a divorce,
and stop providing them with anything-not water or electricity or money
or medical backup or agricultural experts or money transfers. Israel
must not allow any Palestinians to work in its territory, and instead
of "crossings" it must set up a closed border. Let the Egyptian
"brothers" provide for the Palestinians. This would be a precedent for
all those planning another unilateral withdrawal for Israel: Israel
retreats, but at the same opportunity, cuts off its ties to the Palestinians.
If this is done, the Palestinians will think hard if its worth it to
them to disengage from the Israeli teat and enter an economic and
strategic desert, when the Arab world also boycotts and curbs them.
For the first time, the Palestinians will realize that they will also
have to pay a price, a high price, for their battle, and not only gain
achievements.
Double Profit
Unfortunately, in light of the Israeli government's policy today,
Israel is indeed "disengaging" from the Gaza Strip, but it appears that
this disengagement is for the sage of engagement: "crossings" will be
opened between Israel and Gaza that will give passage for workers into
Israel, the electricity and water companies have already announced that
they will continue to provide Gaza and northern Samaria with services as
usual even after disengagement, the shekel will continue to be the legal
and perhaps sole tender in Gaza, VAT money will continue to be sent and
Israel intends to open a "safe passage route" between Gaza to Judea and
Samaria.
For the Palestinians, this scenario constitutes a double profit: they
control the territory and also continue to milk Israel. In contrast, in
its folly, Israel will both lose its settlements in Gaza and also
continue to provide for the Palestinians there.
This double profit must be stopped as of now, especially since
stopping Palestinian labor inside Israel and not renewing the "safe
passage route" are welcome in and of themselves.
Why is Israel's evacuation in the Gaza Strip called "disengagement"
if afterwards Palestinian workers again enter Israel as if nothing has
happened? After all, if this total disengagement, the burden of
providing for the Palestinians will continue to be on Israel's
shoulders, and in effect, we will have done nothing.
On the eve of the last Palestinian uprising, 120,000 Palestinians
worked inside Israel. This created total Palestinian dependency on work
in Israel, and Israel became dependent on them and their labor. With
enormous effort their number was lowered to a few thousand and now, with
the first calm, there are those among us pushing to raise the number
again, as if the Intifada had never happened or as if appalling acts of
terror had never taken place.
It's time that Israel take advantage of the historic opportunity
afforded it for the first time since 1967 and encourage self-work or
minimize foreign work that does not make us dependent on it. There is no
need to expand on the security aspect, when Israel was transparent from
the intelligence and terrorist aspect to the enemy, when tens of
thousands of eyes walked among us in every corner and saw everything.
The situation is even worse in regard to the " safe passage route."
In the last few days the Palestinians said that in coordination with
Israel, it has been decided to re-operate the "safe passage route"
between Gaza and Judea and Samaria through Kiryat Gat, but "for now, in
the supervised convoy method."
Crossing Into Israel
Few know that this miserable "safe passage route," which began
working in early 2000 until the outbreak of the Intifada, contributed a
great deal to the Intifada. The concern of the Oslo people, who thought
of the idea, was that Gaza Strip residents would infiltrate Israeli
territory on their way from Gaza to the Tarkumiya crossing, and
therefore everyone leaving from Gaza to the West Bank and vice versa was
checked that they had indeed reached their destination in a reasonable
time. What the planners "forgot" to consider was that the Gazans did
indeed reach Judea and Samaria on time, but they simply remained there.
Experience shows that from Judea and Samaria, many of them entered the
State of Israel, where they stayed. That same year Israeli Arabs on the
seamline complained of thousands of Gazans who had moved and lived among
them and began work in Israel undisturbed, breaking the local job
market. And so, when the October 2000 riots broke out, the police in the
northern district were astounded to discover Gazan rioters and inciters
in the Nazareth region, for example.
If the safe passage route indeed takes on flesh, then in the
framework of "disengagement," Israel will only "engage" better with the
Palestinians who live in Gaza. The latter will stand in line to cross
into the West Bank, and from there straight into Israel, where five
years on, the separation fence is still incomplete. By this logic, today
Israel is more disengaged from Gaza than it will be in a few weeks.
It's time that the decision makers in Israel internalize the complex
term they themselves came up with-"disengagement" -which entails an
aspect of punishment and deterrence and distancing from the
Palestinians, from a position of strength, otherwise this will only be a
Jewish "uprooting" based on a position of weakness, inviting further
Palestinian aggression. If done properly, the concept of "disengagement"
can relate not only to what has already taken place in the Gaza Strip,
but also prevent and stop what is still liable to take place.
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