Wednesday, August 24, 2005

Disengagement Dilemmas

There is a Gemara in Pesachim which says "Bechol dor vador, chayav adam..., "In every generation, a person is required to view himself as if he went out of Egypt."

The past week has raised many dilemmas for the average Israeli. Below is a list of some of the many extraordinary situations our fellow Jews have been in. How would you have dealt with these scenarios?

If I were a settler asked to leave my home last week, I would have…

If I were and IDF soldier or policeman, faced with the task of removing settlers from their homes, I would have approached the task by….

If I were a Rabbi over a hesder Yeshiva and had to give instructions to soldiers who disagreed with disengament, I would tell them that….

Being passionatly against the disengament, I would have protested by………

If I were Ariel Sharon, I would have ensured the disengament proceeded smoothly by saying that…..

If I were a holocaust survivor, I would have viewed the use of Nazi parallels by some settlers as….

If I were a Christian Zionist in Australia/USA, watching the disenagment would have made me feel…..

If I were Shimon Peres(Labour) during the disengagement I would have held a rally calling for…….

If I were a Christian Zionist in Australia/USA, watching the disenagment would have made me feel…..

If I was an enviromentalist, hearing that some of the settlers would make the sandunes of Nitzan their new homes would make me feel…

Both Bibi Netanyahu and Natan Sharansky(Likud) were against disengagement. Natan resigned his post six months ago, Bibi resigned two weeks ago. If I were a member of the Likud party, I would have….

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

i can't agree with you on the disengagement issue for so many reasons. the whole thing just makes me so upset.

Ittay said...

The disengagement also makes me upset. Even though I support the policy of separating from the Palestinians, I do not find any glee in seeing good honest Jewish families being dragged from their homes. Nobody on the left enjoyed watching the scenes from Gush Katif. But I, like many others in the government of Israel, are willing to experience this pain, in order to have a long term gain.

That gain is an independent Jewish state, a democracy, where everyone one of its citizens can vote. That state will have a Jewish majority, and will not have to govern over 3 million Palestinians who live in (according to Ariel Sharon) “incredibly cramped refugee camps, in poverty and squalor, in hotbeds of ever-increasing hatred, with no hope whatsoever on the horizon.”

BarbaraFromCalifornia said...

The issue makes me upset as well. Nevertheless, I am focusing on the security of the Jews. If there is peace, for which I do not hold my breathe, that will be icing on the cake.

Good Shabbos.

bec said...

"That state will have a Jewish majority, and will not have to govern over 3 million Palestinians who live in (according to Ariel Sharon) “incredibly cramped refugee camps, in poverty and squalor, in hotbeds of ever-increasing hatred, with no hope whatsoever on the horizon.” --ittay

while i'm a complete zionist, this is the only hope that i have. at least we'll maintain a jewish majority. i pray that this wasn't all for nothing and that we, as jews, do not suffer any more for this.
great blog, btw.

Ittay said...

I agree Bec. But how do we maintain a Jewish majority and hold on to the West Bank indefinatley? I don't think anyone has answers for this question.

Anonymous said...

transfer.

Ittay said...

transfer 2.4 million Palestinains? To where? How? You must be dreaming.

This is not what Herzl meant when he said "if you will it, it is no dream"

Anonymous said...

Send them to jordan,syria,iraq,lebannon,iran or any other part of the middle east - why is it only possible to talk of tranfer of Jews but not of palestians? What would the world (and the human rights movements)have said if Israel made cages to remove palestianins from their homes?
Rav Kahana was once asked
"how would you like to get rid of the arabs?"
"ELAL!" he answered