Settlers believe evacuation betrays God's will

How are the soldiers dealing with the difficulty of forcing the evacuation of their own people? Men, women, and children?
Their response to all of these screams is mostly the same thing. They say, “We are carrying out the law.”

They stand quietly, or look away. Or they look at the people screaming and shouting and they just listen. They just take it.

It must be very hard for the soldiers. As I said before, many of them have tears in their eyes or they look quite stunned or shocked — even the top SWAT teams or police and elite army units here.

The whole nation is in shock as you can see the division and the trauma here among the soldiers and the settlers. 

Many of the protesters are young teenagers; how is it that they have become so passionate in their opposition to the pullout? Does it reflect some sort of generational divide?
It’s not a generational divide because all settlers are just as passionate from one generation to another. It’s just that many of these young people have come from the small, radical West Bank settlements where they believe it’s God’s law to settle his land.

They believe that no democratically elected government has the right to overthrow the law that God gave the Jews.

So, really this is all about the confrontation between what the settlers believe is God’s law versus the law of the state of Israel.

As far as they are concerned, it no contest — God’s law wins every time. 

That’s really what it’s all about — the conflict between God’s war and the law of the state of Israel.

These young radicals are like anti-globalization protesters or any other protesters all over the world; they are extremely violent and aggressive.

These youngsters who are living by themselves in these small settlements — playing the guitar, singing songs, half of them are probably smoking dope, praying, and they are violent. They are very hostile and aggressive toward the press, threatening us all the time.

The imagery of the forced evacuation is so dramatic and strong, even the architect of the disengagement, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, said he has been moved to tears by it. Will those images present a roadblock in the future? Will they further inspire extremists who are completely opposed to the formation of a Palestinian state in the future?
There is a very specific reason why the settlers are creating these kinds of images and protesting so bitterly, apart from the fact that this is a genuine expression of their feelings — which of course, it is.

But, also, they know very well that they’ve lost Gaza. What they are really fighting over now is the West Bank and Jerusalem. They want to show that the harder it is to evict them from here, the harder it will be to evict Jews from the West Bank and Jerusalem.

After all, there are only 9,000 Jews in Gaza, if it is this tough and emotional to evict them, image what it would be like to evict 240,000 Jews from the West Bank settlements, let alone the Jewish suburbs — another quarter of a million.

So, that’s what they are doing. They are trying to make it impossible for anyone to image that this could be repeated on a scale 20 or 30 times larger. 

It’s a political thing, as well as a personal expression.

MORE FROM MIDEAST & N. AFRICA

Mideast & N. Africa Section Front

United Arab Emirates cancels Iraq debt Tractors at cemetery for Israeli prisoner swap Iran signals no plans to stop nuclear regime Jerusalem attacker had Jewish lover On Iran, top military officer sounds like Obama Baby survives, mom dies in rampage Newsweek: Inside Iran's nuclear strategy Mideast & N. Africa Section Front   Add Mideast & N. Africa headlines to your news reader: