2005-09-13—Gaza aftermath |
||||
|
||||
|
jewishsightseeing.com, September 13, 2005 |
By Ira Sharkansky
We could have told you so.
The day of Israel's disengagement from Gaza was less than
elegant.
The night before, we saw pictures of a soldier fastening a
sign on the walls of an abandoned synagogue which read, "Holy
Place." Last night we saw a Palestinian ripping down that sign, while
others were attacking a pillar with a sledge hammer and the surroudings were
on fire. Other pictures showed several thousand Palestinians rushing across
the border to Egypt, supposedly closed and monitored by Egyptian police. One
Palestinian was killed, according to initial reports by an Egyptian sentry.
It did not take long for an official to announce from Cairo that it was not
an Egyptian who did the killing. He knew that it was a stray bullet from a
Palestinian shooting in celebration.
Reuters praised the Palestinians for their restraint. "Palestinian
officials and analysts were generally optimistic that relative calm would
prevail, citing scenes from evacuated Jewish settlements that, while
chaotic, did not include factional violence."
Israel's president has called the Palestinians vandals. Other
officials used the term barbaric. Religious Jews promise to return to their
settlements in Gaza and rebuild the synagogues. Palestinian and Israeli
critics accuse the Israeli government of leaving abandoned synagogues for
the Palestinians to destroy, so Israel could exploit the pictures to justify
their own illegal activities. A spokeman for an Israeli civil rights
organization promised to begin proceedings in European courts against
Israeli soldiers for war crimes. His hope is that officers and soldiers
involved in the death of civilians will fear to leave Israel. When asked if
his organization would begin procedures against Palestinians who killed
Israeli civilians, he said that was not his priority.
Israeli government officials have said that continued firing
of missiles from Gaza will bring a new response. There will be zero
tolerance. Israel will not pursue individual Palestinians, but hold the
Palestinian Authority responsible. They should know that we have mortars,
too.
Does this mean that Israel will bombard Palestinian
settlements if the missiles continue? At least one missile landed in an
empty field yesterday. Will Palestinian celebrants be given a day or two or
three to let off steam? Will the strong verbiage be our principal line of
defense, backed up by a program to reinforce roofs of building close to Gaza
with concrete and a warning system that will give those out of doors a few
seconds to find shelter when a missle approaches?
A national election is not likely to help us in this period
of uncertainty. None of the major or middle sized parties are in shape to
fight the election that almost all of them say is essential. We could end up
with seven parties that have in the past been in a governing coalition, each
winning between 3 and 20 members in a 120 seat Knesset. Putting together a
new coalition could take until the next election.
If anyone out there has seen the Messiah wandering around in
search of a mission, check credentials, and send him or her in our
direction. If the Messiah claims to have a more pressing assignment in New
Orleans, let it be, but make sure that we are on the list for early
attention.
Sharkansky is a member of the political science department at Hebrew University in Jerusalem |