JPost/Jerusalem Report/Haaretz: Article, Settlements: (762) WE MUST MOBILIZE AND SACRIFICE FOR SURVIVAL! A local journalist warns us The clouds of the coming war are converging upon Israel (Carolinde Glick Jerusalem Post Oct 6 ’06) And from a neighboring academic, an idea we should seriously consider: Confronting difficult questions and putting them out in public could help prevent us from falling to the precipice from which any change becomes more difficult and expensive. (Mona Fayyad, author and professor at the Lebanese University of Beirut, commenting on the challenge of Hezbollah to Lebanese intellectuals.) With our increased concern of an attack on the state by neighboring countries it is time to seriously ask whether the Jews/Israelis living east of the 1949 border are an asset or a liability in the event of a future conflict/war. Let us consider a possibility. Scene one: The not too distant future. Something (anything) causes a flare up along our borders. We discover that we are being invaded by the regular armies of Syria and Lebanon and perhaps Hezbollah from the north, Egypt and maybe even Sudan from the south and, from the east, Jordan potentially joined by Iraq and Iran. This coalition’s intent is to cut the country in two and place themselves in position for a drive on Tel Aviv and the nation’s population heartland. Scene two: With the news of this mass assault many Palestinians take courage. Thousands attack and besiege communities of Jews/Israelis living in the immediate vicinity of the large Palestinian cities; Jenin, Nablus (Schechem), Ramallah, Qualkiah, Bethlehem, Hebron, and adjoining refugee camps. The Palestinians easily outnumber the Jews and the ammunition in settlement store rooms. After years of being humiliated, repressed, and educated to inferiority and hatred, the intention of the converging mass is murderous. (What else could we really expect?) Scene three (The Dilemma): On a base just a few kilometers to the west, an armored battalion is being outfitted and prepared for battle. Its orders are to proceed to meet the Jordanian/Iraqi troops driving west toward the Mediterranean coast. But at the same time, they hear loud and clear cries for help from the many scattered settlements. Should the reserve force disperse and move to save the civilians in the communities which are under attack to the east, north and south? Or should the battalion maintain its unity and advance to meet and challenge the forces racing for the Israeli heartland? There are not enough military resources men, tanks and planes for every assignment. A decision must be made! Can we afford to divide and dilute our forces to defend ten, fifteen or eighty separate groups of Jewish spread over hundreds of square kilometers of land? Or should we (must we) preserve the focus of the IDF forces to fight an enemy fixed upon attacking and destroying our population centers? Scene four (The Conclusion): To avoid such an appalling conundrum I believe what is needed is the unilateral withdrawal of Jewish/Israeli civilians from essentially the entire area east of the 1949 armistice lines (with changes similar to those proposed by Ehud Barak). Why unilateral? Because it seems that there is no agreement the political parties on the right would trust or accept, while there is no agreement the left would not embrace. But, most of all, because there is nothing that the Palestinians can offer in compensation for our withdrawal nothing that we need from them that they have not already promised in order to effect our past withdrawals. However, we all know the disastrous consequences of our past withdrawals from Gaza and Lebanon. Our people, our politics and our common sense will not allow us to make the same mistake a third time! We have seen that withdrawal from Gaza of both our civilian and military presence did not inspire the Palestinians to view themselves as free of occupation. Neither did they take advantage of the opportunity to focus their energies on building their own society. So it should be obvious that a replay of the Gaza strategy in Judea and Samaria would not motivate the Palestinians to redirect their efforts to more constructive pursuits. Thus, though a civilian withdrawal is critical, there is no compelling reason to remove the IDF and leave ourselves vulnerable. ANY OBJECTIVE observer of the developments in our region understands that the storm of war is rapidly approaching us. (Caroline Glick JP Oct 6 ’06) If those living beyond the Green Line most of whom are deeply committed to the Jewish state in Eretz Yisrael understood the danger they potentially represent, they would be the first to embrace this sacrifice and to demand a realignment of forces/mobilization.
