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Uprooting Jews

Zionists respond as pullout picks up speed


By Jerusalem Newswire Editorial Staff
July 22, 2004

Israeli Zionists have responded to the looming threat of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s unilateral retreat plan by further fulfilling the biblical injunction for them to settle their God-given homeland.

In the six months since Sharon made his plan official, the population of the southern Gaza bloc of Jewish communities has increased by five percent, according to Interior Ministry documents quoted by Army Radio Monday.

One Samarian settlement slated for removal doubled its population in the same period.

These areas are experiencing the highest population growth in all of Israel, and settler leaders admit it is due to their efforts to recruit new residents who will resist Sharon’s efforts to deny Jews the right to live where they choose in the land of Israel.

Meanwhile, Sharon’s bureau chief, Dov Weisglass, said Wednesday that the government would consider moving the Gaza evacuation up to November 1 if it were able to put together the right kind of coalition prior to that date.

Weisglass made the comment during a meeting with representatives of the leftist Labor Party aimed at forging a national unity coalition. Despite its Zionist roots, Labor is a firm backer of relinquishing Israel’s control over all of Judea, Samaria and the Gaza Strip.

Accelerated threat

Sharon’s plan to unilaterally uproot the Jewish communities of the Gaza Strip and northern Samaria may be implemented much sooner than anyone originally thought.

That is, if the prime minister can successfully woo coalition partners that will vote in favor of his policies.

With many of his own Likud ministers staunchly opposed to fleeing Gaza in the face of unrelenting “Palestinian” terror, Sharon is looking to forge an alliance with the opposition Labor Party and bring more leftist politicians into his cabinet.

Labor, however, wants Sharon to consider accelerating the timeframe of the pullout if it joins his government.

Sharon’s bureau chief, Dov Weisglass, told Labor officials Wednesday that the prime minister would do just that, pegging November 1 as the earliest date for the start of forced evacuations.

According to the version of Sharon’s plan adopted by the cabinet earlier in the summer, removal of settlements is not to take place until after the cabinet has another chance to vote on the matter on March 1, 2005.

The terms of that compromise notwithstanding, "we learned that the first of March is far from being a holy date," Labor negotiator Dalia Itzik told reporters after Wednesday’s meeting.

"I got the impression that voting on compensating [those settlers who voluntarily leave their homes] could already begin during the Knesset summer recess, setting the plan in irreversible motion,” Itzik said.

Biblical response

But those Jews Sharon is determined to uproot from their homes are unwavering in their belief that God has given them a mandate to settle the land of Israel, and are set to make implementation of his plan as difficult as possible.

While Israel’s leftist media has been busy spreading rumors of planned settler violence, the Jews of Gaza and Samaria have been quietly responding to Sharon’s plan in a more Zionist manner.

Settler leaders admitted to engaging in a campaign to recruit new residents for the threatened communities. Their efforts have resulted in a population jump of five percent in southern Gaza’s Katif Bloc of settlements, and 50 percent in one of the Samarian communities slated for removal.

That growth represents the highest population increases in Israel over the past six months.

The area now known as the Gaza Strip was given to the Tribe of Judah following Israel’s exodus from Egypt. That allotment is recorded in the book of Joshua.

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