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Settling the Land

PM to settlers: Enough messianic dreams


By Jerusalem Newswire Editorial Staff
October 25, 2004

Prime Minister Ariel Sharon Monday told the Jewish settlers that the “messianic complex” that causes them to believe they must settle their entire God-given homeland must give way to the need to appease a hostile world.

Speaking before the Knesset in the opening address of a 24-hour debate on his “disengagement” plan, Sharon continued to insist that Israel had no choice but to unilaterally retreat from the Gaza Strip.

The prime minister also noted that he has long been prepared to make such a move, and said it was wrong for some to accuse him of suddenly changing his stripes.

The daylong debate will culminate in the Knesset’s first official vote on the plan. Sharon is expected to have a safe majority of Knesset members behind the initiative.

Settlers’ faith disparaged

As his speech progressed Monday afternoon, Sharon attempted to paint himself as a part of that sector of Israeli society that would be most affected by the implementation of his disengagement plan.

"I know what the consequences are for thousands of Israelis who have lived for many years in Gaza, and were sent there by Israeli governments, and had children there, who didn't know another home," he said.

“I know, I sent them, I was a participant, and many are my personal friends,” Sharon explained.

“I am aware of their pain, their anger, their despair,” he said, just before criticizing the settlers for contracting what he called a “messianic complex.”

"You are wonderful people, but you have one weakness - a Messianic complex has evolved among you.”

Most of the Jewish residents of Judea, Samaria and the Gaza Strip moved to and continue to develop those areas because they believe the God of Israel has commanded them to settle the land.

All of what is today Israel, the PA-controlled territories, western Jordan, southern Syria and much of Lebanon was deeded to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the book of Genesis.

The book of Joshua records the dividing of that land between the Twelve Tribes of Israel.

Following a nearly 2,000-year exile, the Hebrew prophets declared Israel would once again possess these lands.

Israel’s only option?

The prime minister continued to push the theme that his retreat plan was really Israel’s only option if it wanted to avoid increased international pressure to negotiate and make concessions under fire.

Unilaterally quitting Gaza was a “necessary step” until the Palestinian Arabs decided to stop murdering Israel’s Jews, he said.

He also played the demographic card, parroting the long-held assumption that Israel’s Jews would soon find themselves outnumbered by a rapidly multiplying Palestinian Arab population, leading to the democratic annihilation of the Jewish state.

[ Ed. Note – This claim has been repeated since before the rebirth of Israel as a sovereign nation, though has always been proven incorrect by unexpected Jewish immigration. ]

The Knesset was set to hold its first official vote on the plan Tuesday. And while half of the MKs from Sharon’s own Likud Party vowed to oppose it, the plan was expected to win a handy victory thanks to the leftist and Arab parties.

Premeditated transfer

Sharon told the gathered parliamentarians that it was wrong for anyone to accuse him of suddenly changing his stripes, noting that he has been saying for years that “that I support a Palestinian state [and] that I am prepared for painful steps.”

Speaking on condition of anonymity years ago, a Likud Party source close to Sharon said even then that the presumed champion of the Greater Land of Israel movement would one day turn on the settlement enterprise.

In a recent interview with Jerusalem Newswire , Israel National News Opinion Editor Nissan Ratzlav-Katz explained that everything is tied motivation.

“Anyone…whose motivation for holding or relinquishing land is transitory - that is, based on shifting political, security, economic conditions - will of necessity change his position as those conditions dictate,” Ratzlav-Katz said.

On the other hand, “anyone whose motivation for holding or relinquishing land is fixed - the Bible, religion, culture and history, etc. - will of necessity not change his position regardless of shifting conditions.”

Sharon’s policies place him firmly in the former camp.

Religious war

Sharon also slammed Yasser Arafat for his role in “transforming a national conflict into a religious war.”

While Israel and much of the West refuse to recognize Islam as the driving force behind their enemies, the Muslims regularly point to the words of their god Allah to justify terrorist atrocities

The Islamic world’s 56-year war against the Jewish state is predicated on the Koranic stipulation that no land once controlled by Islam may revert to “infidel” rule.

[ Ed. Note – Tellingly, Israel’s Jews have not once been attacked by a Palestinian Arab Christian. This fact would seem to contradict Sharon’s assertion that the conflict is not religious. ]

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