By Jerusalem Newswire Editorial Staff
Jun 30, 2004
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s determination to uproot the Jewish residents of the Gaza Strip took on a more harsh edge this week when he issued threats against those settlers that did not voluntarily agree to evacuate their homes.
Any Jews that did not willingly leave Gaza and abandon the biblical faith that keeps them there would be in danger of relinquishing any financial compensation upon being uprooted, the prime minister warned Monday.
Those who in any way choose to physically fight for their homes would be severely punished, he said.
The Jews of Gaza, more than any other sector of Israeli society, have paid an enormous price in blood for the right to settle their God-given inheritance.
As Sharon’s “disengagement” plan picked up steam earlier this summer, they boldly declared they had no fear, “for the LORD our God is with us.”
Sharon’s own relationship with these pioneers has gone from championing their cause, to pledging cooperation with them in formulating his plan to quit Gaza, to demanding their capitulation in just two short years.
Temptation and intimidation
Israel’s Ma’ariv daily newspaper reported Monday that the Sharon government is preparing to expedite the process of offering advance payoffs to Jewish settlers willing to voluntarily abandon the Gaza Strip and the settlement enterprise they have for decades poured their blood and sweat into.
At the same time, the prime minister issued a harsh warning those Jews that chose not to cooperate in the ethnic cleansing of Gaza would risk forfeiting any financial compensation upon being forcibly uprooted from their homes.
During Monday’s Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee hearing, Sharon threatened any Gaza residents that physically resisted evacuation with severe punishment.
"Anyone who assaults soldiers or policemen or listens to orders to resist the evacuation should realize there will be a price to pay. Such actions will not be overlooked and measures will be taken against those people," Ha’aretz quoted Sharon as saying.
Getting ahead of himself
National Religious Party MK and committee member Sha’ul Yahalom promptly reminded the prime minister that his intention to eradicate the Gaza Jewish community has yet to gain government approval.
According to the compromise draft passed by the Cabinet on June 6, Sharon’s ministers merely recognized his plan, but agreed that its actual implementation would require further government approval later next year.
Sharon responded that Yahalom should not be so naïve.
“…Everyone knows that the plan is going to be implemented. By the end of 2005, there will not be Jewish communities in Gaza,” the one-time champion of the Jews’ right to settle their biblical patrimony said.
‘I pity the man’
Former deputy minister and Gaza resident Zvi Hendel of the National Union Party told Ma’ariv that Sharon’s newfound disregard for the embattled settlers was “another example of [his] total lack of any moral compass.”
“I pity the man. To try and play divide and rule games against Jews about to be deported from their homes takes despicable to a new low,” he said.
Hendel accused Sharon of corruption, and said the prime minister’s “compensation” scheme clearly indicates he “believes the settlers are as greedy and avaricious as he is.”
“We will prove him wrong. I am fully confident that within a relatively short time Sharon and his misguided defeatist policies will be relegated to the dustbin of history, where they belong,” Hendel vowed.
“If the terrorists have not succeeded in breaking our will Sharon certainly won’t succeed…”
‘God is with us’
From the perspective of the threatened settlers, it is not their fellow Jews, the Arabs or the Gentile nations, but rather the Lord God of Israel Who will have the final say concerning their future.
With the May 2 Likud referendum on Sharon’s retreat plan looming, residents of Gaza’s Katif Block released a short video showing why the plan was foolish and a betrayal of all those who have lived under fire in the Strip.
Displaying their unwavering faith, those participating in the video boldly sang:“Fear them not, for the Lord thy God He is with you.”
Sharon’s plan suffered an overwhelming defeat in that vote.
Future campaigns to save their homes include an upcoming effort by the settlers to garner two million Israeli signatures on a petition against the evacuation of the Gaza communities.