By Jerusalem Newswire Editorial Staff
Aug 07, 2005
Stress levels in Israel were stretching towards breaking point Sunday, just over a week before the implementation of the Sharon government?s nation-tearing ?disengagement? plan.
The day was marked by: the announced resignation of Finance Minister Binyamin Netanyahu during a cabinet vote to destroy the first three Jewish towns in Gaza; announcements that disengagement opponents plan a series of massive rallies; Israeli-Arab threats to launch an internal intifada following last Thursday?s murder of four by a Jewish soldier; and a growing tide of rumors that agents provocateur orchestrated those killings in a dirty tricks effort to demonize the anti-disengagement movement.
Meeting in Jerusalem, the cabinet of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon voted to authorize the uprooting of the first three of a total of 18 Jewish towns from the Gaza Strip. The way is now open for Netzarim, Morag and Kfar Darom to be razed, their residents forcefully removed, starting August 15.
Voting for the destruction of the other towns will be held at intervals over the next few weeks.
The vote, which was in any case guaranteed passage because of Sharon?s right to overrule, passed with 17 ministers in favor and five opposing.
Netanyahu announced his resignation shortly before the vote was held.
Meanwhile, organizers representing the hundreds of thousands of Israelis opposed to the plan have announced their intention to hold a series of massive political rallies and prayer gatherings through the coming week.
The first event is scheduled to take place at Jerusalem's Western Wall Wednesday, followed by a massive political rally in Tel Aviv's Rabin Square Thursday evening under the banner ?Gush Katif ? I Pledge Allegiance.?
The Tel Aviv demonstration will replace a gathering that had been scheduled to take place Monday evening in the coastal town of Ashkelon. Police refused to grant a permit for the Ashkelon rally due to its proximity to Gaza.
The last of three Western Wall prayer meetings is set to take place Friday, just as Arab Muslims are gathering atop the Temple Mount to offer petitions to their god, Allah. That event is expected to attract tens of thousands of observant Jews opposed to disengagement
Fearing a conflagration between the two religious groups, local analysts speculated Sunday that the Israeli authorities might try to restrict such a large gatherings of Jews so close to the Temple Mount.
A commentator for The Jerusalem Post disparaged the prayer meetings as ?ostensibly designed to invoke divine assistance,? and suggested that what some of its organizers really hoped was that a ?large Jewish presence adjacent to Islam?s third holiest site would trigger Arab rioting.?
Belittling of the disengagement opponents has become commonplace in the Israeli press, which is overwhelmingly left-of-center.
In related developments, last Thursday?s killing of four civilian Arabs by a Jewish soldier in the Israeli-Arab town of Shfaram is being used as a pretext by the habitually disloyal Israeli-Arab political leadership for launching an uprising against their own government.
The rare event of Jewish-Israeli ?terrorism? has been condemned ? in some instances almost hysterically ? by every sector of Jewish-Israeli society. (Israel has about 5.5 million Jewish and 1.8 million Arab citizens.)
Nonetheless, Israeli-Arab Knesset members have threatened to launch an internal uprising, accusing the Israeli government of allowing the killings to take place, and describing the murders as the natural outcome of the way Jewish Israelis are raised.
For their part, senior members of the Sharon government together with a number of left-wing journalists have tried to tie the killings to the activities of the anti-disengagement camp, and are apparently seeking to exploit Thursday?s shootings in an attempt to weaken opposition to the evacuation plan.
A flurry of reports about anonymous acts purportedly carried out by ?settlers? and imprisoned ?anti-disengagement foes? is further dividing a nation that is already close to being torn in two.
One report told of a threatening phone call to the parents of two of the Shfaram victims made by someone claiming to be from the same settlement where Thursday?s killer had studied. Another reported an anonymous note pinned to a prison synagogue door ?by some anti-disengagement inmates,? renaming the synagogue in honor of the killer. News is just coming in at the time of writing that graffiti praising the actions of the Jewish soldier has been found sprayed on walls in Jerusalem.
These seemingly staged incidents added fuel to a number of speculative reports that began to surface at the weekend suggesting covert government involvement in the Shfaram attack as part of its strategy to ensure the failure of the anti-disengagement camp.
As these events unfold, the nation is preparing to commemorate the 9
th
of Av, the day marking the destruction of Israel?s two temples and of numerous other catastrophic events that have plagued the history of the Jews.
The 9
th
of Av falls on Monday, August 14, the day before Disengagement begins.