Needless Tragedy

Gary Cooperberg
April 5, 2005

Dear Readers,

Last Wednesday I received an email from the op ed editor of the Jerusalem Post. He offered me an opportunity to write an op ed piece "playing off" the following piece by Larry Derfner.

I agreed and sent in my article which follows this note. Although the editor was most gracious and sincere, when he did read my article he had a problem with it. He read Derfner's article as assuming that the "settlers" will not accept implementation of the so called "disengagement" without violence. He assumed that I would write a piece which blasted the decision but asserted that it is wrong to use violence against the state and the army.

The fact is that I do think it is wrong to use violence against the state and the army. That is not an argument. My position is simply that there will be violence owing to the fact that the present government has not allowed for normal democratic channels to enable the people to have a say in what is about to be done to them. I am not advocating violence, rather predicting it as a likely result of the criminal behavior of our government.

I invite you to read both articles and let me know what you think.

With Blessings from Hebron,

Gary

Needless Tragedy
by Gary M. Cooperberg
April 5, 2005

An atmosphere of fear and desperation is enveloping Israel owing to Sharon's intended program of ethnic cleansing of Jews from parts of our homeland. Victims of this capricious plan are branded as "radical" for refusing to accept "democratic" decisions which require them to willingly allow themselves to be deported from their homes. But was this truly a democratic decision?

Before he was elected Sharon clearly declared that no more settlements would be dismantled. By what right can he claim a mandate to now declare "not one Jew will be left in Gaza?" Is this really democracy? And when his own party refused to back this about face in policy, Sharon declared he would accept their decision, and then went right ahead on his mad path toward surrender to the PLO. When opposed by ministers in his own coalition he simply fired them. When it seemed certain that Tomi Lapid, would torpedo his budget and thus bring new elections, Sharon paid him 700,000,000 NIS of tax payers money to change his mind! Is this really democracy? Do you really expect the electorate, no matter what their positions may be, to accept dictatorial railroading as a means to make radical changes in our country?

True democracy asserts that the people are the ultimate rulers. Elected officials are supposed to be servants of the people and not the other way around. If Sharon really felt that a 180 degree change in policy was justified, then he had an obligation to get the approval of the electorate before trying to implement it. Not only did he make no such attempt, he emphatically declared his intention not to give the people a voice! Is this democracy? Whether or not the "disengagement" is a good idea, being that it affects the future of our country in a significant way, democracy demands that the people make this decision, not the politicians. If Sharon is so certain that the majority is with him he should have called for new elections and proved it. That would certainly have avoided the strife which now confronts us all. But he knows he is wrong and that he could never get reelected. So he bulldozed and bribed his own government to tow the line rather than trust in his own constituency. This is not democracy. It is despotism.

What is abundantly clear is that there has always been a radical fringe of self hating Jews who would like to blame "settlers" for all of the problems we have today. What they conveniently forget is that this country was built by "settlers". All Israelis are "settlers". This "them against us" concept is a manufactured one. It was invented by cowards who refuse to accept reality. These people would like to think that if we dismantle all the "settlements" in YESHA we will find real peace. Why is it so hard to remember the real peace we had prior to June of 1967 when there were no "settlements" in YESHA nor a Jewish presence in East Jerusalem? Can any of these peace heros explain why we went to war in 1967? Certainly it must have been because of those "peace hating" settlers.

The fabric of our society is being ripped apart today not because Jews, who were encouraged by all former governments to take up residence in YESHA, insist upon continuing to live in their homes in Israel. It is being ripped apart by cowardly and selfish politicians who think that this country is their plaything. Vigilantism springs up when there is a vacuum of leadership. When people, who have a right to expect their government to protect them, discover that their own government is acting against their interest to the point of endangering their lives and the stability of their nation, it is a normal and desperate reaction to take the law into their own hands. This only happens when government fails to do its job; when it refuses to recognize the authority of the governed. It should certainly be no surprise to find ordinary Jews taking to the streets and disrupting traffic as a desperate attempt to wake up their brothers and stop this madness. The more our government tries to stifle even these expressions of dissent, the more desperate the people will become. Normal, law abiding, citizens have a limit to how much oppression they will tolerate by those who presume to govern this country. It will not be a madman who commits an act of desperation. It will be good and law abiding citizens who have been pushed over the edge by elected despots. If you corner a rabbit and he feels threatened he will bite. Does this mean rabbits are violent?

How cynical to blame the victims of Sharon’s surrender as defying democracy, even as our government denies the people the right to decide! It is easy to claim that polls show that the majority supports this madness. But it is nothing less than criminal to demand that we rely on such assumptions when such radical steps are being planned. Make no mistake. The victims here are not only the Jews living in Gush Katif. The victims here are the entire population of Israel. If we allow elected officials a free hand to make any radical decision they choose, especially decisions which diametrically oppose the principles upon which we elected them, then let us at least be honest and not pretend we are a democracy. There is no question but that Sharon is inviting civil war, G-d forbid. He will not succeed in accomplishing his aim. But he will cause needless tragedy which he could have prevented.