Wednesday, July 20, 2005

Kfar Maimon to London

How strange that a small yishuv like Kfar Maimon has suddenly become the center of world attention. London can I understand, even when there are no crocodiles displaying themselves there.

Things are moving so fast here in Israel. Politicians and national leaders have lots to say on the 10000-15000 orange protestors left in the company of a similar number of Israeli security forces. The Supreme Court (sitting as the High Court of Justice) will be sitting on the issue of 'bus blocking' that took place earlier and in the meantime the stand-off continues.

Now according to the media (Israeli and foreign), we are talking about right-wing folk who are getting involved in fisty-cuffs with their brothers and sisters in uniform. No doubt, there have been instances (and a few injuries so far) and there is a wide acceptance that some of the darker orange elements wish to (and do succeed to) promote or create confrontation.

But in essence, (as I type at least) there does seem to be a real sense of respect and brotherhood at Kfar Maimon. Sure it's tense and sure there's some verbal provocation and I can not condone tattooing ID numbers (Shoah-like) on one's arms and similar actions.
Still, the Yesha council is thinking and thinking hard as to the consequences of future actions. Many are now leaving but I understand other Anti-Disengagement crews are on the way.

It is all a little unclear and we will not know the intentions of the police, the government or the protest leaders until something significant happens. The orange crowd may try to march to Gush Katif tonight or they may go home for Shabbos to rebuild. Hard to know really.

What I do know is that we are not hearing it all through the mainstream media. People who were at the protest (you might judge them as lacking objectivity) report that some police and protestors prayed together this morning, that members of each side wish each other good night before bed and when orange teenage girls offered fruit and drink to the police and army staff, the reply was a simple "Lo Toda, Chamuda" - "No thanks, cutey".

You see, these stories re-emphasize the statements of Chief-of Staff Dan Halutz who maintains that we are not each other's enemies and we must not approach the protests and D-Day like that. I agree with him wholeheartedly and only wish all factions would follow that lead.

We have enemies however - some who are more obvious but are busy trying to miss another opportunity, and others who are clearly a few sandwiches short of a picnic or called Ken Livingston. His new statements (of yesterday) that equate Likud with Hamas and justify Palestinian suicide bombers are not so much horrendous as they are bemusing and hard to believe in light of the London attacks. He is clearly attracted to crocodiles and is speaking in complete contradiction to Prime Minister Blair, (although it also took him some time to recognize the Israel-London connection too).

Now that the Knesset has rejected a motion to delay the Disengagement, we should still continue to fulfil our collective responsibility. Let's keep our eye on the ball and not get distracted by placing the 'enemy tag' on our brothers and sisters.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Quite right. Let us not 'Disengage' from each other.