[Mb-civic] Betrayed in Gaza - Eugene Robinson - Washington Post

[William Swiggard]

Betrayed in Gaza

By Eugene Robinson
Friday, August 19, 2005; Page A21

On television, the tumult in the Gaza Strip looks like nothing less than 
a pogrom -- soldiers dragging Jews out of their homes and synagogues for 
immediate, involuntary, permanent relocation. Does it matter that the 
soldiers are Jewish, too? Not to the Jews being hauled away. Does it 
matter that some of the most vociferous protesters don't even live in 
Gaza and are just there to make a point? Not if you remember all the 
Freedom Riders of the civil rights era who came from Massachusetts or 
Michigan, not Mississippi.

What's happening in Gaza is geopolitically and historically correct, and 
when seen from the proper altitude -- high enough that individuals blur 
into groups -- it's morally correct as well. I agree with a succession 
of U.S. presidents that the Israeli settlements in Gaza and the West 
Bank are a roadblock to peace. I'm pleased that the Palestinians are 
joyously reclaiming land that was taken from them in 1967, and I hope 
this is a step toward the viable Palestinian state they deserve. I 
believe the evacuation makes Israel more secure, not less.

In other words, I adhere to the orthodox liberal position on the 
Israeli-Palestinian conflict. It's not a great position, I realize, just 
far better than all the others.

But I can't watch those images from Gaza and ignore the low-altitude 
personal tragedy that's unfolding. Histrionics and political theater 
aside, children are being turned out of their homes. Prime Minister 
Ariel Sharon told the settlers they should blame him, not the soldiers. 
And they should.

They should also blame every one of the many Israeli politicians who 
used them like pawns all those years and now are forsaking them for the 
greater good. They should blame the hawks who encouraged them to move to 
the occupied territories as a way of staking a claim to Greater Israel. 
They should blame the doves who disingenuously allowed them to stay in 
Gaza so that one day they could be used as a bargaining chip.

Yes, they should blame Ariel Sharon and the other leaders who planted 
the dream in their minds, nurtured it, encouraged it to take root and 
grow and blossom -- and then killed it. It was an overzealous dream, a 
foolish dream, a dream so single-minded and devoid of empathy -- this 
land is ours, although we have just arrived; you are usurpers, although 
your great-grandfathers turned this soil -- that it was always 
precarious, a castle made of Gaza sand. Imagine living amid such hatred 
and resentment that you have to sling a loaded Uzi over your shoulder to 
take your family to the beach.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/08/18/AR2005081801642.html?nav=hcmodule

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