The Price of Disengagement

by Dr. Eyal Levin

Channel 1 news reported in summer 2005 that the Israel Defense Forces had developed new technological devices to monitor each and every Gazan apartment and balcony in real time. Employing such advanced intelligence gathering methods, Israel would be able to protect itself from any terrorist plot.

At the time, we were days ahead of the unilateral disengagement and evacuation of Gush Katif, and the public realized all too late that the story was just a propaganda piece from then-Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's government. Those who deluded themselves into believing in the withdrawal did not even get a 100-day grace period. The terrorists' mortars aimed at Gush Katif found themselves a new address -- the communities on the Gaza Strip border, and then later the rest of Israel.

Those who recalled the shameful pullout from southern Lebanon were forced to relive the experience when we abandoned the Philadelphi Corridor, only to discover that the sheep's fear only whets the wolf's appetite. The statement that evacuating settlements only encourages terrorists, a statement that cut a certain IDF chief's career a bit short, turned out to be completely true. 

Today, after Operation Cast Lead and in the midst of Operation Protective Edge, maybe we should reconsider and learn something from the residents of Gush Katif. We may have booted them from their homes and destroyed their houses, but something about their Zionist legacy should be mentioned these days. Unlike the rest of Israel's citizens, even at the worst of times, the residents of Gush Katif never asked for mobile bomb shelters. They said what they wanted clearly: Let us be the country's frontier; let us have the privilege to shape the borders with our blood; let us be the silver platter.

Israel did not accept their request, the principles of Zionism were stamped out, and we have been playing the price in blood ever since. We must return to the legacy of the sons of Gush Katif: Security and settlement go hand in hand. Without settlement, there is no security. And without security, there is no Zionism.

If we stick to the same simple truth expressed by Zionist pioneer Berl Katznelson and implemented by former Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion, we may be able to bleed just a little bit less for the homeland.

Dr. Eyal Levin

Source: http://www.israelhayom.com/site/newsletter_opinion.php?id=9237

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