The results of the elections in the Likud Central Committee provide a good opportunity to examine whether or not the Gush Katif regional council and the Judea, Samaria and Gaza Council are taking the right path; that is, is it true that "love will win out"?



Three honorable, principled people, faithfully and honestly representing their movement's idealism, competed against opportunistic politicians who hold one opinion one day and vote against it the next - without integrity, without shame, with only gross personal interest; long live the post and the hell with all the rest.



I have before me a notice put out by the Judea, Samaria and Gaza Council along with the Katif communities committee; it says the following: "Tent City Across From the Knesset. We will call upon the Knesset members: Don't have a hand in expelling Jews from their land, don't damage state security, don't tear the nation apart." And what will they do there in that "tent city"? Public relations activities around the government complex and the "Expulsion Authority", and in the evening, house-to-house campaigning and hanging banners from balconies. And finally: "A mass rally across from the Knesset."



Please answer me this question, good Jews: 3,000 Likud Central Committee members voted as they voted because of a lack of PR? They were unfamiliar with the Likud platform? Ariel Sharon did not denigrate their decisions any number of times? And was there no love in their hearts for the minister and deputy minister who gave up their posts and went into the political desert only and exclusively for pure and noble motives? If so, then why did they prefer the aggressive dictator's spineless and unprincipled yes-men?



The answer, it seems, is that in this world, and particularly in the world of politics, other forces hold sway; forces upon which the methods of struggle chosen by the settler establishment have no effect. In light of this - and as is written in Pirkei Avot, "Where there are no people, try to be a person." - spontaneous initiatives that take a different path have sprung up in the general public.



Rabbi Menachem Felix, of Elon Moreh, is heading an initiative that says:



The Fathers and Mothers Petition: Our Children Will Not Uproot!



We are parents of children serving in the security forces . We educated our offspring to the values of serving in the army, of volunteerism and of contributing to the nation and the land. Out of that education, our children volunteered to fulfill difficult, demanding and dangerous missions.



Our children enlisted in order to protect their homeland, not in order to assist in destroying part of the country and handing it over to an enemy.



Our children enlisted in order to protect the state and the lives of its citizens, not to destroy towns and exile their residents.



Our children enlisted in order to fight the enemy, not in order to bestow upon him a free gift.



We are convinced that if, God forbid, they will be ordered to take part in the act of uprooting, our children will know to prefer the values on which they were educated over blind obedience to such an un-Jewish and immoral order.




Rabbi Felix and his associates are signing parents up to that statement. Noam Livnat, also from Elon Moreh, is organizing a campaign collecting signatures on a "Declaration of Reserve Soldiers", which says as follows:




We, the undersigned, are Jewish citizens of the State of Israel who serve as reserve soldiers in the IDF. Our military service we perform with pride, out of a recognition of our responsibility and of our privilege to take part in defending the people of Israel in their land and in the war against the enemy.



We identify with the statements of the rabbis and public figures who see in the "disengagement plan" and the evacuations, destruction and expulsion a national disaster and a religious prohibition, in which it is forbidden to take part. We declare hereby that we will have no part in executing the plan.




According to what appears on the Internet, thousands have already signed the petition.



And of late, Dr. David Matar, chairman of a medical board at the army's induction center when doing his reserve duty, sent a letter to the Commander of the IDF Personnel Corps, Maj.-Gen. Elazar Stern, in which he wrote:



As you know, the word 'disengagement' is simply a euphemism for the forced expulsion of some 8,000 Jews from their homes and lives in the Gaza Strip and northern Samaria, as well as the uprooting and destruction of flowering Jewish communities, including their synagogues and cemeteries. The Prime Minister has entrusted the IDF with the overall responsibility for implementing the plan, even if the actual expulsion will be carried out by the Border Guard and the police. The press is reporting that the army is seriously preparing for it, including planning, intelligence, training in fake settlements, building detention camps for people who will dare to resist, and declared willingness to use all means to repress the resistance of those Jewish residents to being uprooted and expelled.



What this means is that the army has received an order to declare war on a group of innocent and loyal citizens, to define them as a target and an enemy, and to break into their homes in order to expel men, women and children. This is combat in every sense, with planned violence by the security forces against Jewish citizens. It will easily deteriorate into catastrophes such as occurred in the Altalena. And I'm not even mentioning the heavy losses on our side from Arab fire during and especially after the implementation of the plan. These insane orders are blatantly illegal, and it is forbidden for any soldier, Jew or non-Jew, to carry them out. The Israel Defense Force is designed to protect the People of Israel and the Land of Israel, and to fight the Arab enemy - and not Jewish brothers."



As a religious person who keeps the commandments, I see any order that contradicts the commandment to settle the Land of Israel as equal in gravity as an order that would seek to enforce Sabbath violation or eating pork.



I am unable, spiritually and on principle, to serve in a hostile army, which has declared war on me, on my family, on my friends and on a very large part of the nation. And that is so even if a thousand "disengagement laws" are passed, with the support of all 120 Knesset members, the authorization of a referendum, and the permission of the High Court, the UN and the US State Department.



Therefore, I am hereby returning my reserve duty ID card. I am of course prepared to suffer the consequences of this act - including being put on trial.




That letter received hundreds of reader comments on Arutz Sheva and on Ynet, where, in the nature of things, most of the reactions were negative; and the opposite on Arutz Sheva. Such comments are not a referendum, one person can send many, many comments, a certain camp can organize a mass mailing of comments, but even so, I was surprised by the relatively large number of positive reactions on Ynet.



To what end are people being sent to knock on a million doors? A referendum is not going to be carried out. To hang up signs from the balconies? This is what will stop the plague?



Rabbi Felix, Noam Livnat and Dr. Matar are showing the way. A person says: "I cannot, in good conscience, take part in such an horrific act." And volunteers must be signed up to go to the place, in the tens of thousands, in order to block the expulsion machine; and all the massive preparations such an operation demands must be done now so as not to miss the boat.



There is no time to find the people. They are already in our database, those 100,000 to 200,000 people who were in the Human Chain. They don't need to be taught from the beginning, to be persuaded; they must simply be activated.



And the objective is simple: to send a message to the Americans, who pull the strings of Sharon and his puppet government, that yes, the government would like to acquiesce to American instructions, but it cannot. If you, the Americans, and the European Union want to expel Jews from the Land of Israel - send your own soldiers. A Jewish army will not do this dirty work for you!