Yair Hirshfeld came to visit. Mr. Hirshfeld was one of the architects of the Oslo Accord and is an active participant in Ariel Sharon's expulsion plan.
I met Yair at a Machon reunion. The Machon is the Institute for Youth Leaders From Abroad. We had both been youth leaders - I from the religious Mizrachi Hatzair movement; he from the leftist Hashomer Hatzair.
At a joint meeting of the older graduates and the young youth leaders attending the Machon, we had a noisy altercation. The students crowded around us and listened.
"Let's meet and dialogue," he said after the meeting.
"Why bother. Neither of us will change our position," I rejoined.
But Yair called me at home and I arranged for a meeting here in N'vei Dekalim. "Come and meet the people you are avidly trying to expel. See the heartbreak you are causing. See the determination of the people, as well," I said.
And so, he came, accompanied by his sister Miriam - who claimed to be more leftist than her brother - and Linda, another Machon graduate with whom I had shared youthful adventures.
After a light breakfast at my home, we met with Mr. Lior Kalfa, Mayor of N'vei Dekalim. Mr. Kalfa emphasized the terrible damage done not only to the people of Gush Katif, but to all of Israel: "Where is your position on democracy when you and the prime minister use every undemocratic method to put his plan across? Where are your leftist cries of 'the rights of man' when you see people being evicted from their homes just because they are Jewish?"
A meeting with Dikla Cohen, a mother of nine and a Hebrew teacher, was highly moving. She spoke of the decency of the people of Gush Katif, where chessed - lovingkindness - is a way of life. She decried the constant maligning of the settlers by the press: "We, who were so brave under fire, are now treated as criminals. My husband was late from Sabbath services and the children immediately asked if their abba was put in jail by the police. Even my private thoughts are no longer safe. I wonder if the police will come and arrest me for thinking wrong thoughts..."
We visited the beautiful synagogues and met with a young rabbinical student and father of four. He told his story. He had been at a demonstration after the night forty mortars landed in Gush Katif. He and six other young men were handcuffed, beaten and put in jail for eleven days. "This is a small taste of what we are to expect if, G-d forbid, the police come to expel us," he said.
At the Katif Community Center in N'vei Dekalim, Anat took them on a tour. They saw the music conservatory, the multi-media center, the 'gymboree' and the ceramics class. Plans were underway for a fun-filled women's pre-Purim fete.
"What did we do to you to receive this kind of treatment?" Anat asked plaintively. "Why hasn't anyone come to speak with us? We get information about our lives only from the media. It's as if we don't exist."
They talked with Eran Sternberg, head of the Gush Information Service. Tough-talking Eran said, "Nowhere in history has a country willingly expelled its people and given its territory to an enemy. We know that the country will sink if Gush Katif goes under."
Ami Shaked is our chief of security. He spoke plainly: "This is going to explode in your face just as Oslo did. Why are you people making the same mistake? Before Oslo we had a good relationship with our Arab neighbors. Fifty Arab friends came to my son's brit [circumcision]. Not one came to his Bar Mitzvah."
Yair, his sister and Linda had to leave early. We ate a light lunch. He was the first person from the 'other side' to visit and ask questions. They made an effort to empathize with the people they had met.
So, had we dialogued? Did it make a difference? Was it useless?
The dream of the Oslo architects seems to be moving towards fruition. Judea, Samaria and Gaza - our historical homeland - will be Jew-free.
But for the people of Judea, Samaria and Gaza, the battle to save Israel is moving forward. Despite government pronouncement, Judea, Samaria and Gaza will grow. May thousands and thousands of Jews join us to settle the land.
I met Yair at a Machon reunion. The Machon is the Institute for Youth Leaders From Abroad. We had both been youth leaders - I from the religious Mizrachi Hatzair movement; he from the leftist Hashomer Hatzair.
At a joint meeting of the older graduates and the young youth leaders attending the Machon, we had a noisy altercation. The students crowded around us and listened.
"Let's meet and dialogue," he said after the meeting.
"Why bother. Neither of us will change our position," I rejoined.
But Yair called me at home and I arranged for a meeting here in N'vei Dekalim. "Come and meet the people you are avidly trying to expel. See the heartbreak you are causing. See the determination of the people, as well," I said.
And so, he came, accompanied by his sister Miriam - who claimed to be more leftist than her brother - and Linda, another Machon graduate with whom I had shared youthful adventures.
After a light breakfast at my home, we met with Mr. Lior Kalfa, Mayor of N'vei Dekalim. Mr. Kalfa emphasized the terrible damage done not only to the people of Gush Katif, but to all of Israel: "Where is your position on democracy when you and the prime minister use every undemocratic method to put his plan across? Where are your leftist cries of 'the rights of man' when you see people being evicted from their homes just because they are Jewish?"
A meeting with Dikla Cohen, a mother of nine and a Hebrew teacher, was highly moving. She spoke of the decency of the people of Gush Katif, where chessed - lovingkindness - is a way of life. She decried the constant maligning of the settlers by the press: "We, who were so brave under fire, are now treated as criminals. My husband was late from Sabbath services and the children immediately asked if their abba was put in jail by the police. Even my private thoughts are no longer safe. I wonder if the police will come and arrest me for thinking wrong thoughts..."
We visited the beautiful synagogues and met with a young rabbinical student and father of four. He told his story. He had been at a demonstration after the night forty mortars landed in Gush Katif. He and six other young men were handcuffed, beaten and put in jail for eleven days. "This is a small taste of what we are to expect if, G-d forbid, the police come to expel us," he said.
At the Katif Community Center in N'vei Dekalim, Anat took them on a tour. They saw the music conservatory, the multi-media center, the 'gymboree' and the ceramics class. Plans were underway for a fun-filled women's pre-Purim fete.
"What did we do to you to receive this kind of treatment?" Anat asked plaintively. "Why hasn't anyone come to speak with us? We get information about our lives only from the media. It's as if we don't exist."
They talked with Eran Sternberg, head of the Gush Information Service. Tough-talking Eran said, "Nowhere in history has a country willingly expelled its people and given its territory to an enemy. We know that the country will sink if Gush Katif goes under."
Ami Shaked is our chief of security. He spoke plainly: "This is going to explode in your face just as Oslo did. Why are you people making the same mistake? Before Oslo we had a good relationship with our Arab neighbors. Fifty Arab friends came to my son's brit [circumcision]. Not one came to his Bar Mitzvah."
Yair, his sister and Linda had to leave early. We ate a light lunch. He was the first person from the 'other side' to visit and ask questions. They made an effort to empathize with the people they had met.
So, had we dialogued? Did it make a difference? Was it useless?
The dream of the Oslo architects seems to be moving towards fruition. Judea, Samaria and Gaza - our historical homeland - will be Jew-free.
But for the people of Judea, Samaria and Gaza, the battle to save Israel is moving forward. Despite government pronouncement, Judea, Samaria and Gaza will grow. May thousands and thousands of Jews join us to settle the land.