According to the Thursday, May 5th edition of the Jerusalem Post, soldiers who participate in the ?ethnic cleansing? of Jews from their homes in Northern Samaria and Gaza will be rewarded with personal hygiene and snack kits to make their work ?good, clean and sweet?.



Revolting!



As I sit here in my living room in Neve Dekalim I think of clean, sweet-smelling soldiers at my door ? breaking in if I am not quick to answer, and forcibly removing me and my husband from our home. I see their freshly brushed teeth as they smilingly destroy our picture window with its view of dunes and sea. I smell their after-shave as they drag me out and they pummel my one-armed husband with their freshly washed hands.



I have always loved the Israeli soldier. He (or she) was always a symbol of the strong and heroic Jewish army ready to defend the ordinary Jew like me. How proud I was when my husband went to serve in the IDF only months after our arrival in Israel. When he lost his arm and part of his face during the Yom Kippur War, we understood the sacrifices we had made to live here and to literally give our bodies for the defense of our country.



When my son came home on his first leave in his IDF uniform, I once again felt that surge of pride now that our only son was an Israeli soldier. Our son-in-law served in the IDF as a career officer. Our youngest daughter chose to serve in a NAHAL unit [kibbutz and army service] during her stint in the IDF.



As my children grew up in Jerusalem, I remember the packages we prepared before Remembrance and Independence days to be given as gifts to our soldiers defending our country from the Arab enemy. How touched our children were when they received gifts from youngsters abroad when their father was wounded.



But NO! NEVER! We can never give gifts as an incentive to soldiers to carry out illegal and immoral orders by the State of Israel---the removal by force of decent, hardworking Jews from their homes because they are Jews. We cannot encourage soldiers to carry out such orders by giving them a friendly, warm-hearted hug by way of these kits.



We cannot ask Jewish children in Israel or in Jewish day schools abroad to collect money in order to buy ?loving presents? for soldiers about to commit hateful acts, soldiers willing to destroy Jewish homes and communities, even Jewish lives.



Not one child, not one adult, is to give money to this cause. Jews do not aid in the destruction of Jewish homes, communities and lives.



Give to the legal aid fund of those who will be arrested for resisting this outrage. Give gifts to the threatened children of Northern Samaria and Gush Katif. But not one cent for soldiers who are afraid to say NO! ?No, commander, I will not remove Jews from their homes. I did not join the IDF to destroy Jewish lives, but to protect them.?



When this evil edict is defeated we will reward our Jewish soldiers with our gifts of love.