Pinchas Wallerstein, chairman of the Binyamin Regional Council in southern Shomron, has expressed his regret over failures in the struggle to save the Jewish towns of Gush Katif and northern Samaria from destruction under the Sharon administration's Disengagement Plan in August 2005.


Speaking at the Jerusalem Conference on Tuesday, Wallerstein said, "The bottom line is that the people of northern Samaria and the people of Gush Katif have been expelled from their homes and a wonderful strip of land was destroyed, and we succeeded in establishing a Hamas regime. In my capacity at the leadership level of the Judea, Samaria and Gaza Council, I live with the feeling that we

"We had more than one opportunity to prevent the Disengagement. We failed!" -- Pinchas Wallerstein

had more than one opportunity to prevent the Disengagement. We failed!"


Wallerstein believes there were several opportunities to prevent the Disengagement through the Knesset, had "some of our friends in the National Union and other parties not disappeared..." He feels that the government of Ariel Sharon could have been brought down by the Knesset of that time. <?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />



Despite the reference to parliamentary possibilities, Wallerstein said, "Whoever is responsible should examine himself - and that means us, the Judea, Samaria and Gaza Council. I don't pass the blame on to anyone else." Among other points at which Wallerstein thinks the Disengagement could have been halted was the huge demonstration in Kfar Maimon, east of the Gaza Strip. It ended with a march around the town and a dissipation of the protesters. But Wallerstein said that he thinks the same event at Kfar Maimon one week earlier would have foiled the government's plans. "True or not," he said, "that is the feeling I live with."


Wallerstein described what motivated him and others in the Judea, Samaria and Gaza Council to act as they did: "My operative assumption was that we had to go forward along with the [entire] people of Israel, not 'disengage' from the camp. And like every pioneer ahead of the camp, if he disengages from the [rest of the] camp, then he has lost the fight - even if he is correct. And so, the character of the struggle in Gush Katif that I directed started from this point: What was the limit of [balancing] the struggle against Disengagement and the connection with the public?"
In Kfar Maimon and elsewhere, Wallerstein noted, the secular public did not show up, "even if there was great sympathy, as we saw in the Likud referendum [that rejected Prime Minister Sharon's unilateral withdrawal from Gaza]."


In conclusion, Wallerstein said, "The responsibility we have is not just for the community in which we find ourselves, but for the entire Israeli society. If we understand that, we will know our limits."