Ultimately, the dreaded scenario did happen. What was once unthinkable and unimaginable - the expulsion of Jews in a sovereign Jewish State - was carried out by Jewish soldiers and police, on the express orders of a Jewish prime minister.
Who can erase from memory the soul-searing images that flashed across television screens as the courageous residents of Gush Katif - whose plaintive pleas to their brethren in the Israel Defense Forces not to participate in this evil act fell on deaf ears - were forcibly removed from their homes? Like their lives, those homes would now be forever shattered. Worldwide media scavengers milled around each settlement, jockeying for the best angle to capture tearful, screaming mothers clutching their infants, and fathers together with sons bravely attempting to resist the overpowering, burly police force sent to expel them. Homegrown Israeli television reporters provided a blow-by-blow commentary on these highly charged emotional scenes, as if they were covering a prime-time sports event.
How and why this could happen are questions that reverberate not only in Israel, but indeed, throughout the Jewish world.
How could the Jewish State, which was looked upon universally with such respect and admiration, fall so far from grace? Why, after experiencing unparalleled gentile persecution through expulsions, Inquisitions, crusades, pogroms and the unspeakable Holocaust, would leaders of the Jewish State vote in the Knesset to uproot fellow Jews from "settlements" in Gaza, Judea and Samaria? And perhaps the most disturbing query of all: why does HaShem yitbarach, the G-d of Israel, allow His chosen people to suffer again?
Far be it from me to arrogantly assert that I have answers to these burning questions, which seem to elude much greater Jewish minds. Yet, if truth be told, the precarious situation in which Israel finds itself today is a disaster of our own making.
Who, if not the State of Israel, resurrected the late and unlamented chief terrorist Yasser Arafat, making him a 'partner for peace' (sic), providing him with legitimacy in the world arena? Who, if not the State of Israel, created the so-called Palestinian Authority, ceding to them Jewish land, Jewish weapons and millions of Jewish shekels? And who, if not the State of Israel, continues to follow a 'Road Map', supported by the United States, leading to a 'Palestinian state', which Arab enemies openly declare will put an end to the Jewish State?
In the final analysis, the admonition in the Book of Psalms clearly foretold the dire consequences engendered by despicable acts such as Ariel Sharon's disastrous Disengagement Plan, under which nothing is sacred. It includes the dismantling of synagogues, yeshivas and even removing deceased Jews, many of them victims of Arab terrorist attacks, from their graves.
"There is no knowledge in the workers of wickedness... They do not call on G-d; There... they were terrified with terror where they was no terror...." (Psalms 53:5-6)
Who can erase from memory the soul-searing images that flashed across television screens as the courageous residents of Gush Katif - whose plaintive pleas to their brethren in the Israel Defense Forces not to participate in this evil act fell on deaf ears - were forcibly removed from their homes? Like their lives, those homes would now be forever shattered. Worldwide media scavengers milled around each settlement, jockeying for the best angle to capture tearful, screaming mothers clutching their infants, and fathers together with sons bravely attempting to resist the overpowering, burly police force sent to expel them. Homegrown Israeli television reporters provided a blow-by-blow commentary on these highly charged emotional scenes, as if they were covering a prime-time sports event.
How and why this could happen are questions that reverberate not only in Israel, but indeed, throughout the Jewish world.
How could the Jewish State, which was looked upon universally with such respect and admiration, fall so far from grace? Why, after experiencing unparalleled gentile persecution through expulsions, Inquisitions, crusades, pogroms and the unspeakable Holocaust, would leaders of the Jewish State vote in the Knesset to uproot fellow Jews from "settlements" in Gaza, Judea and Samaria? And perhaps the most disturbing query of all: why does HaShem yitbarach, the G-d of Israel, allow His chosen people to suffer again?
Far be it from me to arrogantly assert that I have answers to these burning questions, which seem to elude much greater Jewish minds. Yet, if truth be told, the precarious situation in which Israel finds itself today is a disaster of our own making.
Who, if not the State of Israel, resurrected the late and unlamented chief terrorist Yasser Arafat, making him a 'partner for peace' (sic), providing him with legitimacy in the world arena? Who, if not the State of Israel, created the so-called Palestinian Authority, ceding to them Jewish land, Jewish weapons and millions of Jewish shekels? And who, if not the State of Israel, continues to follow a 'Road Map', supported by the United States, leading to a 'Palestinian state', which Arab enemies openly declare will put an end to the Jewish State?
In the final analysis, the admonition in the Book of Psalms clearly foretold the dire consequences engendered by despicable acts such as Ariel Sharon's disastrous Disengagement Plan, under which nothing is sacred. It includes the dismantling of synagogues, yeshivas and even removing deceased Jews, many of them victims of Arab terrorist attacks, from their graves.
"There is no knowledge in the workers of wickedness... They do not call on G-d; There... they were terrified with terror where they was no terror...." (Psalms 53:5-6)