There are the usual debates over the number of demonstrators in Rabin Square on Saturday night, May 15, 2004. The New York Times said one?hundred thousand, the Jerusalem Post, one-hundred-fifty thousand and Haaretz, two?hundred thousand. The presumption, I suppose, is that the greater the number, the more impressive the demonstration, and the more power those who demonstrated have to show that they are the majority in the country, and that their will must determine the issue under question.
In a democracy, voting is done at the ballot box. The demonstration, however large and impressive, does not really determine, nor should it determine, what this government will or will not do. This does not mean the demonstration is not significant, however, and the champions of Oslo are already hailing at is the revival of the movement toward total withdrawal from Judea, Samaria and Gaza. Perhaps it will help Prime Minister Sharon push forward his disengagement plan, or will even achieve what the demonstrators would rather have, the replacement of this government with a left?wing-based one. In terms of elections and politics, then, the demonstrators may truly have achieved something. But toward what end, toward what goal?
Their ostensible goal is having Israel withdraw as soon as possible from Gaza. Their hope is the Oslo hope of trading land for peace, of trading withdrawal on our side for non-violence from the other. But all our experience shows that this is a vain hope and the fact of the matter, proven through years of Israel's conflict with the Arabs, is that withdrawal intensifies violence instead of diminishing it.
Given what we know now about the other side, which includes Fatah, Hamas, the Hizbollah, etc., their aim will not be to take Gaza and sit quietly there, reconstructing it and making good lives for their citizens. Their aim will be the next domino - Ashkelon, Ashdod, all on the way to realizing what they all proclaim is their only real aim: the destruction of Israel.
Those demonstrators, as Jerusalem Post columnist Caroline Glick has pointed out, can only see themselves and their own desires. They are unable to face the reality of what the other side is, what it is saying and what it will do. Withdrawal for the other side means that we have surrendered and that they are victorious. It means 'victory' for them and further proof that we are a temporary presence, the new Crusaders, who will one day vanish from the land.
Those who demonstrated in Rabin Square undermined their own government, their own army, their own soldiers. They did this in the hope of bringing themselves and the society to a state of non-conflict with their neighbors. They neither have learned from the bitter Oslo Accords experience - which has, since the time of its signing, led to over thirteen hundred Israeli dead - nor from the experience of societies all over the world now confronting Islamic violence.
Appeasement does not bring peace, it brings more violence and death. The fools in Rabin Square should have learned that. That they have not, and that they hope to move the majority of Israelis to their policy of surrender, is something not simply sad and shameful, but something all of those who care for Israel and its security must be extremely troubled about, and, in whatever way they can, work against.
In a democracy, voting is done at the ballot box. The demonstration, however large and impressive, does not really determine, nor should it determine, what this government will or will not do. This does not mean the demonstration is not significant, however, and the champions of Oslo are already hailing at is the revival of the movement toward total withdrawal from Judea, Samaria and Gaza. Perhaps it will help Prime Minister Sharon push forward his disengagement plan, or will even achieve what the demonstrators would rather have, the replacement of this government with a left?wing-based one. In terms of elections and politics, then, the demonstrators may truly have achieved something. But toward what end, toward what goal?
Their ostensible goal is having Israel withdraw as soon as possible from Gaza. Their hope is the Oslo hope of trading land for peace, of trading withdrawal on our side for non-violence from the other. But all our experience shows that this is a vain hope and the fact of the matter, proven through years of Israel's conflict with the Arabs, is that withdrawal intensifies violence instead of diminishing it.
Given what we know now about the other side, which includes Fatah, Hamas, the Hizbollah, etc., their aim will not be to take Gaza and sit quietly there, reconstructing it and making good lives for their citizens. Their aim will be the next domino - Ashkelon, Ashdod, all on the way to realizing what they all proclaim is their only real aim: the destruction of Israel.
Those demonstrators, as Jerusalem Post columnist Caroline Glick has pointed out, can only see themselves and their own desires. They are unable to face the reality of what the other side is, what it is saying and what it will do. Withdrawal for the other side means that we have surrendered and that they are victorious. It means 'victory' for them and further proof that we are a temporary presence, the new Crusaders, who will one day vanish from the land.
Those who demonstrated in Rabin Square undermined their own government, their own army, their own soldiers. They did this in the hope of bringing themselves and the society to a state of non-conflict with their neighbors. They neither have learned from the bitter Oslo Accords experience - which has, since the time of its signing, led to over thirteen hundred Israeli dead - nor from the experience of societies all over the world now confronting Islamic violence.
Appeasement does not bring peace, it brings more violence and death. The fools in Rabin Square should have learned that. That they have not, and that they hope to move the majority of Israelis to their policy of surrender, is something not simply sad and shameful, but something all of those who care for Israel and its security must be extremely troubled about, and, in whatever way they can, work against.