Incitement is back in the news. Just about every radio or TV news broadcast has a sensational story about a settler or rabbi who is inciting the public to political murder. Every expression and poster is examined by a special team of policemen and rushed off to the Attorney General. Mysterious phone call threats and secret plots to blow up the Temple Mount are now as predictable as the weather report. Reporters, high-ranking security officials and government ministers are all deeply concerned that the same atmosphere of incitement that preceded the murder of Yitzchak Rabin has returned to threaten the democratic foundations of the nation.
While everyone in the media is screaming about the growing atmosphere of incitement, no one is talking about its cause. The cause is exactly the same as in the days of Yitzchak Rabin. The public outcry and rage preceding the murder of Yitzchak Rabin was brought about by Rabin himself. It was his callous scorn of the settlers, whom he labeled, among other things, "propellers" that stirred up emotions. It was his ridicule of honest, democratic norms in ignoring the majority voice of the people that brought on the vehement outrage. And in giving guns and vast tracts of land to Yasser Arafat, he placed the country in such terrible danger that the healthy heart of the nation cried out in protest against the Oslo Accords, for months and months on end, but Rabin coldly refused to listen.
The same is true today. The cause for the growing tension in the country lies with Ariel Sharon, not with the rabbis and settlers. Like Yitzchak Rabin, Sharon is callously stepping on the religious beliefs, Zionistic values and human emotions of a vast part of the nation. In bulldozing his way over all opposition, within his own party and without, Sharon has consistently ignored the democratic norms of the state. And in the surrender of Jewish land to the Arabs, and giving them the chance to stockpile an arsenal of even more deadly missiles, he is exposing the country to a terrible danger.
No wonder the settlers are up in arms. Haven't we already seen this film? Don't we all know its results? This is Oslo all over again. That's right. Oslo. This time, it has been given the catchy name "hitnatkut" ("disengagement") by a team of clever advisors, but it is the same old treacherous Oslo ? giving up land to the Arabs and letting them arm themselves for their continued Jihad against the Jewish State. Not only that, but Sharon's Oslo is worse then Rabin's. By razing Jewish settlements and evicting Jews from their homes, he is giving an incredible prize to terror that will only inflame the Arab appetite for more Israeli concessions.
The time has come for all of us to wake up - not only the rabbis and settlers. "Hitnatkut" is Oslo. The voice is the voice of Yaakov, but the hands are the hands of Esav. The charade has to stop. The people of Israel must be made aware of the horrible danger. "Don't say hitnatkut, say Oslo." We have to start calling the monster by its name. Every reporter, every rabbi and settler, every spokesman for the Judea, Samaria and Gaza Council and for Gush Katif, every Knesset member who cares more for the nation of Israel than for his seat has to say "Sharon's Oslo" when speaking about the impending disaster and Kassam rockets hovering over our heads. Just as the people of Israel rejected the architects of Oslo and elected Sharon in their place, the awakened nation will reject the revitalized Oslo that Sharon is now trying to force down our throats.
Hopefully, in the wake of Yom Kippur, Sharon's Oslo, like all of the Madrids, Camp Davids, Wyes, and Oslos before it, will vanish like smoke, and the courageous communities of Gush Katif and the Shomron will all flourish and grow.
While everyone in the media is screaming about the growing atmosphere of incitement, no one is talking about its cause. The cause is exactly the same as in the days of Yitzchak Rabin. The public outcry and rage preceding the murder of Yitzchak Rabin was brought about by Rabin himself. It was his callous scorn of the settlers, whom he labeled, among other things, "propellers" that stirred up emotions. It was his ridicule of honest, democratic norms in ignoring the majority voice of the people that brought on the vehement outrage. And in giving guns and vast tracts of land to Yasser Arafat, he placed the country in such terrible danger that the healthy heart of the nation cried out in protest against the Oslo Accords, for months and months on end, but Rabin coldly refused to listen.
The same is true today. The cause for the growing tension in the country lies with Ariel Sharon, not with the rabbis and settlers. Like Yitzchak Rabin, Sharon is callously stepping on the religious beliefs, Zionistic values and human emotions of a vast part of the nation. In bulldozing his way over all opposition, within his own party and without, Sharon has consistently ignored the democratic norms of the state. And in the surrender of Jewish land to the Arabs, and giving them the chance to stockpile an arsenal of even more deadly missiles, he is exposing the country to a terrible danger.
No wonder the settlers are up in arms. Haven't we already seen this film? Don't we all know its results? This is Oslo all over again. That's right. Oslo. This time, it has been given the catchy name "hitnatkut" ("disengagement") by a team of clever advisors, but it is the same old treacherous Oslo ? giving up land to the Arabs and letting them arm themselves for their continued Jihad against the Jewish State. Not only that, but Sharon's Oslo is worse then Rabin's. By razing Jewish settlements and evicting Jews from their homes, he is giving an incredible prize to terror that will only inflame the Arab appetite for more Israeli concessions.
The time has come for all of us to wake up - not only the rabbis and settlers. "Hitnatkut" is Oslo. The voice is the voice of Yaakov, but the hands are the hands of Esav. The charade has to stop. The people of Israel must be made aware of the horrible danger. "Don't say hitnatkut, say Oslo." We have to start calling the monster by its name. Every reporter, every rabbi and settler, every spokesman for the Judea, Samaria and Gaza Council and for Gush Katif, every Knesset member who cares more for the nation of Israel than for his seat has to say "Sharon's Oslo" when speaking about the impending disaster and Kassam rockets hovering over our heads. Just as the people of Israel rejected the architects of Oslo and elected Sharon in their place, the awakened nation will reject the revitalized Oslo that Sharon is now trying to force down our throats.
Hopefully, in the wake of Yom Kippur, Sharon's Oslo, like all of the Madrids, Camp Davids, Wyes, and Oslos before it, will vanish like smoke, and the courageous communities of Gush Katif and the Shomron will all flourish and grow.