The violent six-hour uprooting of the Mitzpeh Yitzhar outpost yesterday is now history - supporters and residents returned to the site within hours after the security forces left and began rebuilding the lone structure - and attention now turns to a much larger outpost: Givat HaRoeh, near Shilo and Eli in the central Shomron. No fewer than 17 families live in the neighborhood, and the police and army are poised, at the behest of Prime Minister Sharon and Defense Minister Mofaz, to destroy it as soon as tomorrow - Jerusalem Day.
"Prime Minister Sharon is acting like a child," said Yehoshua Mor-Yosef of the Yesha Council yesterday, during the destruction of Mitzpeh Yitzhar. "He is determined to 'punish the settlers' for his defeat in the Likud referendum, and so suddenly he begins showing the Americans that he can still do something. Suddenly, after a year, he suddenly remembers that he has to enforce the law."
Rabbi Elyakim Levanon of Elon Moreh said today, "If they want to enforce the law, there are entire Bedouin towns in the Negev that are illegal. Why are they wasting the efforts of 1,000 policemen over just one building?"
Yesha Council officials working in the Knesset corridors today are still hoping to save the neighborhood, but hundreds of people are expected to begin arriving at the site of Givat HaRoeh if the efforts fail. Just two months ago, a new synagogue was dedicated at the site, and new roads to the neighborhood have been paved in the past year.
"Prime Minister Sharon is acting like a child," said Yehoshua Mor-Yosef of the Yesha Council yesterday, during the destruction of Mitzpeh Yitzhar. "He is determined to 'punish the settlers' for his defeat in the Likud referendum, and so suddenly he begins showing the Americans that he can still do something. Suddenly, after a year, he suddenly remembers that he has to enforce the law."
Rabbi Elyakim Levanon of Elon Moreh said today, "If they want to enforce the law, there are entire Bedouin towns in the Negev that are illegal. Why are they wasting the efforts of 1,000 policemen over just one building?"
Yesha Council officials working in the Knesset corridors today are still hoping to save the neighborhood, but hundreds of people are expected to begin arriving at the site of Givat HaRoeh if the efforts fail. Just two months ago, a new synagogue was dedicated at the site, and new roads to the neighborhood have been paved in the past year.