A group of IDF reserve officers is beginning a march towards Gush Katif today, expressing both their support for the disengagement plan and their desire to meet with the residents who will "have to pay the price." The marchers released their "mission statement:"
"We, a group of officers in the reserves, who often bear the security responsibility throughout Judea, Samaria and Gaza, wish to conduct a dialogue with the residents of Gush Katif. In the past weeks, the public discourse on the future of the Jewish settlement in Gush Katif has taken place only within the Likud. In our opinion, it is very important to broaden the circles of dialogue on this fateful subject."
"We feel that it is our responsibility to talk with the people who are called upon to pay the expensive price of disengagement," the marching IDF officers say. "We feel great empathy towards the Gush Katif public, which has faced the pressure of terrorism for the past three years and which is paying an unbearably high price. Despite this, we believe that under the current circumstances, the national interest requires us to leave Gaza... We support this plan also out of concern for the character of Israel as a Jewish and democratic state... We feel that the proper way to make these difficult decisions is via dialogue."
The people of Gush Katif have decided to rise to the challenge, and will meet with the marching officers tomorrow evening. They will talk with the visitors about life in Gush Katif, the children, the schools, the blossoming agriculture, and more. "There is no need [for Israel] to get out of Gaza, because we did that already a long time ago," they will say. Most of the Jewish communities in the Gaza Strip are totally separate from the densely Arab-populated areas.
"We, a group of officers in the reserves, who often bear the security responsibility throughout Judea, Samaria and Gaza, wish to conduct a dialogue with the residents of Gush Katif. In the past weeks, the public discourse on the future of the Jewish settlement in Gush Katif has taken place only within the Likud. In our opinion, it is very important to broaden the circles of dialogue on this fateful subject."
"We feel that it is our responsibility to talk with the people who are called upon to pay the expensive price of disengagement," the marching IDF officers say. "We feel great empathy towards the Gush Katif public, which has faced the pressure of terrorism for the past three years and which is paying an unbearably high price. Despite this, we believe that under the current circumstances, the national interest requires us to leave Gaza... We support this plan also out of concern for the character of Israel as a Jewish and democratic state... We feel that the proper way to make these difficult decisions is via dialogue."
The people of Gush Katif have decided to rise to the challenge, and will meet with the marching officers tomorrow evening. They will talk with the visitors about life in Gush Katif, the children, the schools, the blossoming agriculture, and more. "There is no need [for Israel] to get out of Gaza, because we did that already a long time ago," they will say. Most of the Jewish communities in the Gaza Strip are totally separate from the densely Arab-populated areas.