\"The way the residents of Yesha are acting reminds me of the bravery and forbearance shown by the people of London during the German air raids in World War II.\" So says O.C. Central Command Maj.-Gen. Yitzchak Eitan in an interview in this month\'s edition of Nekudah. Nekudah is a Hebrew monthly geared to the intellectual right-wing population.
Eitan says that the decrease in the Yesha population is not significant, and that those who are moving out this summer are not doing so for security reasons. \"The settlers are very strong in spirit, with a firm ideology, and this makes it easier for the army,\" Eitan says. \"I have no doubt that in the end, the IDF will defeat the Palestinians. Our ability to penetrate deep into their territory and pluck out wanted terrorists is maddening to them.\"
David Monsenegro, a spokesman for the northern Shomron community of Kadim, acknowledged today that in his community, some families are in fact leaving, \"but this is a result of the pressure under which they are living and the feeling that the government has abandoned them.\" He elaborated on some of the problems they face:
\"Security is of course an important problem, but it\'s not the only one. We are living here as if in a bubble, with hardly anyone coming or going; we can\'t have servicemen come and fix our washing machines and the like; we were forced to drink water for two weeks from tanks supplied by the army; there is sometimes no electricity and water for hours or days at a time. The Yesha Council and [settlement organization] Amanah are helping us, but real solutions have to come from the government, and they are not coming.\"
Asked if the community is trying to bring more people to live there, Monsenegro responded,
\"We have been making such efforts for years. It\'s always been difficult, but ever since Sharon and Netanyahu concluded the Wye Agreement and withdrew from these areas, thus turning us into an isolated enclave, it\'s been particularly difficult. There is just no room for us to develop... We have tried to find ideological core groups to come here, but they would have to be secular, as we don\'t want to change the secular character of the community, and unfortunately we don\'t find ideological groups of this nature to come here and help.\"
Arutz-7\'s Haggai Segal asked, \"Could it be that people don\'t want to come because you guys are sending out signals of despair?\" Monsenegro:
\"What do you mean, signaling despair? First of all, we are only talking about a phenomenon of the last month or two. I don\'t think that anyone can have any complaints against the way we stood fast all these years since Oslo, and even before that, even though everyone warned that these \"non-ideological\" towns would collapse very quickly, the fact is that we did not, and we even grew slightly. We were able to hold on, but now it is much harder when we sense that the government is not behind us.\"
On a more positive note, the Beit El Local Council reports that 40 new families will be moving in, while six will be moving out - some of them to other Yesha towns. Many other Yesha towns are also expected a signficant increase in population in the coming weeks.
Eitan says that the decrease in the Yesha population is not significant, and that those who are moving out this summer are not doing so for security reasons. \"The settlers are very strong in spirit, with a firm ideology, and this makes it easier for the army,\" Eitan says. \"I have no doubt that in the end, the IDF will defeat the Palestinians. Our ability to penetrate deep into their territory and pluck out wanted terrorists is maddening to them.\"
David Monsenegro, a spokesman for the northern Shomron community of Kadim, acknowledged today that in his community, some families are in fact leaving, \"but this is a result of the pressure under which they are living and the feeling that the government has abandoned them.\" He elaborated on some of the problems they face:
\"Security is of course an important problem, but it\'s not the only one. We are living here as if in a bubble, with hardly anyone coming or going; we can\'t have servicemen come and fix our washing machines and the like; we were forced to drink water for two weeks from tanks supplied by the army; there is sometimes no electricity and water for hours or days at a time. The Yesha Council and [settlement organization] Amanah are helping us, but real solutions have to come from the government, and they are not coming.\"
Asked if the community is trying to bring more people to live there, Monsenegro responded,
\"We have been making such efforts for years. It\'s always been difficult, but ever since Sharon and Netanyahu concluded the Wye Agreement and withdrew from these areas, thus turning us into an isolated enclave, it\'s been particularly difficult. There is just no room for us to develop... We have tried to find ideological core groups to come here, but they would have to be secular, as we don\'t want to change the secular character of the community, and unfortunately we don\'t find ideological groups of this nature to come here and help.\"
Arutz-7\'s Haggai Segal asked, \"Could it be that people don\'t want to come because you guys are sending out signals of despair?\" Monsenegro:
\"What do you mean, signaling despair? First of all, we are only talking about a phenomenon of the last month or two. I don\'t think that anyone can have any complaints against the way we stood fast all these years since Oslo, and even before that, even though everyone warned that these \"non-ideological\" towns would collapse very quickly, the fact is that we did not, and we even grew slightly. We were able to hold on, but now it is much harder when we sense that the government is not behind us.\"
On a more positive note, the Beit El Local Council reports that 40 new families will be moving in, while six will be moving out - some of them to other Yesha towns. Many other Yesha towns are also expected a signficant increase in population in the coming weeks.