RUTHFULLY YOURS

 My family went to Israel during the summer of 2005.We flew home from Israel almost five years ago today,  three days before the disengagement from Gaza began. During our two-week trip we asked Israelis how the felt about the upcoming give back of Gaza Strip.
There was one person whose answer still haunt me. This old man was sitting in a wheel chair with an orange ribbons to it. (the people who fought against disengagement wore orange). I asked him why he was against giving back Gaza. He looked up at me and said, “Do you know what Sunday is?” I answered Sunday was Tisha B’av (both Jerusalem Temples, along with a long list of other tragedies happened to the Jews throughout the ages on that same date, Tisha B’av, the ninth day of the Hebrew month of Av).

The old man in the wheel chair said to me, ” Yes Sunday is Tisha B’av, disengagement begins on Monday. Giving away this land will be added to the list of horrible events that happened to us on Tisha B’av.”

That Old man turned to be right. The Gaza war did not start in 2008, it started a little  more than seven and a half years ago, in December 2003 as Ariel Sharon announced:

The purpose of the “Disengagement Plan” is to reduce terror as much as possible, and grant Israeli citizens the maximum level of security. The process of disengagement will lead to an improvement in the quality of life, and will help strengthen the Israeli economy. The unilateral steps which Israel will take in the framework of the “Disengagement Plan” will be fully coordinated with the United States. We must not harm our strategic coordination with the United States. These steps will increase security for the residents of Israel and relieve the pressure on the IDF and security forces in fulfilling the difficult tasks they are faced with. The “Disengagement Plan” is gmeant to grant maximum security and minimize friction between Israelis and Palestinians.– Ariel Sharon December 2003

While this may have been done with the most noble of intentions, disengagement did not have the result that Sharon predicted. In fact, it lowered the security of Israel and increased friction between Israeli’s and Palestinians. Just as Oslo gave Yassar Arafat a platform to significantly increase terror activities, and Ehud Barak’s lighting-like move from Lebanon nourished the growth of Hezbollah, the Gaza disengagement nursed Hamas to power.

The ascendancy of Hamas, the years of rockets bombarding the Negev and the Gaza War can all be traced to the execution of the disengagement plan by Ariel Sharon and his supporters,

Ehud Barack, was also a big supporter of disengagement:

Former prime minister Ehud Barak told Israel Radio this morning that he was convinced that Sharon has reached the conclusion that there was no other way to guarantee the future of the Zionist enterprise other than disengaging unilaterally from the Palestinians. Barak called on the Labor Party to support Sharon from within the government in what could be a “historic move. Source Israel Insider March 2004

On the other hand, Binyamin Netanyahu accurately predicted what disengagement would do:

I don’t know when terrorism will erupt in full force — my hope is that it won’t ever. But I am convinced today that the disengagement will eventually aggravate terrorism instead of reducing it. The security establishment also expects an increase in terrorism. The withdrawal endangers Israel’s security, divides its people and set the standards of the withdrawal to the ’67 border. Source: Arutz Sheva August 2005

Disengagement was just additional proof that land for peace is a failure.  How many more innocents have to die before the world figures this out. Oslo brought the Second Intifada, the Lebanese withdrawal brought us the Second Lebanese War, disengagement brought this Gaza war. Jews and Muslims were forced to bear their children’s deaths simply because Israel tried to make peace.

Today Fatah, Hamas and Hezbollah are still calling for the destruction of Israel but nobody takes  them seriously, just as when Hitler said he would kill all the Jews nobody believed him. Its time for the world to call their bluff, there should be no negotiations with these terrorist groups until they renounce their terrorist acts and agree to live in peace with the Jewish State of Israel.

But that is unlikely to happen. Mankind exists in a world were people prefer to appease the terrorists, than to fight them. What’s worse is Israel faces the uncertainty of the most anti-Israel president in American history, a world-wide Islamist terror movement that the President refuses to acknowledge, and a failed legacy of land for peace efforts which the American leader refuses to learn from.

Tisha B’av is four days away. This year the day of morning sees Israel in a more precaution situation that she has faced in  many years; surrounded by terrorists on three side, a Syria looking for any was to start a conflict to take the  heat off its internal problems and Egypt, the first Arab Nation to make peace may soon be ruled with Islamists who hate Israel even more than they hate the people who revolted and put them into power.

The “free world” refuses to acknowledge that the extent to which Israel is being threatened. Ad worse, once they are (God Forbid!) done with Israel, these rouge terror groups will turn their attention to the next target, the United States and the Western world