Reply #9: What's really possible? [View All]

[Alex88]

The words below are not mine
_____________________________


One of the primary reasons that I believe a two-state option is no
longer possible is because of the 380,000 settlers in the OPTs
(180,000 in greater Al Quds & 200,000 elsewhere - not counting the
Golan). The two staters frequently cite the precedent of the forced
removal of the four civilian settlements in the Sinai as a means of
showing that it is possible, although they neglect to mention that
these settlers never numbered more than 6,000, that Sinai bore no
major religious significance to Israel, and that even with this it
still caused Israel a major national trauma. Granting that many of
the economic settlers might be convinced to move voluntarily, they
will be replaced by Rightists from Israel proper (and the US).
Anyway, I just thought I'd share the following about the forced
withdrawal from the Sinai. Keep in mind that all these groups are
VASTLY more powerful today than they were in 1982 and that we're
talking about more than sixty times the number of settlers...


"That Israelis were fighting among themselves was disturbing, and in
recent weeks Israeli newspapers and television had also shown the
nation serious clashes between the army and members of the Stop the
Withdrawal from Sinai Movement. The movement had developed early in
1982, drawing active support from Tehiya, a small political party
that criticizes the government from the tight side of the political
spectrum; from Gush Emunim, a political movement whose ideology
blends extreme nationalism and religiosity and which was in the
forefront of efforts to establish Jewish settlements in the West
Bank; and, in one prominent case, from a leader of the National
Religious Party, which belonged to the parliamentary coalition of
Prime Minister Begin. Antiwithdrawal forces were active on many
fronts, attempting to raise money and support among Jews overseas and
to obtain endorsements from political and even military figures in
Israel. They also announced plans to put up several new settlements
in northern Sinai before the withdrawal and, most important, the
movement sent squatters to take over the apartments of Jewish
residents who were leaving the communities they had built in Sinai.

"The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) had many confrontations with Stop
the Withdrawal activists. As early as February, for example, the IDF
had used considerable force to subdue militants who tried to block
the dismantling of water pipes serving northern Sinai. As the date of
the pullback approached, most clashes centered on efforts to limit
the infiltration of squatters and to remove those who were already
present, especially in Yamit, the town where Stop the Withdrawal
diehards had made their headquarters and into which three to four
thousand of their number had barricaded themselves by mid-April.
Yamit squatters included many women and children and, following the
eviction of antiwithdrawal activists from other Sinai settlements,
the squatters vowed to resist, by all means at their disposal, the
government's efforts to remove them. Among their number were also
members of the supernationalist Kach faction, who threatened to
commit suicide rather than permit the army to remove them. Both
physical and rhetorical violence accompanied this prolonged
confrontation, although many demonstrators at the last minute agreed
to leave Yamit peacefully and the army showed great restraint in the
face of intense provocation as it physically carried out the
remaining militants on April 22 and April 23. The IDF ended the
unhappy saga of Yamit by razing the town with giant bulldozers.

"The sight of Jews fighting Jews, and of years of building being
pushed into the sand, brought an emotional response even from many
who staunchly advocated returning the Sinai to Egypt. What Israelis
called "the trauma of Yamit" demonstrated that the Jewish state was
not only still at war with the Arabs, but it also was not fully at
peace with itself. ..."

Excerpt from "Post-Sinai Pressures in Israel and Egypt" by Mark
Tessler, in "Israel, Egypt, and the Palestinians, From Camp David to
Intifada" Ann Mosely Lesch & Mark Tessler, Indiana University Press,
1989, pp. 26-27.


Online see also:
Removing Israeli settlements
http://www.bitterlemons.org/previous/bl220903ed36.html
Abraham Bar-Ilan
http://www.ssc.upenn.edu/polisci/faculty/data/lustick/for_the_land/app
3.html
Two to Tangle: Israel's Constructivist Security Strategy
http://www.isanet.org/noarchive/charleslu.html
Israel Will Withdraw Only Under Pressure
http://www.washington-report.org/backissues/0791/9107020.htm