Wild Wild West
Silent majority should take action in face of anti-pullout protests
Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to hell. Have you ever wondered how hell really looks like? Look outside your car window: smoke and fire - burning tires, road spikes, yeshiva students screaming to high heaven in desperation, a young girl in orange attire dancing the Hora (bloodshed is apparently on the way) - and all of this smack in the middle of a highway near you.
The Wild West is here. There is no judge or jury - every man for himself. For us this may be a new reality, but for the yeshiva student and young girl in orange it is a way of life.
Just read attorney Talia Sasson's report on settlement construction, and you'll understand how they think.
These "good fellas" have ignored the country's laws and the government's decisions for some time now; it's just like the recently married far right activist Itamar Ben-Gvir and his wife said: When a state based on halacha (Jewish law) is established here, we will try the prime minister and the rest of the Cabinet members. In the meantime, we'll give you hell.
'We're fed up'
How many of you believed right-wing activists would shut down the country Monday? How many of you actually refrained from traveling on the highways?
Oh please, we said, why would they carry out their threats this time? Police forces are positioned in every intersection!
But we were mistaken.
How did they do it? And where were the police when I was trying to get home after a grueling workday? Good question! But there is another, even more important one: Where the hell were we?
Only four years ago we were petrified when Galilee Arabs shut down the Wadi Ara region; a "fifth column" we called them at the time, and we saw no shame in firing live ammunition at them. Because when the economy suffers and roads are shut down, the protests become a strategic threat.
God forbid we should open fire at the anti-disengagement protestors, but it should be made clear: We cannot remain silent as this "highway intifada" continues.
Perhaps we should block major traffic arteries on the eve of the Sabbath as the religious Jews hurry home? Perhaps we should lock up their schools, or adorn their offices and parties with flags of our own chosen color, a mixture of turquoise, green, and beige, just as they have done to our beaches?
But we are the silent majority, and truth be told, even we are not amused by our own gimmicks.
The question is whether we will remain passive or stand together - police, government, courts, citizens, and the moderate settler leaders - and say to the settlers: We are fed up with you and your gimmicks. Start obeying the law or you will be dealt with as criminals.
