IDF tanks in Gaza
Photo: Guy Ronen
Truth behind pullout
The choices is clear: Leave Gaza or maintain apartheid regime
The government and Knesset decided to disengage from the Gaza Strip and northern West Bank., a step that is necessary in order to guarantee Israel's existence.
Still, public opinion polls show the number of pullout supporters is not much higher than the number of objectors to the plan, while the settlers enjoy wide-ranging popularity despite outrageous acts such as road blocking, calls for insubordination, and curse words directed at soldiers.
I'm afraid the main reason for this is the weakness of the government's public relations campaign. Those asked to evacuate their homes, built with the support of past Israeli governments, naturally arouse sympathy, while the justifications for the pullout sound merely formal.
Indeed, the arguments in favor of disengagement are vague ("easing the burden on the IDF," "a move that would minimize terror",) while nobody can be certain that following the pullout Israeli communities within the Green Line would not be exposed to terrorism or Qassam rockets.
The trouble is that the government is unable to utter the clear, unequivocal truth: Maintaining the hold over the Gaza Strip requires an apartheid regime to be maintained in the area. Indeed, this is the kind of regime that in fact exists in large parts of the Strip, where about 8,000 Israeli residents enjoy full rights and maintain a Western, high standard of living.
Alongside them reside more than one million Palestinians devoid of civil rights and enjoying a standard of living similar to that prevalent in the third world.
Dragged to an apartheid regime
In today's world, such regime has no chance of taking root. It collapsed in South Africa and it is collapsing in the Gaza Strip.
The difficult choice Israel is facing, after it did not return the Gaza Strip to Egypt in the framework of the peace agreement between the two countries, comes down to two options: granting full rights to Gaza's residents or maintaining an apartheid regime.
At certain times, an illusion n took root that a third option was available, for example, that the Palestinians would leave of their own accord or that an Arab state would grant them citizenship rights. However, this illusion has faded, and it is clear there is no possibility of granting Gaza residents full civil rights under Israeli rule.
This is how we were dragged to an apartheid regime, which has become deeply rooted, but has no chance of surviving.
The disengagement is therefore an inescapable step. And if so, why not just come out and say that? Why were security forces ordered to refrain from replying to settlers' curses and accusations, and why shouldn't they be told that the State of Israel would not be able to accept a situation where it is being dragged to the sort of regime the world finds unacceptable?
The answer to this is that the government and its spokespersons are unable to make such difficult statements in public – perhaps they are not even able to utter those sentiments to themselves, as the same reality is applicable not only to the Gaza Strip, but to large sections of the West Bank, where hundreds of thousands of Palestinians reside.
