Yair Lapid
Who really benefits from pullout?
Pullout from Gaza Strip marks triumph for Israeli Center
We did not misunderstand Gaza – Gaza misunderstood us. After 30 years in Gaza, the Jews living there went through the same process as the Arabs before them. They looked at Israeli society and said to themselves: It’s impossible for them to survive. Not with their clubs, their infantile, belligerent governments, their sushi and their mortgages.
The Palestinians believed that continuous violent pressure will break us from within. The settlers thought that if they can put up a true mass resistance movement, we are bound to break. Both were wrong. More than anything else, our stay in Gaza – and moreover, the way in which we left it – proved that civil (secular) society is still Israel’s strongest and most resilient institute.
Thirty years of terror attacks did not get us out of there, and all the threats by extremists and Rabbis' curses could not make us stay.
When history comes in to tell our story, it will have to admit that Israeli sovereignty is what eventually won. We went in on our own terms, we stayed as long as was necessary (and a bit more than that,) and we then left on our own terms.
Gaza’s current meaning does not lie in Gaza, but rather, takes place in completely different places. Most importantly because with it ended, without anyone admitting to that, the quality-of-life settlement movement. Now, after it became clear we are also capable of dismantling, only those whose religious faith dictates them to do so will build their house across from the Green Line. Others will prefer to move the container only once.
Gaza’s second implication is that the Israeli Center, all those silent 5 million, regained control over its own state. Happily, it seems that the Arabs are beginning to acknowledge the fact. Sadly, it appears that some of the Israelis also needed that reminder.
