The world has changed
Op-ed: The settlers know very well that if the world—and mainly the new US president—is not shocked and doesn’t shed rivers of tears over the Amona evacuation, it’s possible that all Judea and Samaria communities, with hundreds of thousands of settlers, will be evacuated too.
The shouting, the pushing, the cursing, the stone throwing and the barricade building: Israel’s Jewish citizens could not remain indifferent to the hours of broadcasting from the Amona evacuation.
Nevertheless, there are likely those who are rejoicing. Years of settler arrogance, billions of shekels poured into the settlement enterprise and a tough (and "enlightened") rule over millions of Palestinians who are against us, as if they got what they deserved.
It was no coincidence that some 1,000 youth from outside the outpost gathered to rescue the caravans from the hands of 3,000 police men and women who arrived to evacuate them.
If the right-wing parties represent at least half of the state’s population, about half of the members of the security forces did not like what they were forced to do on Wednesday. But each and every one of them knew that without a rule of law in Israel—we would have no state.
For years, the settlers did as they pleased: They disregarded the government and law enforcement authorities. Now, for the third time in a generation, it was the government’s turn to disregard them.
One thing we should pay attention to is that this is the third time that a settlement is being evacuated—and it was always right-wing leaders who made the decision. The greatest right-wing leaders: Menachem Begin, who evacuated the Yamit region, Ariel Sharon, who evacuated the Gush Katif communities, and now Benjamin Netanyahu (who, by the way, handed Hebron over too as part of the Oslo Agreements). It’s no coincidence that three right-wing leaders made this tough decision: They realized, even if it took them some time, that the doctrine they had followed for many years was unfeasible.
In 2017, we can no longer sing “The Jordan has two banks, this is ours, that is as well” and believe in it. The world won’t let us. The people of Gush Emunim and the others who still want us to show contempt towards the world, like they did at the time, are unaware of the world they are living in.
The world has changed. They and their successors in Amona, at the Knesset and by the government table, know very well how to push the right buttons in order to present to the entire world what it means to evacuate a small outpost, with 40 families, at the top of a bald mountain. They know very well that if the world—and mainly the new US president—is not shocked and doesn’t shed rivers of tears, it’s possible that all Judea and Samaria communities, with hundreds of thousands of settlers in the settlement blocs, will be evacuated too.
When will that happen? It could perhaps happen in a month, in a year or in five years. Possibly in 50 years. The world and the Palestinians have time. History will barely remember Begin, who said, “If I am asked at the Camp David peace conference to return even one community to Egypt, I will pack my bags and go home immediately.” For some reason, history tends to remember only the good things.
