January 4th, '05
A Test Case

It's been a long time since I've posted anything in this space. Life intervenes (currently in the form of the flu that seems to have hit my four-year-old, but a thousand and one other things as well).

Yesterday, the Israeli army bulldozed a two-caravan outpost in northern Samaria. The demolition, which was kept secret in order not to tip off the community, resulted in the worst settler-army violence this country has yet seen. Settlers threw stones at soldiers. A soldier shot in the air to disperse the crowd. A woman's hip was broken as she was dragged away from the site.

This violence between Jews and IDF soldiers is scary for many reasons. First, because this tiny outpost -- and the army's difficulty uprooting it -- makes the government's plan to transfer 8,000 Jewish residents out of their homes in Gaza sound delusional at best... and at worst, like a recipe for a bloodbath.

But another scary aspect of the story is the government's decision to target Yitzhar -- a northern Samarian community known for its far-right ideology influenced by the late Rabbi Meir Kahane. Most settlers, whether they are religious or secular in their orientation, are law-abiding citizens who hold predominantly right-wing views. Yitzhar settlers, however, have been written off by many -- even in the settler community -- as messianic crazies.

So great, goes the argument. If Yitzhar residents are crazies, they're exactly the kind of people that Sharon should be throwing out as an "obstacle to peace."

Perhaps. But beyond the government's stated need to remove isolated settlements in order to clear the way for an eventual Palestinian state alongside Israel, the Yitzhar demolition was designed as a media event for Israeli internal consumption. "Take a look at what these people are like," scream the commentators. "Extremists will only be torn from their land by extreme measures. Get used to these kinds of pictures. You'll see more of them in the days ahead."

I'm afraid so.

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