Israeli Pride; Israeli Angst
In 1963, Egypt occupied the Gaza Strip.In 1963, Jordan occupied the West Bank and half of Jerusalem.
In 1963, Syria towered 3,000 feet over Israel, entrenched on the Golan Heights.
In 1963, the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) was born with only one objective: the total destruction of Israel and the eradication of all Jews.
By 1967, PLO terrorist attacks had escalated to 37 in just the first four months, Israeli children were sleeping in bomb shelters as Syria shelled farms and villages from the Golan Heights and Egyptian president Nasser declared:
We shall not enter Palestine with its soil covered in sand; we shall enter it with its soil saturated in blood.It was Jewish blood that Nasser lusted after and he moved 100,000 troops and 1,000 tanks across the Sinai Peninsula to Israel's southern border in June of 1967.
There was no doubt that an attack was coming; indeed, one Syrian general predicted a victory over Israel in four days "at most".
Israel decided that it would be better to fight on Arab soil rather than their own. On 5 June Israel launched a pre-emptive air strike and destroyed 309 of Egypt's 340 aircraft while they sat on the ground. Israeli ground forces then moved into the Sinai Peninsula and Gaza Strip and engaged Egyptian ground forces.
Meanwhile, King Hussein of Jordan ordered his forces to attack the Israeli half of Jerusalem from the Jordanian-controlled half of the city. The Israeli's responded and by that evening Jordan's air force was decimated. By the next morning Israeli troops and nearly surrounded all of Jerusalem.
By the end of the second day Israel had destroyed nearly all of Syria's aircraft and had nearly total control of the skies. Israeli ground forces took the Western Wall and Jews controlled the holiest site in Judaism for the first time in 2,000 years.
By the end of the third day Israel had pushed Jordanian forces out of the West Bank and Jordan agreed to a ceasefire. By the end of the fourth day Israeli forces reached the Suez Canal, controlled the entire Sinai Peninsula and stood poised to drive to Cairo. On the fifth day Israel assaulted entrenched Syrian forces and took the Golan Heights on day 6 .
During the six-day conflict Israel lost 700 troops and 46 of its 200 fighter planes. The Arabs lost 18,000 men as well as virtually all of their air force and much of their armed weaponry. As a result of the war, Israel tripled its territory from 8,000 square miles to 25,000, taking the Gaza strip and the entire Sinai Peninsula from Egypt, the West Bank from Jordan, and the Golan Heights from Syria, and only because of international pressure did Israel not drive to Cairo, Damascus and Amman, the capital cities of Egypt, Syria and Jordan, respectively.
This land belonged to Israel by right of conquest, yet Israel did not expel the people that lived there.
In fact, in 1978 Israel agreed to return 91% of the territory won when it agreed to give the Sinai Peninsula back to Egypt. The cost of doing so was immense:
- Israel lost early-warning stations on the Sinai mountaintops that protected against attacks from the east.
- Israel had to relocate more than 170 military installations, airfields and army bases.
- Israel ceded the Alma oil field, discovered and developed by Israel, which was supplying half the nation's energy needs and had reserves estimated at $100 billion.
- Israel gave up settlements and productive farms that were created in the midst of a desert:
Because Egypt insisted that Jewish civilians leave the Sinai, 7,000 Israelis were uprooted from their homes and businesses, which they had spent years building in the desert. This was a physically and emotionally wrenching experience, particularly for the residents of Yamit, who had to be forcibly removed by soldiers from their homes.
Israeli troops dragged settlers screaming and sobbing from homes and synagogues on Wednesday, beginning a forced evacuation of Gaza settlements after nearly four decades of occupation.Thousands of unarmed soldiers marched door to door in six Jewish enclaves, ordering people out and in some cases breaking down doors when they refused. Police grabbed protesters off the streets and pushed them into waiting buses.
There are 21 Jewish settlements in the Gaza Strip, providing a home to about 8500 people.
One woman wept and shouted "I don't want to! I don't want to!" as four female soldiers, each grabbing a limb, carried her out of her home in Neve Dekalim, the largest Gaza enclave.[Note: click here to listen to the song referenced, Ani Maamin.]In one synagogue, radical youths who had slipped into the main settlement bloc sang the haunting melody some Jews sang on their way to Nazi gas chambers.
One woman protested by setting herself on fire at a Gaza Strip checkpoint, suffering burns over 60 percent of her body. A man took a soldier's weapon at knife point and killed four Palestinian laborers. Emotions were running high.
Soldiers consoled weeping settlers:
In Neve Dekalim, a grizzled colonel, with tears in his eyes, shook hands with a young father, cradling the man's tiny baby, as he explained it was time to go.Another commander, identified only as Yitzhak, tearfully hugged another settler.
"It's not easy. These are very special people. This is the salt of the earth," Yitzhak said. "But we have a mission and we will carry it out, and I think these people understand that."
There are stories of soldiers praying with the settlers before loading them onto buses. There are stories of soldiers helping grief-stricken families to pack. There are pictures of soldiers weeping as they carried out their orders.There are pictures of soldiers consoling each other.
There are frequent references to the holocaust:
In Kerem Atzmona, considered one of the most religious and most resistant to the disengagement plan, residents used Nazi-era symbols to protest their removal -- painting houses with swastikas and marching from their homes with their hands held high and yellow stars of David stitched to their shirts.All across Gaza, the images are heartbreaking, even to Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon who ordered the evacuation:
"The pictures we see are heartbreaking, they are also breaking my heart," he said. ...Sharon defended his decision to withdraw from the Gaza Strip and part of the West Bank, saying he did it for the good of Israel. "I believe with all these difficulties, Israel will come out stronger," he said.
Sharon's feeling is based on the belief that Palestinians will be able to control the terrorists in their midst, hold free and democratic elections and install a transparent government. To do so, Mahmoud Abbas, head of the Palestinian Authority, will have to end the corruption that runs rampant through the Palestinian Authority and win the battle for power when groups like Hamas, who sees the pullout as a victory for the intifada, try to assume control. They are already vowing to fight on:
Hamas, the militant group, also said the evacuation of Jewish settlers from Gaza and the northern West Bank did not mean a complete liberation from Israeli rule, and it reserved the right to bear arms.
But we know who is cheering: Palestinians as they wave the Hamas flag, a symbol of terrorism and the slaughter of innocents since the second Intifada began nearly five years ago:Hamas militants, who claim the pullout as a victory for the uprising, slapped up posters on Gaza City walls showing a masked gunmen striding across crumbling settlements.
Palestinian militants are portraying the pullout as a victory for their suicide bombings and rocket attacks. Some fear militants will resume bloodshed once Israel's Gaza withdrawal is complete.
Palestinian terrorists are literally dancing in the streets. Others are setting up lawn chairs to watch joyfully as soldiers pull families from their homes.In 1978, Israel gave up the Sinai in return for recognition by all the Arab governments. The land was handed over, but recognition of legitimacy has never really been fully expressed and supported by anyone except, arguably, Egypt.
In 2005, Israel is giving up the Gaza Strip, yet it does so without guarantees provided by signed agreements and international backers. Daniel Pipes believes that this is a case of Israel literally destroying itself:
Israel's mistakes are not unique for a democracy French appeasement of Germany in the 1930s or American incrementalism in Vietnam come to mind but none other jeopardized the very existence of a people.Indeed, Jonathan Tobin explains why this retreat will change nothing in the liberal press:
Israelis had their own good reasons to say good riddance to Gaza, but they should expect no credit for it on the pages of The New York Times, or on CNN or NPR. Years and years of concessions have only served to reinforce the idea that Israel was always in the wrong. And nothing - not giving up Gaza, or even the whole of the West Bank and Jerusalem - will change that.As for me, I only hope that this does not become the picture that best describes the outcome of the Gaza evacuation: a Palestinian child celebrates with gun in hand:Until the day when Israel and its friends begin speaking once again of inalienable Jewish rights to this land, the most we can expect is still more of the same.
For more on the Six Day War:
Bloggers covering the Gaza evacuation:- Cox & Forkum: Evicted
- Gates of Vienna: See You Next Year in Jerusalem
- Michael J. Totten: Israel Withdraws from Gaza. Gaza Withdraws from Tel Aviv
- Vodka Pundit: Late Night Rambling
- The Spoons Experience: Forcibly Removing Gaza Settlers
- The Political Teen: Hamas Vows Violence After Withdrawal
- The Big Picture: The Israeli Pullout from Gaza
- Right Thinking from the Left Coast: Middle Eastern Violence
- One Arab World: How to destroy the base
- Shining Full Plate and Broadsword: An Abject Lesson
- Jeff Blogworthy: Hamas leader: Gaza withdrawal - "beginning of the end for Israel"
- Rantings of a Sandmonkey: Sharon's strategy?
- Hidden Nook: Editor's Note: Israeli Settlement Evacuations
- The Anchoress: The UN did what?
- E-nough!: UNDP: "We are emphatically neutral"
- Wizbang: UN Paying For Palestinian Propaganda
- Raging Right Wing Republican: UN Funds Palestinian Incitement Propaganda
Blog post #5336 in category
Israel/Palestine
posted 18 August 05
Truly superior bloggers that reference Israeli Pride; Israeli Angst:
» Submitted for Your Approval
from Watcher of Weasels:
First off... any spambots reading this should immediately go here, here, here, and here. Die spambots, die! And now... here are all the links submitted by members of the Watcher's Council for this week's vote. Council link... [Read More]
Tracked on August 24, 2005 3:03 AM
» The Council Has Spoken!
from Watcher of Weasels:
First off... any spambots reading this should immediately go here, here, here, and here. Die spambots, die! And now... the winning entries in the Watcher's Council vote for this week are An Open Letter to Cindy Sheehan by ... [Read More]
Tracked on August 26, 2005 3:42 AM
» Watcher's Council Results
from Rhymes With Right:
The votes are in. The winning entries in the Watcher's Council vote for this week are An Open Letter to Cindy Sheehan by Gates of Vienna, and Israeli Pride; Israeli Angst by Alpha Patriot. Congratulation to our lucky winners, and... [Read More]
Tracked on August 28, 2005 10:23 PM
» The Coalition of the Willing
from Watcher of Weasels:
As you may or may not already be aware, members of the Watcher's Council hold a vote every week on what we consider to be the most link-worthy pieces of writing around... though I don't actually vote unless there happens... [Read More]
Tracked on August 28, 2005 11:31 PM
» Watcher's Council best posts week ending August 25
from New World Man - Unit One's in trouble:
The Watcher's Council selected these best posts from among those nominated last week. An Open Letter to Cindy Sheehan at Gates of Vienna was the runaway winner. Read it and see why. Runner up: Dr. Sanity's Shame, the Arab Psyche, and Islam. Best non-Co... [Read More]
Tracked on August 30, 2005 7:21 AM
» A brief history of israel or two
from Soccer Dad:
Recently I was asked to respond to a critic of Israel. I provided the requester with some information. Ironically about that time I came accross this short history of Israel, "Israeli Pride; Israeli Angst" at AlphaPatriot a member of the... [Read More]
Tracked on September 4, 2005 12:53 PM
» A brief history of israel or two
from Israpundit:
Recently I was asked to respond to a critic of Israel. I provided the requester with some information. Ironically about that time I came accross this short history of Israel, "Israeli Pride; Israeli Angst" at AlphaPatriot a member of the... [Read More]
Tracked on September 4, 2005 12:53 PM
This is the most 3 dimensional and comprehensive coverage of the Gaza pullout I have come across, fantastic blogging.
Posted by Charles on Thursday at 2:28 PM
Thank you. That is a fantastic compliment.
I worry when my posts get so long, but I learn so much when I do them that I just can't stop. Thanks for taking the time to read it.
Posted by AlphaPatriot on Thursday at 5:29 PM
I agree with Charles. I've seen nothing like it on the net. Excellent. What a great post!
- Monk
Posted by MerryMadMonk on Friday at 12:47 AM
I agree! You are showing all sides of the story! It seems that not all of the settlers are "resisting with violence" but rather a more "mutual understanding" is happening.
I am uneasy about the removal of Israeli settlers myself (especially if they receive nothing in return) but I feel as if Sharon see's something that us blogger's (for now) don't.
Posted by Hidden Nook on Friday at 9:13 PM
Good Service
Posted by Frank Johnson on Tuesday at 4:39 AM
just one point i have - the PLO was created in 1965, not 1963 (still before 1967 of course)
Posted by leeor on Sunday at 1:35 PM
Interestingly enough, I saw both dates as I was doing my research. I should have used the later date just to be certain but it seems that there is some debate. I'll have to look into that some day.
Posted by AlphaPatriot on Monday at 9:06 AM
VIVA LA PALESTINE AND DOWN WITH THE DEVILS AKA ISRAEL!
Posted by Palestinian Prince on Friday at 5:23 AM