A recent bout of clashes between police and settlers in Yitzhar, near Hebron, is once again shrouded in confusion. Who picked up the gun, and why? Apparently, a man who happened to be there that day - and he fired into the air. Did Palestinians throw stones at the settlers? Depends on which news source you read.
But the Yitzhar incident points towards a new trend: The radicalization of settlers, the political radicalization of Orthodox Israelis, the willingness of the radicals to raise their hands against IDF soldiers and police if they disagree with the political action being carried out by the soldiers and police.
This situation could lead to civil war in case of large scale evacuation. While the fear of civil war was highly overplayed by the media before the Gaza evacuation, the evacuation itself, as well as the treatment of the settlers after the evacuation, has angered the settler movement and further radicalized them.
A few arguments, from the Orthodox right-wing perspective, against absolute dedication to holding on to settlements:
1. According to Jewish belief, the temple was destroyed, and the Jews exiled, as punishment for the Jews' inability to get along with each other - sinat chinam. Raising arms against other Jews, even if they be the limbs, and not metal weapons, is a clear manifestation of the negative value that led to our nations' exile once - and could lead to it again.
2. Most settlers are Orthodox, and most Orthodox support the settlements. Unfortunately, many Israeli non-Orthodox internalize "most" as "all". The settlement movement is increasing non-Orthodox animosity towards Orthodox Jews - and towards Orthodox Judaism itself. Doing something that causes fellow Jews to look down on religious Judaism is a chilul Hashem - a desecration of God's name. This animosity is increased when settlers' perceived animosity towards the IDF is factored into the equation.
3. Maybe the violence and peace process are signs God wants us to give up the land. But how can I know the will of God? None of us can. So saying its God's will for us to keep the land, at all costs, is just as ridiculous as saying its His will to give it up. The Bible does not address the specifics of modern day Israel, and drawing legal analogies from thousands of years ago to today is hard. Drawing values however, from an ancient holy document is easier. One of those values is love of the land of Israel. Another value is loving your fellow human like yourself, and loving the people of Israel, even when you don't agree with their actions. The height of love for the nation of Israel is Moshe praying for them after the sins of the golden calf and the sin of the spies.
4. Demographically, Israel can't keep the settlements without becoming a racist state. The number of Palestinians in the West Bank continues to sky-rocket, and Jewish birth rates just can't keep up. Barring some sort of mass aliyah, which could be imminent if Mashiach comes today, Israel would eventually find itself with autonomy over a non-citizen population nearly as large as its citizen population. This would be a physical burden on the army, as well as a moral burden - both within Israeli society and abroad.
The fact is, there's no credible Palestinian leadership at the moment. The fact also is, the settlers have limited political capital. The movement should prioritize which settlements it wants to convince the Israeli government to keep. It should push for unilateral withdrawal, with massive benefits for displaced settlers, and cut a deal so that the withdrawal is accompanied by Israeli annexation of major settlement blocs surrounding Jerusalem. Furthermore, if it is ethical to kick out Jewish Israelis with compensation, it should be ethical to kick out Palestinians, assuming they're offered exactly the same compensation as the Jewish settlers. Using this moral equation, Israel could kick the Palestinians out of Bethlehem and Hebron, the two disputed holy cities - but that option could prove economically and militarily impossible.
It is important to understand that the mass displacement of settlers will cause a humanitarian crisis. Jews abroad and governments who favor settlement evacuation should create a fund to aid settlers post-evacuation. The Israeli government can not afford to provide proper compensation to the displaced settlers without outside help.
The picture I've presented above is not a pretty one. People against settlements must recognize that mass evacuation of people from their homes is a tragedy, no matter what the reason for that evacuation. This recognition of the legitimate pain felt by the settlers could help ease the road of reconciliation. Just as settlers must do more not to alienate themselves from general Israeli society, general Israeli society must try to understand the plight of the evicted settler - and that the settler does what he does because of a love of Israel. That is something that he and the Peace Now protester might have in common - and soccer, of course. Because who doesn't love a good game of real futbol?
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