Disengagement: A View from the Home Front

Disengagement Update

• Chief of Staff Dan Halutz estimated that the IDF would leave the Gaza Strip by Sept 20, after the demolition of houses, the removal of all personal and public property from the settlements, and the dismantling of army outposts are completed.
• In the weekly cabinet meeting, PM Sharon criticized dissident ministers and settler leaders who were "exploiting the suffering of settlers to push their political agenda," denounced the violent resistance to the Gaza pullout as "hooliganism," and praised the sensitivity and restraint shown by security forces.
• Sharon and Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom will call on the UN Security Council to express approval of the disengagement and call for a continuation of the diplomatic process between Israel and the Palestinians on the basis of the Road Map, at the  opening of the United Nations General Assembly in New York next month.

Security

• In a briefing to the weekly cabinet meeting, the head of the Shin Bet security service, Yuval Diskin, cautioned that the calm prevailing in Gaza Strip might be temporary and that "the true test of the PA's ability to maintain calm will come after [disengagement]."
• Israel and Egypt have finalized an agreement - to be signed after Israeli cabinet and Knesset approval - that gives comprehensive responsibilty to Egypt regarding the prevention of weapons smuggling in the Philadelphi corridor into the Gaza Strip.
• Palestinian and Israeli military sources reported excellent security coordination between the sides during disengagement.

Palestinian Democracy

• Palestinian Authority President Abbas signed a presidential decree temporarily appropriating settlement property.
• In a move that will strengthen the PA, The Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP) announced its participation in the Palestinian parliamentary elections in January.
• President Abbas called on Arab leaders to hold their next summit in Gaza.

Polls:

• Yediot Aharonot / Dahaf Poll
  • Support for disengagement: 59%
  • Opposition: 37%
• Assessing IDF troops and Israel Police performance during the evacuation:
  • Very good: 62%
  • Good:        27%
  • Not good:     7%
  • Very Bad:    4%

Disengagement: A View from the Home Front

By Roberta Fahn Schoffman. Fahn Schoffman, representing IPF in Israel, heads MindSet, Media and Strategic Consulting in Jerusalem.

Four weeks before the evacuation of Gaza began, a leading Israeli anchorman said that his station would be treating the impending disengagement as an Israeli story alone.  "This is all about us.  This is not about the Palestinians - - unless, of course, they make it their story."  Defying all of the worst-case scenarios thus far, and with greater speed and better organization than anyone could have anticipated, Israeli security forces safely evacuated the entire Gaza Strip in just 4 1/2 days.  Followed by the quick undoing of the four settlements in the northern West Bank, which brought the final toll to 9,000 residents and 6,000 infiltrators, the whole operation was completed in less than a week.

For months leading up to this historic event, many of us held our breath; prayed that nothing would block the disengagement, nothing would disrupt this move.  Former Minister of Finance Netanyahu's unexpected departure from the government intended to boost his appeal among the right wing of his party while giving a prime time blow to the pull out, didn't slow it down.  Nor did the cold-blooded Jewish terror attack against Arabs on the Egged bus in Shfaram or the shooting spree directed at Palestinians in Shiloh that came later, derail the process.  And still, we held our breath, waiting for the beginning so we could arrive at the end.

Throughout the months and weeks of waiting, the massive information campaign had come into our living rooms, night after night, showing us the intricate preparations being made for this unprecedented endeavor.  The police, the soldiers, and the government apparatus, the social workers, the moving companies, and the building contractors - all called into service.  Frighteningly realistic simulated attacks by settlers were rehearsed with such vigor that the security personnel surrounding Defense Minister Mofaz during a visit to a training center in the desert were forced to draw their guns at the young actor-soldiers.  Even 18 horses that were conscripted for the showdown underwent in-depth training in anti-protest combat.  Horses, we were told, do not react to psychological warfare or relentless taunting; they are single-minded and will perform loyally under the worst of circumstances.

It was not a horse, in the end, that carried the troops at Kfar Darom, but a Trojan crate that lifted them onto the roof of the synagogue to battle the delinquent warriors armed with acidic solutions, motor oil and rocks.  The Masada of the Disengagement, a self-styled Gush Ghetto revolt in which the spitting and spewing of curses and insults topped off the abhorrent expropriation of historic Jewish symbols and narratives.  And yet, to the astonishment of the people of Israel who were glued to their television screens, unable to turn away from the surrealistic scenes, Israel's finest did not fight back.  The strategic planning by the IDF and the national police had paid off in spades.  The tough, macho Israeli army and police had become, before our very eyes, an uncannily cool-headed security force dressed in sunglasses and sunscreen, able to withstand the worst their fellow Jews had to offer: the wailing of pregnant mothers, the begging of frightened children, the pleading of bearded grandfathers.  Neither the accusation of "Nazi traitor" nor the promise of eternity in hell prompted anything but understanding and compassion from the troops.

No one was exempt from the powerful emotion this produced -- not viewers, not participants, and not even the press.  A quiet respect spread across the nation, in a country where patience is not a commodity, where tolerance has evaporated, where raw nerves dictate behavior.  Many of us couldn't help but wonder what went on in those training camps.  Were our boys and girls drugged, we jested, were they hypnotized?  Where did they get that kind of self-control, that degree of human empathy, that level of understanding and selflessness, that ability to put themselves in the other's shoes, the amazing capacity not to lose it?

One young pilot who evacuated settlers in Neve Dekalim and Gadim, and spent 13 hours with one family alone, credited the intense physical, psychological and sensitivity training the soldiers underwent for enabling them to weather the insanity.  The soul-searching, he explained, continued even as they surrounded the settlements in the first ring.  Many of the hours waiting in the hot August sun were spent in conversation about the moral implications of their actions, the validity of the democratic process, the fundamentals of Zionism, and, whether this trauma will irrevocably divide the religious and the secular camps. But how did you not lose control, even once, I asked incredulously.  It's the uniform, he said, and the responsibility that comes with it.  It was seared into our brains that our duty here was not to falter.  And if we did, an officer was there to relieve us on the spot.

The remarkable responsibility demonstrated by the soldiers and officers alike was in stark contrast to the stunningly irresponsible behavior of the rabbis of the settlement movement.  With messianic intensity, they invoked the Almighty and issued defiant commands: Don't pack up; don't stop planting your fields; don't think about leaving. Disengagement will not happen.  So, in spite of 12 months of appeals by the Disengagement Authority to sign up early for housing and compensation, or for assistance in finding new jobs and new schools, the settlers heeded the misleading words of their leaders.  The dramatic portrayal as victimized refugees, and the cynical exploitation of their children, left much of Israel furious.  As for the rabbis and other true believers, they were already regrouping and reclaiming theology.

There will be many lessons of this historic unraveling.  Some will focus on the need to reinforce democracy so that the rule of rabbis will never again threaten the rule of law. Others will take a hard look at the lost hilltop youth, who mistook messianism for Zionism.  Some will ask whether this means we can just easily pull out of other settlements in the West Bank. Or, if the exemplary restraint and respect demonstrated by the soldiers in "Operation Sensitivity and Determination," as the disengagement was called, can be transferred to the checkpoints and lead to a more humane and respectful approach to Palestinians.

Whatever we finally make of this departure, we owe a tremendous debt to the men and women who so proudly represented their country in a heart-wrenching exercise that may just lead us to reason and hope.