Goldstein wannabes, Thursday, August 18, 2005

So far, the troops have performed magnificently, with extraordinary self-restraint as the teens taunt them with contemptuous harangues, demanding they refuse orders, calling them ‘Nazis’ and ‘robots’ and explaining the soldiers are pawns of the ‘dictator Sharon’s mafia.’ There has been only one case of refusal in the ranks, whether police or army, so far reported. True, occasionally a young trooper breaks down, stepping out of the ranks for a minute to collect their emotions. But then they stiffen up and go back to the job.

And the job is so far mostly being patient as the commanders try to wear down the resistance with a show of overwhelming force and stunning stoic reaction to scenes of strange combinations of hysteria and ecstasy, recitations of liturgy and chanting of prayers that suddenly turn into political rants and screaming.

Thus, this morning’s show was at Neve Dekalim’s largest synagogue, occupied by about 1,500 youths who refuse to leave. The police surrounded the building with ranks of crack officers trained in riot control and appeared to be wound up ready to break in – but they remained in place, row upon row of men and women in uniform, waiting with patience under the hot sun.

But there is no doubt that the withdrawal from Gaza will be over quite soon. Already some 1,200 of the 1,530 families of Gaza’s settlements have left. And it is believed that only a few of the remaining 300 families are determined to resist to the bitter end – if they do, they risk losing tens of thousands of dollars in compensation.

Thus, the real problem remains the youths – and the Baruch Goldstein wannabes like Asher Weissgan, the 38-year-old father of two who yesterday shot dead four Palestinian workers at the same factory where Weissgan worked in the Shiloh industrial zone, telling police who captured him that he was trying to disrupt the disengagement.

The army immediately raised the level of alert in Gaza and throughout the West Bank, fearing a reprisal by Hamas. The joint IDF-Palestinian Authority military command that was set up for precisely such an incident, worked overtime. Prime Minister Ariel Sharon roundly condemned the attack. And surprisingly, except for a single mortar launched into the now empty Morag, one of the most isolated of the Gazan settlements east of Gush Katif, nothing other than predictable rhetoric was heard from the armed Palestinian groups that insist that it was their armed resistance that forced Israel out of Gaza. Indeed, a Hamas spokesman pointedly said in response to the Shiloh shooting that ‘at a time such as this, the Palestinians must retain their solidarity.’ He might have meant that the Palestinians should unite around armed resistance, but Palestinian Authority controlled media was said to be urging restraint, lest violence give the Israelis reason to halt the withdrawal. Perhaps most significantly – and certainly a measure of a new approach in the chief of staff’s office, Dan Halutz’s first public comments on the Shiloh shooting last night came on Channel Two’s current events show Mishal Ham, and among other things he said that he had hope that the Palestinians understood that just as they have difficulty controlling their extremists, so does Israel.

Still, two ‘Jewish terrorist’ incidents in less than three weeks has the Shin Bet very worried. The alert around the Temple Mount was raised even higher – as if that is possible now. More troops were sent to Gaza’s perimeters between the settlements and the Palestinian neighborhoods, some as close as 100 meters from the Jewish settlement boundaries. Palestinian security troops were also beefed up.

And all through the morning, the TV stations broadcast live from the settlements, showing troops on the doorsteps of houses, carrying out the mission.

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