Saturday, August 25, 2007

yep ?

“It wasn't easy for me to come out with a public call last week to Israeli
residents to oppose the evacuation of Jews from Hebron. Hebron is
Jerusalem, NOT Yamit.

“I called for passive, non-violent resistance against the declared
intentions of the government in Hebron. It was only because I am convinced
that the security and inalienable rights of Jews in every part of Eretz
Yisrael will be irreversibly eroded if the government carries out its
plans in Hebron, that I decided that we must arise and passively resist
the uprooting of Jews from Hebron. And if, G-d forbid, the government does
carry out its intention, it should know, in advance, that we will return
to Hebron. […]

“For most of my life I have obeyed orders as well as issued them as a
soldier and commander in the IDF. Therefore, I am aware of the absolute
importance of the duty incumbent on every soldier to carry out the legal
orders, in order to preserve the military system which defends us.

“At the same time, warning must be given, that if the Israeli government
dares to uproot Jews from the heart of Eretz-Yisrael - a situation will
develop in which the military will eventually have nothing to defend
except itself, and will ultimately fall apart and disintegrate. After all,
the IDF was organized to defend the Zionist settlement drive, which was
threatened from the start as a result of Arab aggression, even before we
returned home to Hebron. It was only with tremendous pain that we were
able, in 1948, to retain part of Jerusalem.

“If the government uproots the Jews of Hebron, it will be uprooting a
vital cornerstone of the IDF - which is indispensable for the defense of
all parts of Israel. Therefore, although every soldier and commander must
obey the legal orders of the government, so too, must every citizen in a
democratic country ask himself what he is supposed to do when he is
convinced that the policy of the government endangers him, his future and
his family. […]

“Every Jew must feel as if he is personally going to be ousted from
Hebron. Each one of us must understand that if we will not stand up to
stop the uprooting of Jews from Hebron, we may very well - in the future -
be uprooted from Tel Aviv, Haifa, Beer Sheba or from any other place.

“In contrast to the days of exile, it is not only the right, but the
obligation of every Jew, in a Jewish democratic state, to stand up and
warn his government, through passive resistance, of the disaster that it
is bringing upon all of us. What Jews could not do in Germany and Poland
before their extermination, they must do in their own country. They have
to rise en masse and resist.”


Yep this is an old essay by former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.
Ariel Sharon wrote it on April 15, 1994:

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