Three Soldiers and the Price of Disengagement
Nine IDF soldiers were killed in the Hizbullah village of Bint Jbeil. One of those killed was 20 year old corporal Ohad Klausner. Klausner's father spoke out saying that his son had not been trained to fight terrorists but to expell Jews. Disengagement had become the priority of the Sharon government and it increasingly focused the efforts of the military and inteligence branches on fighting other Jews, rather than fighting terrorism. The price for that is being paid on the battlefield.
Major Royie Klein who was killed in that same battle was a deputy commander of the elite Golani brigade. In the best tradition of Israeli Defense Force offiers, he fell on a grenade to shield his own men and died. Now his widow and her two children are threatened with expulsion from their own home because of a Peace Now petition (members include the Defense Minister and Pime Minister Olmert's wife) demanding the demolition of twelve houses in Eli, they claim were built on land belonging to Arabs. The last such succesfull petition resulted in the police riot at Amona in which homes were destroyed and hundreds were assaulted and trampled by Yassam police squads.
A third soldier who died in that battle was 24 year old Captain Amichai Merhavya. Amichai had been suspended from his unit and threatened with dismissal from the army for writing a letter to the Chief of Staff objecting to the expulsion of Jews. Though he is dead, his brother continues fighting in Gaza.
A year after Disengagement Israel has paid a high price for it in national divisions, in the worsening of our strategic situation and the growing enemy threat. It has also paid a more unseen price in the politicisation of the IDF, the dismissal of capable generals and officers, who were replaced by men loyal to the policies of the Sharon government. It has paid a price by focusing on training to expell their own brothers from their homes by force and inteligence spying on opposition activists rather than focusing on fighting the enemy.
Disengagement is over. Its bloody cost is all around us. Further Disengagements are a madman's dream. What has begun is the Reengagement, the reality that we cannot run away from the enemy and that turning on each other will only profit the enemy whom we must confront as a nation united. It's time to send Peace Now packing back to their EU and Vatican sponsors and to reengage with Zionism and with our own people.