Israel Matzav

The 'settler violence' canard

The government has already started inciting against the revenants, issuing a statement today claiming they 'fear violence' and 'price tag attacks' in response to the government's intent to expel 30 Jewish families from their homes in Beit El, which were built with government approval and funding.

If that purported violence were coming from the revenants who are being expelled from their homes, the public might actually sympathize. After all, it would be understandable if people who were about to be expelled from their homes and left homeless reacted violently. Look what being nice got the revenants of Gush Katif - seven years homeless and counting for many of them, not to mention that the land they vacated became a terror base. So the government needs a different straw man to whom they can attribute violence in advance, and the residents of Yitzhar are convenient whipping boys for that purpose.

Particular concern is with the settlement of Yitzhar which has seen an increase in violence in recent months between settlers and Palestinians. As a result, the Judea and Samaria Division has beefed up the number of troops stationed in the area to prevent future acts of violence.

“The pending evacuations could lead to an increase in settler violence,” a defense official said.

The IDF fears that radical right-wing activists will embark on a series of so-called “price tag” attacks against Palestinians in an effort to derail the government’s plans to evacuate the Ulpana as well as two other outposts – Amona and Givat Assaf.

How's that for a straw man? Oh yes, there's one other thing the government did: They invited a terror attack on Yitzhar.

Last week, the IDF confiscated a number of weapons from members of the Yitzhar settlement's rapid response team following two incidents during which they opened fire at Palestinians in violation of military regulations.

That's great. The people of Yitzhar are unprotected, and the government is advertising it. Brilliant.

In the meantime, YNet is horrified to discover that at least one of Israel's Nobel Prize winners believes that the revenants should 'lie on the ground and let the government evacuate expel [I'm sure they misquoted him. CiJ] you one by one. That would be Yisrael Aumann, our straight shooting Nobel Prize winner. This comes from the first link in the previous paragraph, but the second link is a nearly-six-year-old must read.

Professor Israel Oman visited Israeli hunger strikers in Jerusalem who are protesting the decision to evacuate the Ulpana neighborhood and advised the residents not to forcefully oppose the eviction. "You need to lie on the ground and let them evacuate one by one. If there are thousands it will take them a long time," he said.

Oman, recipient of the 2005 Nobel Prize in Economics, criticized the decision. He said it not only jeopardizes "the Judea and Samaria settlement but the entire country. The real Jewish settlement has always been in Judea and Samaria, not Tel Aviv and Gedera.

"It jeopardizes our entire presence here." Oman added that this eviction will effect generations to come.

Indeed it does.

Labels: Beit El, Binyamin Netanyahu, outposts, Supreme Court, Yisrael Aumann

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 1:42 AM