Friday, October 6, 2000

 

 

 

 

                               Joseph's amazingly bottomless tomb

 

                               By Zvi Bar'el

 

 

                               "You've got permission to vacate Joseph's Tomb, if you've reached

                               the conclusion that you need to in order to save the soldiers' lives,"

                               then defense minister Yitzhak Mordechai declared four years ago. In

                               September 1996, Mordechai communicated his decision to IDF

                               Central Commander Uzi Dayan. The IDF officer subsequently

                               decided that the situation didn't justify a clear-out operation at

                               Joseph's Tomb. The result of Dayan's decision was that six IDF

                               soldiers were killed, and many others were wounded - and all of the

                               casualties came from the team sent in from the "Heruv" unit to rescue

                               trapped soldiers.At the time, Haredi MK Moshe Gafni was quoted as

                               saying that "I don't think that in the long term we need to continue as

                               an enclave surrounded by an Arab mass at Joseph's Tomb. We

                               should consider the option of not remaining in such enclaves." Gafni

                               asked only that Jews not vacate Joseph's Tomb too soon, so as to

                               "not create a feeling of surrendering to terror."

 

                               Gafni's proposal went unanswered. Eight months later, in April 1997,

                               Joseph's Tomb was attacked again. IDF officers deliberated about

                               the option of using a tank convoy or combat helicopters to rebuff the

                               attack. Worried about Palestinian sniper fire, they decided against

                               using helicopters. Fortunately, Palestinian security forces managed to

                               restrain enraged masses; so the IDF was spared the need to deploy a

                               major military operation tantamount to the re-conquest of Nablus.

 

                               The four years that have gone by since then must count as a stretch of

                               time sufficiently ample to defuse allegations that a withdrawal from

                               Joseph's Tomb is a concession to Netanyahu-era terror.

 

                               It's also worth recalling that the yeshiva students who gathered at

                               Joseph's Tomb under a special residence entitlement written into the

                               Oslo II agreement are right-wing extremists. Restraining orders were

                               issued against some of them in the past, in response to acts of

                               incitement they perpetrated. Two of them jeered the Samaria district

                               IDF commander, calling him a traitor and a racist. The yeshiva's head,

                               Rabbi Yitzhak Ginsberg, also was subjected to a restraining writ -

                               among other reasons, the order was issued because the rabbi

                               declared that "thou shall not murder" doesn't protect non-Jews.

 

                               The large number of casualties at Joseph's Tomb, and the objective

                               military assessment that the site is indefensible, might not suffice to

                               dissuade opponents of withdrawal from the Nablus area Jewish

                               enclave.

 

                               They hold that the sanctity of the site justifies a continued Jewish

                               presence there, whatever the cost. But their contention can be

                               challenged on religious-historic grounds. There's another Joseph's

                               Tomb in the Cave of Patriarchs, near the burial places of Abraham,

                               Isaac, Jacob and their wives. Joseph doesn't need another spare,

                               amazingly bottomless tomb in Nablus.

 

                               The Netzarim settlement, alas, isn't buttressed by claims about Jewish

                               sanctity. Located between northern and southern ends of the Gaza

                               Strip, the settlement is exceptionally difficult to defend. Were a final

                               status agreement with the Palestinians to be in effect now, Netzarim

                               wouldn't be on the map. It tops a short list of Jewish settlements

                               slated for removal once an agreement is signed. It appears that the

                               settlement's purpose is to serve as negotiation gambit - it is to be

                               offered for removal so that larger, stronger Jewish settlements will

                               remain in place.

 

                               Yet prior to that day when Netzarim plays its designated role, the

                               defense of the small Jewish settlement continues to require the

                               deployment of a large number of IDF troops. Sometimes the number

                               of soldiers out-number the settlement's vacant homes by a factor of

                               ten to one. The Netzarim settlers are a constant target of terror

                               attempts. Netzarim's women and children travel in extensively

                               guarded convoys. The much-fortified entrance route to the settlement

                               resembles that of a nuclear facility.

 

                               In security terms, Netzarim's importance is negligible. In fact, its

                               security impact is negative - it is a constant site of violent friction

                               between IDF soldiers and Palestinian security forces. During the past

                               week, the IDF fought at Netzarim as though the settlement were the

                               legendary Tel Hai of yore, as though it were a stronghold whose fate

                               is crucial to the nation's morale.

 

                               Netzarim and Joseph's Tomb have turned into symbols of the State of

                               Israel's endurance and steadfast will. But their "prestige" remains valid

                               so long as a peace agreement isn't signed. The moment an agreement

                               is forged, the enclaves will be ripped from the map the way a price

                               tag is taken off a sold product. But there's a catch: by remaining on

                               the ground, pending the realization of a peace agreement, they're

                               liable to help obstruct efforts to attain the elusive peace pact

 

                                                             

 

                                         © copyright 2000 Ha'aretz. All Rights Reserved

 

 

 

                                                                                     The pessimists were

                                                                                     right/By Yoel Marcus

 

                                                                                     The lessons of the

                                                                                     rioting/By Ze'ev Schiff

 

                                                                                     Without live bullets, without

                                                                                     dead bodies/By Nehemia

                                                                                     Strasler

 

                                                                                     The NIS 4 billion

                                                                                     question/By Nehemia Strasler

 

 

 

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