"Sops to the politically potent settlers movement"

Israel can never make enough concessions for the New York Times, and the Palestinians can do no wrong. With no mention whatsoever of the constant rocket attacks during a supposed "cease-fire," and no mention of the two boys hit by a rocket just yesterday, the editorial in today's New York Times is up in arms over the new SETTLEMENT! being built in the West Bank.

Unfortunately, it has become traditional in Israel to balance constructive gestures with sops to the politically potent settlers movement. The settlers’ agenda is not supported by a majority of Israelis. But no recent government has felt strong enough to resist their demands. Even when Mr. Sharon faced them down over Gaza, he compensated them with promises to expand existing West Bank settlements. Mr. Peretz has gone one regrettable step further by approving a wholly new settlement whose aim is to relocate settlers uprooted from Gaza last year.

I had to look up the word, sop, just to make sure. It is "something yielded to placate or soothe, a bribe." So Israel is bribing some of the Gaza "settlers" with a place to live, a year and a half after dragging them out of the homes they built in Gush Katif.

I'm not going to get started on the disengagement now, because what concerns me at the moment is how all the wire services and the New York Times can jump on this seemingly insignificant story with such a coordinated vengance. I don't understand how that happens. Did they all sit down to discuss how to take attention away from the rocket attacks and Olmert's newest concessions? Did they decide that the poorpalestinians are looking pretty bad these days, what with their killing each other in the streets and Hamas not budging on wanting to destroy Israel, and so had to figure out a way to re-establish Israel as the bad guy? Who had the great idea to dig up this old story and start a new Panic about the Settlers!?

Sigh. The NY Times is up to its ears in this. For backup to the editorial, they have Steven Erlanger on the front page:

First Settlement in 10 Years Fuels Mideast Tension

.... Pressed by Washington to help build up Mr. Abbas, Mr. Olmert promised last week to give him $100 million in Palestinian funds withheld by Israel, about 20 percent of the amount being held, but only for humanitarian purposes.

Abbas aides, however, said the money would be used to strengthen his Fatah movement and pay salaries to Fatah loyalists. Mr. Olmert also promised to dismantle 27 of the 400 or so checkpoints in the West Bank, despite criticism by Israel’s West Bank commander.

Additionally complicating matters, Islamic Jihad on Tuesday fired seven more Qassam rockets into Israel from Gaza, including one that seriously wounded two teenagers in the border town of Sderot.

The planned new settlement will be called Maskiot, and approval was given for the construction of some 30 houses. The Israeli official insisted that all construction would be privately financed.

The housing will be used by the 20 families of the hawkish Gaza settlement Shirat Hayam, which resisted evacuation. To get them to leave Gaza peacefully, the army promised to keep them together.

The decision, the official said, “sort of went through and now it’s done and would be very hard to undo.”

Israel essentially decided to stop the building of settlements in 1992 when Yitzhak Rabin became prime minister, although it has allowed existing settlements to grow, even as it has publicly promised to freeze settlement activity under the so-called road map for peace.

Emily Amrusy, a spokeswoman for the settlers’ council known as Yesha, said that the families would move into trailers on the site while construction began on more permanent housing.

A spokeswoman for the American consulate in Jerusalem, which deals with the West Bank, said a new settlement would be troubling. “We’re looking into it, and if turns out to be a new settlement, we would be very concerned, given Israel’s obligations under the road map,” said Micaela Schweitzer-Bluhm, the spokeswoman.

The road map calls for a freeze in settlement building in the first phase and a Palestinian push to dismantle terrorist groups.

Thirty houses for settlers? Ye gods! What is the world coming to?

No doubt about it, the Settlers! have Olmert up aginst the wall, so to speak. They are so "politically potent" that 98% have not received permanent housing and 51% are still unemployed (as of 12/12/2006).

And as testament to the political potency of the Settler! movement among American Jews, you should note that, according to The Jewish Week Review 12/22/2006

John Ruskay, the executive vice president and CEO of UJA-Federation, plans to visit some of the evacuee communities in Israel in February to help decide if assistance is required. “If we determine that families are in need of food, shelter, health care and other basics, we will respond,” he told The Jewish Week.

Bravo, John, what an extraordinary reponse. I hope you won't much miss my $18. Instead of sending it to the UJA, I think I'll buy this silver-plated torn Magen David from the gift store at Katif.net. It has all the names of the destroyed settlements on it, so that... you know... we never forget.

What the heck, I might even spring for the one in pure silver at $45.00.

I hear it's an Israeli tradition to give sops to the Settlers!
... I just wanna do my part.

Comments

[RR]

Here’s a fuller description of the “settlement” for 30 families (such an obstacle to peace) called “Maskiot” and a better place for your $18 dollars: “Shirat Hayam was a small beachfront community on the southern edge of the Gush Katif bloc of communities in the Gaza region. It was founded in the year 2000, on the very same day of the brutal terrorist bombing of a Kfar Darom school bus. Five years later it is gone, wiped away from the face of Biblical Israel. But the people -- these heartbroken but never broken pioneers, are alive and struggling, to keep their spirits alive and to reestablish their dream somewhere else on this holy soil. But for now they're refugees. When you hear the word refugees you probably picture people, wandering aimlessly, with their worldly possessions on their backs. The picture is correct. The refugees of Shirat Hayam are still wandering; they are still not home. At first they spent two months in the Yeshiva dormitories in Alon Shvut. Then they had to move. They were placed in an abandoned Youth Hostel in Brosh Habika, a neighborhood in the Jordan Valley, and there they remained for another four months. Just recently, the families were forced to move, yet again, to Chemdat, another neighborhood nearby, where they are living in mobile homes. They are being told that their permanent homes, in Maskiot, will be ready in three to six months, which, at best, will get them in as the new school year begins. . . . Let’s give them a feeling of community. And we pray this fresh start will be a good one, a happy one, for these committed selfless souls. Your contribution to this project will bring fresh hope and encouragement to the pioneers of the Gaza Strip, now of the Jordan Valley. With your help, they will be able to start again, look forward, and take pride in their pioneering role in the Land of Israel.” Christian Friends of Israeli Communities: http://www.cfoic.com/index.asp?mainpage=projfocus&id=420