It's been a long time since I blogged anything, and I hope this posting with be worth your while.
Allow me to share something personal with you. Ever since the destruction of Gush Katif in 2005, I have been harboring a deep pain. The images of Jews being forcibly dragged out of their homes - homes that they had lived in for 3 generations - is seared into my memory. The knowledge that this trauma was inflicted by other Jews makes the thought almost too painful to bear. And if this is what I feel - I who was safe and snug in my little home in Beit Shemesh - I cannot even begin to imagine what kind of pain is still in the hearts of the innocent people who were themselves expelled, betrayed and hung out to dry by their own nation.
Six years later, we have seen how the "Disengagement" plan, conceived in iniquity, legalized by duplicity, and executed with cold indifference, has backfired on us all. I confess I don't know what the official statistics are, but given the fact that we are now absorbing continual rocket attacks from the ruins of Gush Katif, and that our standing in world opinion is far, far worse than it was prior to the expulsion, it's hard to believe that there is more than a tiny core of delusional, hard-core post-Zionists who still think it was a good idea.
OK, so now we've learned it was a bad idea, pragmatically speaking. But frankly, that's not enough. We screwed up - badly - and the people of Gush Katif paid the biggest price. And all we have done for them done to date by way of acknowledgement, effectively, has just been to say, "Oops... Um... well, that didn't work out so well... So sorry about that - and... um... good luck with the rest of your lives!" And we've merrily trotted off and started looking for fresh new ways to appease world opinion and try satisfy an enemy who will be happy with nothing less than our complete destruction.
Here's Repentance 101: Yom Kippur does not atone for sins between man and man, until the transgressor apologizes to the person he wronged and appeases him. In these 6 years, we have done nothing of the sort for the Jews of Gush Katif. If we have not achieved their forgiveness, how can we expect that Hashem will forgive us? If we want G-d to forgive us for this terrible injustice that we perpetrated on our fellow Jews, and if we want to be able to pray for Him to relate to us with mercy - we had better be prepared to do teshuva for the cruelty we perpetrated on our brethren.
To this end, I have prepared the text of a collective, national apology. Every one of us, to some extent, is responsible for what happened, as I have attempted to express in the text, and every Jew with a heart, anywhere in the world, should sign on, to say sorry. I want 1 million signatures on this apology, and I believe this is attainable.
So, I ask you, please:
Allow me to share something personal with you. Ever since the destruction of Gush Katif in 2005, I have been harboring a deep pain. The images of Jews being forcibly dragged out of their homes - homes that they had lived in for 3 generations - is seared into my memory. The knowledge that this trauma was inflicted by other Jews makes the thought almost too painful to bear. And if this is what I feel - I who was safe and snug in my little home in Beit Shemesh - I cannot even begin to imagine what kind of pain is still in the hearts of the innocent people who were themselves expelled, betrayed and hung out to dry by their own nation.
Six years later, we have seen how the "Disengagement" plan, conceived in iniquity, legalized by duplicity, and executed with cold indifference, has backfired on us all. I confess I don't know what the official statistics are, but given the fact that we are now absorbing continual rocket attacks from the ruins of Gush Katif, and that our standing in world opinion is far, far worse than it was prior to the expulsion, it's hard to believe that there is more than a tiny core of delusional, hard-core post-Zionists who still think it was a good idea.
OK, so now we've learned it was a bad idea, pragmatically speaking. But frankly, that's not enough. We screwed up - badly - and the people of Gush Katif paid the biggest price. And all we have done for them done to date by way of acknowledgement, effectively, has just been to say, "Oops... Um... well, that didn't work out so well... So sorry about that - and... um... good luck with the rest of your lives!" And we've merrily trotted off and started looking for fresh new ways to appease world opinion and try satisfy an enemy who will be happy with nothing less than our complete destruction.
To this end, I have prepared the text of a collective, national apology. Every one of us, to some extent, is responsible for what happened, as I have attempted to express in the text, and every Jew with a heart, anywhere in the world, should sign on, to say sorry. I want 1 million signatures on this apology, and I believe this is attainable.
So, I ask you, please:
- Sign the petition here. (Non-Hebrew speakers, please see the annotated screen shot here for what you need to fill in and click!)
- Spread the word. Use Facebook, Twitter, your own blog, email, SMS, whatever. For this to be a meaningful exercise, every Jew in the world, Right or Left, religious or not, needs to be able to say sorry to someone they wronged.
Thank you for your help! And in the merit of our national contrition, and hopefully the forgiveness of those we have wronged, may Hashem show mercy and forgiveness to us, and bring our final Redemption.
bit.ly/sorrygk
2 comments:
I can't believe no one has commented yet Shaul, I feel how you feel - I'm heartbroken over what has been committed by our government. But I feel your petition won't achieve anything other than make those who signed it feel better. And that would be a disservice to the victims of the Disengagement. It doesn't change their situation, yet it would make us feel absolved since we apologized. Imagine if you were one of the ones who lost his home, R"L and you receive an apology like this.
Apologies don't make the pain go away. So we shouldn't be made to feel as though we made the pain go away by apologizing.
What still baffles me is how this country continues to elect the same liars and goons again and again. All they do is rotate positions. "OK, this time you be PM and I'll be FM. Next time you'll be DM and she'll be FM and I'll be PM." It's more of the same each election.
We like to tout Israel as being the only Democracy in the Middle East. First, I'm not sure this is a real Democracy, and second, I'm not convinced that Democracy is the best form of government. Something decided by the masses does not automatically make it right.
Don't let people think that signing this petition makes everything ok. It doesn't. But you are an excellent writer, so please consider writing another one called, "Gush Katif - Time to Take it Back!"
Thank you for posting this piece. However, I will not sign your petition. I was actively protesting against the hitnatkut, in my blog and in my community. I was anti from the outset, totally disagreeing with Arik Sharon (and also my husband, who was trying to think rationally about it, saying that it was a diplomatic move to show the world what we are doing for "peace." Boy, was he off-base with that one).
I was devastated by the final outcome, the eviction of thousands of Jews from their homes of 30 years, and by Jews, no less.
As Wanna Saab stated, apologies don't diminish the pain and don't help the evacuees find jobs and new purpose in their lives.
I also agree with W.S. when he says that 'we keep electing the same liars and goons again and again.' People seem to be stupid. Or they just don't care, as long as their nice little homes in Tel-Aviv aren't affected.
Yes, keep writing--I do believe you, too, were devastated by this. I second W.S.'s motion, to write a post called "Gush Katif, Time to Take it Back: See, World? We Tried It, and it Didn't Work."
-With a vengeance.
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