The Pre-Disengagement Violence on the Right

The violence surrounding the disengagement and fomented by the right is becoming more of a problem as the time for pullout approaches. The attack on the 18-year-old Palestinian youth, Ziad Majaida, was a criminal act and those responsible are still free.One suspect has been caught. The scenario at Muasi proves how violent these kippa and tsitsit cladded hooligans can become, chanting, "Jew cannot deport Jew!" Those responsible for the terrible violence – blocking roads, throwing nails on the street and endangering lives of citizens for the sake of their cause must have received inspiration from somewhere!

The young age of these neo-Kahanist hooligans proves that they were emissaries sent out by their right wing parents goaded by fanatic rabbis. Sanity seems to have left these people and they have attacked Israel causing much damage to its democracy as well as to her standing in the world.

Now even those who support the settler movement in their fight against disengagement have come out against the violent activities of these pseudo-religious youths.

The damage to Israel's image has been done no matter what people like Rabbi Mordechai Elon, head of Yeshivat Hakotel and one of the country's more prominent religious Zionist leaders say by condemning the violence of the anti-disengagement protesters. (Haaretz 01/07/05). Where were all the religious leaders of the settler movement prior to these violent incidents? Why did they not condemn the violent anti-disengagement activities of these youthful hooligans? All we read in the Press was how the settlers should be encouraged to oppose the disengagement using whatever resources they have. Most of the encouragement came from their rabbis.

These rabbis had opened Pandora's Box letting the genie of violence out. Many rabbis even made halachic rulings encouraging soldiers to disobey commands to "deport" Jews. Now some of them have seen the monster that they had created and are changing their tactics.

There is no doubt that the vociferous right-wing anti-disengagement supporters have been brainwashed by their rabbis about the evil of giving up parts of Israel that in their view is part of the greater Israel. The fact that so much blood has been spilt because of the settlers living in Gaza does not make any impression on these fanatics at all. These settlers had to be protected by the Israeli Army and many soldiers had lost their lives as a result.

The right wing Zionist religious movements with their religious brainwashing and doctrinaire tactics must bear a large portion of the blame for the creation of a religious mutant strain of hooligan. This is Israel's "Jewish Hamas" and "Jewish Jihad!"