Evacuation of Homesh
Photo: AFP
True courage at Homesh
Shlomo Engel proud of daughter who returned to evacuated West Bank settlement
Dear Naama,
About a year and a half ago, on Homesh's last day, I turned to you and your sister Adi from this platform and called on you to return home from the besieged community and invest your energies and efforts for the sake of the people and country.
Indeed, you returned to the tranquil community of Shoham and continued your blessed activities in the realm of education and assistance to weak population groups with the same innocent zeal that sent you to Homesh.
This week you returned along with thousands of innocent people such as yourself to the razed Homesh. Later, the marchers were evacuated from there.
My heart was filled with immense pride and joy over your return to Homesh, even though it was clear both to me and to you that the road to repopulating the razed community is still far off. I was very glad to see that you were not tainted by cynicism and indifference. I was glad that you are willing to invest a great effort, even when it is clear to you that it has no immediate result or benefit.
Indeed, "the eternal people does not fear the long road." I was particularly happy to see you yelling out: "The emperor has no clothes, the emperor has no clothes."
During those dark days, where an indifferent government dispatched the IDF to raze and destroy whole communities, the seeds of the calamity that led to our current difficult state were sown. During those dark days I could not imagine how quickly and accurately we would see the dark prophecies of objectors to the disengagement folly materializing. Mostly, I could not imagine how quickly we would see the false messiahs again attempting to sacrifice our people for the sake of "peace" – as if nothing happened and as though the disengagement's terrible price is not clear everywhere we turn.
The false concepts of the pre-disengagement period and the second Intifada, such as: Diplomatic process, negotiations, peace, ceasefire, calm, agreements with the Palestinian Authority, diplomatic initiative, unilateral withdrawal, etc. etc. – are again up for discussion as if nothing happened before. These days, senior ministers are allowing themselves to toy with the Saudi initiative and talks with Abbas, while commentators and analysts (in this opinion section as well) are again chattering about a return to unilateralism and the road to ending the conflict.
Naama, by returning to Homesh you hurled the simple truth in everyone's face: There is no peace, but rather, war. There was no disengagement, but rather, a shameful escape. There was no evacuation, but rather, a violent and futile expulsion. There is no diplomatic advancement, but rather, diplomatic collapse. There is no security, but rather, fear and anxiety. There are no fair trials, but rather, injustice. We have no government, but rather, a bunch of corrupt people who are clinging to each other as not to drown together.
Russian analogy
It is clear that your quiet call from Homesh cannot penetrate the hearts of those who raze communities, and who are sitting in the government, at the courts, and in the media, and are attempting to silence you as much as they can. A government that loses its moral righteousness becomes increasingly detached and more violent, thus furthering its own decay.
That was the case in Communist Russia, where noble concepts such as justice, equality, and solidarity among nations have become a hypocritical veneer empty of substance that was turned into terror, evil, and injustice. So is the case in the democratic State of Israel, where noble concepts such as peace and compromise have become a hypocritical veneer empty of substance that serves to hide expulsion, destruction, and war.
In Communist Russia there were also very few who dared go against the current of scared yes-men. They risked and at times even sacrificed their own lives in their fight against the regime, but they were the genuine representative voice of the overwhelming majority of the people, who were scared to express what those brave souls said out lout.
Natan Sharansky and his handful of courageous supporters were not afraid and launched a moral battle against the corrupt regime. Nobody promised Sharansky that his battle would succeed. Nobody even gave this battle a slight change. Yet Sharansky, through his courage, constituted a mouthpiece for millions of other Russians who were scared to speak up - and ultimately he won.
The democratic State of Israel is very far removed from the Communist dictatorship, and in Israel there is no physical fear of speaking up, but there are still very few people who dare talk and act against the "Order of the Peace Temples" and their complete control of all the important agents of power.
Naama, by returning to Homesh you gave a brave and clear expression to the overwhelming majority of the country's citizens, who know that the disengagement only brought damage and continues to damage, even though only few are interested or able to say so.
It is clear that our powerful rivals have made out all those returning to Homesh seem like a bunch of messianic dreamers, in order to silence them as much as is possible. Yet who knows better than you that the truth will ultimately win out, and I am filled with pride to see you carrying it out in the open, without any fear or shame.
Welcome back home, my beloved and determined daughter,
Your dad
