Disarmed, Abused and Abandoned

Hazal recount the story of a person on a boat, who is busy drilling a hole under his seat. When the other passengers protest that he's endangering their lives as well, he retorts that he (after all) is only drilling under his seat.

Today, I encountered two particularly perverse versions of this story.

First, convicted sex offender and incumbent Vice Premier, Haim Ramon, announced that the town of Ofra was built upon private Palestinian land. In other words, the government should now enter and run the people out of their homes. Ramon, who makes no secret of the fact that he's Olmert's mouthpiece, is on record as a virulent enemy of Zionism, Judaism and a fortiori settlers, of any shape and form. He's also short sighted and stupid. By making this kind of declaration (which is totally unsubstantiated), he's undermining his own right to his own home.

Second, the army is collecting all of the military equipment held by reservists in the Shomron. The weapons and equipment were issued for self-defense, against the threat of terrorist infiltration. Without guns, and without Rapid deployment units that are fully equipped, the residents of the Shomron are left helpless. At the same time, thanks to Condi, Tzippi and Ehud the checkpoints on the roads are being removed, giving the terrorists a free ride.

Why are they doing this? As a former commander of a RDU, I have to agree with the observation that 'the government realizes it cannot put 250,000 Jews on buses and destroy Judea and Samaria like they did with Gush Qatif. They plan on announcing, around May-June this year, that they are creating a PLO State and "allowing the Jews" to stay (without guns and surrounded by barbed wires) They hope that most of the settlers will leave of their own free will after a few massacres. They will, thus, not need to pay them compensation ("We told you you can stay").'

Sound off? Well, consider these juicy statements that I culled from the local chat-group:

Peres said (1994), "A few good messacres and they will leave." Rabin (Spring of 1995): "I promise we will do our best to take care of the wounded."And Haim Ramon said in Haaretz in 2001, "I advised Barak at Camp David not to raise the issue of Jerusalem now but to wait 5 or 10 years, until Jerusalem is like Gaza today and then Israel will be ready for concessions on Jerusalem."

The Midrash was discussing short-sighted, selfishness.
This is murder and suicide, plain and simple.

Who said Jews are smart?

UPDATE: In response to comments to this post: 1) I will try to track down the exact references to Peres and Rabin. Ramon's comments are on record in Haaretz' archive. 2) Olmert, Livni and company have consistently said that they are striving to establish a Palestinian State before Bush completes his presidency. 3) The observation I cited is informed speculation. It is also consistent with the stated policy of Olmert and Ramon, regarding the settler community. 4) Ramon has always demonstrated his antipathy to Zionism, Judaism and basic ethics. He de-zionized the Histradrut, refusing to use the words 'Eretz Yisrael' in its title. ('We know where we are,' he quipped.) He is also adamently in favor of the most de-judaized constitutional initiatives. As for morals...his give an alley cat a bad name.