Heretics' almanac: Breaking hearts in Gush Katif

I am starting to believe that the evacuation of Gush Katif will be a watershed in Israeli society in ways that nobody quite could predict. As could be expected, Norwegian journalists such as Nina Lødemel see it only as a dismantling of an extremist stronghold.

To be sure, those in Kfar Darom who threw "acid" (which turned out to be paint thinner) at the police officers who were enforcing a legal order were despicable, and Israeli authorities are right to prosecute them. But the point - which a sensationalist bias prevents Nina Lødemel from noticing - is that this evacuation broke the heart of Israeli public opinion.

At one level, the images have compelling symbolic meaning. Jews have had to dismantle synagogues, remove Torah scrolls, and abandon their homes on short notice on thousands of occasions in virtually every country they've lived for the last two thousand years or so. When they are forced to do so by fellow Jews, the image becomes unbearable.

Those on the blue side of the issue have no sympathy. The people in Gush Katif moved there knowing their presence was tenuous, subject to the shifting winds in Israeli politics.

But I think that the raw footage evacuation put a face on the so-called "settlers" that will persist in the Israeli public consciousness. They may be tired of the crocheted-kippah men in civilian clothes who carry assault rifles everywhere, but there's something undeniable about the fact that members of the security forces and those being evacuated had to comfort each other during the process.

It's probably something people like Nina Lødemel can't appreciate. Whatever one many think of the politics in the Arab-Israeli conflict, Israelis are not driven by greed, imperialism, or arrogance to hold on to tiny parcels of land in a hostile environment. They do it because they sincerely believe their survival is at stake.

The thousands of Israelis who left their homes yesterday and are welcoming Shabbat in hotels and other temporary accomodations tonight are not "nationalists" the way, say, right-wing Norwegians are nationalists. They may or may not believe that Gaza is or should be an integral part of the State of Israel. But what they do believe is that Jews no longer can afford to retreat in the face of the enemy. They believe that their presence in Gaza ought to have been tolerable to their Palestinian neighbors, that it was terrorism that caused the difficulty, not the mere presence of Jewish homes.

Perhaps Nina Lødemel and the thousands of Norwegians who fancy themselves morally superior to the vast majority of Israelis disagree. Perhaps they feel that Jews should be happy with whatever they get, that they have no right to assert their needs at the expense of others. In doing so, of course, they only strengthen the case of the "Jewish extremists" they're condemning. If the outside world can't be bothered to understand the Israeli position, why should Israel trust anyone but itself?

By all accounts, the evacuation is going smoothly. The Israeli soldiers and police officers who are executing it - often against grave personal misgivings - are being gentle, patient, and firm.

But I suspect public opinion has turned. Sharon may be able to evacuate unauthorized outposts in Judea and Samaria, but there will be very little appetite to move on any of the established Jewish communities there anytime soon. If the Palestinians make the mistake of celebrating the disengagement as a victory for terrorist tactics, public opinion will stiffen further.

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