We're All Settlers

As the Expulsion of the Jews from Gaza draws nearer, I continue to be frustrated and disillusioned that close to 10,000 Jews are slated to be forcibly evicted from their homes, all their property, including synagogues and cemeteries, to be blown up and bulldozed, yet, somehow, a very large percentage of the Jewish population displays an utter lack of concern for their plight. Worse still, the popular opinion that the Settlers have it coming to them and that this pogrom is somehow long overdo.

Liberal Jewish organizations in particular are falling over themselves with excitement that Sharon is planning to evict the Jews and hand over Gaza to the moslems. It's a phenomenon that seems impossible to me: Jewish groups, who raise money to combat anti-Semitism, sitting back and applauding while Jewish homes are about to be razed, entire communities destroyed, and a thriving, vibrant Jewish population is ethically cleansed. I keep thinking this is all a bad dream, because it just doesn't make any sense to me.

Let's be candid, the real question is why do so many Jews hate the Settlers? What is it that makes so many of our brethren look down upon these Jews with deep revulsion and scorn? It's not uncommon to hear liberal Jews equating the Settlers with moslem terrorists. I frequently read leftists like Thomas Friedman and Richard Cohen blaming the Settlers for provoking moslem terror and anti-Semitism. They say the Settlers are the main reason we don't have peace with the "Palestinians", that the Settlers are inflaming the "arab street", and that the Settlers are jeopardizing the lives of "normal" Jews throughout the world by making the moslems hate us.

I think what's going on here is a serious case of amnesia. Our liberal friends have forgotten that we, as Jews, always have been and always will be Settlers. Right from the beginning of our biblical history, about 4,000 years ago, Abraham and Sarah traveled at God's behest to settle in The Land then known as Canaan. His lineage was promised The Land, and to this day we've been struggling to settle it.

Think about how you got to where you are today. Your parents, or maybe your grandparents, or maybe your great grandparents, traveled from some hostile land to settle in America. Yes, "settle". We were not a people who arrived with ease and comfort, nor have we ever known ease and comfort, except to a degree now because of the success and courage our forefathers showed settling in a place where Jews were the overwhelming minority.

Is it any different for our brethren in Gaza? Are they not showing courage and conviction settling a Land far more significant to us Jews than Hollywood or Boca Raton? We've forgotten what the struggle was like. We've forgotten that the cosmopolitan life we can enjoy in Tel Aviv and the observant life we can enjoy in Jerusalem came with a price. These places didn't just get handed to us on a platter. We weren't arriving with a welcome wagon and free lollypops. It was a struggle. An uphill climb against hostile, evil forces that wanted to kill us. We got what we have now on the backs of courageous "settlers" who blazed the trails, fought the fight, endured the hardship, but made it work because they dared to believe.

We've grown fat, lazy and arrogant in our success. The Settlers of today, who show the courage to live as Jews in the Holy Land despite constant harassment and terrorism from moslems, deserve not our scorn but our appreciation, respect, and gratitude. To support their brutal eviction by fellow Jews who want to take the path of least resistance is a treacherous and loathsome way to think. It wasn't so long ago, my friends, that you were the settler who was being attacked. It wasn't so long ago that your father and mother stood strong in the face of evil and lived as Jews against all odds.

So, here we are in our luxury cars and comfortable homes living the good life. While sipping on our lemonade poolside, however, may I suggest stopping for a moment and reflecting upon what it took for us to get here and, just maybe, reconsider sabotaging the next generation of settlers in Gush Katif, who are only trying to etch out their dreams and future successes just like our pioneering settlers did not so long ago.

All of us, no matter where we are or how long we've been there, are settlers.

-MZ