Recent events in response to the threat of evacuating the Gaza Strip are revealing the true face of the settlers.
Yedioth Ahronoth reported this morning that settlers protesting Sharon's disengagement plan are pinning an orange Stars of David on their shirts in a manner reminiscent of the yellow stars the Nazis forced Jews to wear in the Holocaust.
(Haaretz picked up the story later.)
Even the latest settler fashion trend can't help these two.
The underlying message is clear. The Israeli government, and by extension soldiers in the army, are implementing Nazi/genocidal policies. The logical conclusion to such a message is that such policies must be stopped by all means necessary; i.e. do unto the Israeli government as you would do unto Nazi officers.
Haaretz reports that the council of rabbis in West Bank and Gaza Strip issued a statement "expressing support for settler leader Pinhas Wallerstein's call to the public to disobey the disengagement law even at the cost of a prison sentence."
The story quotes council chairman Rabbi Dov Lior as called the emerging Labor-Likud government coalition a "conspiracy of evildoers."
Like Arafat, settlers have no interest in peace (or democracy for that matter) because the conflict with the Arabs (for Arafat it was the conflict with Israel) and the messianic delusion of settling the West Bank and Gaza Strip provide the meaning in their lives.
Relinquishing territories means destroying their lives. A person who feels his life is about to be destroyed has little to lose and little fear of the consequences to actions taken that might delay this destruction.
I hope Sharon and Peres are wearing bulletproof vests.
