Opinion: Chevron and Beit HaShalom, canary in the coal mine

By Nicole Brackman

Issue of Dec. 12, 2008 / 15 Kislev 5769

The juxtaposition of the massacre in Mumbai and the debacle last week in Chevron is particularly jarring. Whatever unity was found in sorrow over the murders of innocents was fleeting –– dissipating as Israeli soldiers forcibly evacuated Jewish residents of Beit HaShalom.

The timing seemed cynical, if strategic. Hours before the action, Defense Minister Ehud Barak was closeted with officials of the Yesha Council and Rabbi Moshe Levinger, attempting to reach a compromise in negotiations. The move was ostensibly to enforce a recent Supreme Court decision that “the [20 Jewish families] ‘may’ be removed, despite the fact that they had produced written, audio and video proof that the Arab owner had sold it to them.” The legal purchase of the building was confirmed by two separate Supreme Court investigations.

Legal transactions notwithstanding, the government proved that the “politics of peace” trumps the rule of law. Since the beginning of the Beit HaShalom saga, the government has set aside law in the interest of ridding Chevron of its Jewish presence. It began with preventing the families from making improvements on the building (putting in windows, basic plumbing, and electricity) for humanitarian reasons; and ended with –– among other things –– ordering Yassam anti-riot police to not wear name tags during the evacuation, to prevent identification for lawsuits or charges of brutality.

It’s also no accident that the move took place during the week of Labor Party primaries. Barak is attempting to shore up his support on the left flank of the party. With a national election coming in February, Labor leader Barak sees the writing on the wall.

The party is in trouble, electorally speaking –– standing to lose Knesset seats to defections in the party and populace. Israelis who have supported Labor but are wary of its security platform are going to the Kadima of Tzipi Livni; committed doves favor the more extreme Meretz. And there’s no help from Labor’s socialist traditions: the party lacks a coherent economic policy; the Sephardic Shas party has eroded Labor’s support by attracting a working class base of traditional and religious voters who like its social welfare advocacy.

While Barak and the Labor Party may fear for their electoral futures, the media attention paid to the Chevron eviction has played into their hands. It’s no secret that the secular media in Israel detests the settler movement and its principles; their demonization has been a core element of media coverage for decades. The rhetoric has become increasingly shrill since the Gush Katif expulsion of 2005. The willingness to visit army violence on other Jews in the name of an elusive (and illusory) ‘peace’ with an enemy who is committed to Israel’s destruction is distressing. More demoralizing is that this eagerness to pursue such policies seems to grow sharper with each confrontation. That the evictions have thus far resulted not in compromise with the Palestinians but in mounting insecurity and violence for Israelis seems only to hone Barak’s determination to continue.

The expulsions of Gush Katif, Amona, and Beit HaShalom signal something else: the current Israeli government is, for all practical purposes, in agreement with those in the international community who demand that Jews abandon parts of Eretz Yisrael –– without preconditions, without compensation and without any promise of the reciprocity of a peace agreement.

Any Jewish claims to Israel or holy places are irrelevant and unwelcome. U.N. Middle East Envoy Robert Serry expressed this position succinctly: “I welcome the evacuation by Israeli security forces of approximately 200 settlers from a house in Hebron… I condemn the ensuing violence and attacks by Israeli settlers against Palestinian civilians and the destruction and desecration of Palestinian property, mosques and graves… Israel is under obligation to protect Palestinian civilians, property and holy sites.”

No mention is made of the Jewish attachment to Ma’arat HaMachpelah. And no condemnation is forthcoming of desecrations of Jewish holy sites despite Palestinian commitments to protect them: witness the destruction of Joseph’s Tomb and the ancient synagogue at Jericho; attacks on Kever Rachel; and the devastation of the former shuls of Gush Katif.

Israelis have proven themselves willing to make difficult decisions in the interest of a larger goal of civil co-existence with the Arabs. But the expulsions bring sharp focus to a terrible vision. That Barak is willing to sacrifice Jews for his own political gain is bad enough. Much worse is that the Israeli government is ready to overturn the rule of law and act in a markedly anti-democratic fashion to pursue a failed policy that tears at the fabric of the Jewish nation and gives the Palestinians a costless victory.

Gush Katif, Amona, and Beit HaShalom are the canaries in the coal mine. One prays that the Israeli electorate will hear the warning in February and tell Barak that he has gone too far.

Dr. Nicole Brackman has written and taught extensively on Israeli and Middle Eastern politics, and is formerly a Soref Fellow at The Washington Institute for Near East Policy. Currently she is an instructor of Jewish History at the Stella K. Abraham High School for Girls. She holds a Ph.D. in political science from Washington University in St. Louis. She lives in Cedarhurst with her husband and children.