Its Hard to Watch

Its hard to watch.
The past few days, I have been watching the forced evacuations of Israelis from their homes in Gaza and the West Bank. Its hard to watch them being carried out, a soldier on each arm and leg. Some of the evacuees are literally kicking and screaming. Oh, the cries of a disenfranchised people. And to be turned out by their own people too!



The government that had encouraged them to settle in these areas. The places where they built their homes. Dreamed their dreams. Drilled wells, cleared and plowed fields -- literally making the desert bloom! Their Synagogues, and sanctuaries. The places they had made holy. All demolished by Israeli bulldozers. Nothing left, but a pile of rubble.

Their children were born here. Many of them knew no other home. Their parents died here. Their bodies are buried here. What will become of their dead. Will they be left where they are, to be desecrated by the Palestinians? Will they be exhumed and returned to Israel, like Jacob's bones?

Its Hard to Watch.

And what of the soldiers. These are not heartless Nazis. These are real human beings, forced to carry out their orders, upon their own people, and hating every minute of it! Honoring their sworn duty, but relishing none of it. Many of them devastated by what they were called upon to do.

Its Hard to Watch.

And to what end? The Palestinians are already rejoicing! Hamas, a Palestinian Terrorist group are declaring victory! They claim that the Intifada has worked! Their violence, and terror against innocent men, women and children has worked! -- so they claim. Is rewarding them with land by withdrawing really going to end Palestinian Terror? Or will it serve to encourage it by allowing Hamas, and other similar organizations to further recruit, and further indoctrinate their people? Their goal: First to drive the Jews Gaza, and then from the West Bank, Followed by Jerusalem, and then the Jews driven into the Sea! Nothing short of the utter destruction of Israel will satisfy them.

What of the land ceded to the Palestinians? Will it ever bloom again? Is their any hope that it will ever approach the beauty that it once had? Or will it lie fallow, and the fields return to the desert from whence they came?

Its hard to watch.

When you think of pogroms past. Jews being driven from their homes. Visions of the holocaust. Injustices suffered at the hands of their own government.

Its hard to watch.

When I think of our own ancestors, who were driven from their homes in Missouri and Illinois, at the hands of the government sworn to protect their rights. I cannot help but feel for the losses sustained by these people. The feeling of betrayal by their government. My heart goes out to them.

Its hard to watch.

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