March 01, 2005

Courage in Gaza

I just got back from an event at which a small group met with Mr. Sody A. Naimer, a resident of Gaza, which is currently scheduled to be given up by Israel for the purpose of becoming part of a future Palestinian state. 8,000 Jewish residents of Gaza, who have lived there for up to 20 years, are to be evacuated, by force if necessary.

Mr. Naimer is a Physician in Gaza, and has seen a great deal of trauma and death inflicted on the residents there by terrorist actions. He commented that the surrounding Arabs “love to kill children waiting for school busses in the morning.” He described an occasion when a bomb fell through the roof of his house and didn’t detonate only because it bounced off of a stack of mattresses. He told of many good people killed by terrorists.

Yet he, and most of his fellow-residents, remain passionately dedicated to continuing to live there. They’ve built homes and lives there, and they feel it is by far in the best interests of Israel to keep the land it holds, rather than to surrender it to the Palestinians. Mr. Naimer believes the Palestinians will give Israel nothing in return, and will in fact use the land to launch further deadly attacks on Israeli citizens. He points out that the current official position of Israel is that they do not currently have a partner in peace in the Palestinians—in other words, the Palestinians aren’t even offering to give Israel anything in return for this great concession. He points out that it would be to reward terrorist actions to give up Gaza, and therefore encourage further such actions.

Mr. Naimer discussed how Israeli security personnel visited him and asked him if he would envision himself committing a crime, that is, attacking Israeli forces, to defend his home. Mr. Naimer’s reply was that he would not do such a thing. We asked what he would do if the time for evacuation were to arrive. He said, he and his family would go to the local synogogue, and wait there to see what happened. We asked if he would pack his things. “I won’t move a pen,” he said. “Physical possessions mean nothing to me” in comparison to the importance of Gaza to his fellow residents and to the well-being of the state of Israel.

Last Thursday I attended another event, sponsored by the Stand with Us organization of Los Angeles, dedicated to a secure future for Israel. This event was with Israeli government spokesman David Baker. The subject of Gaza was discussed at length. Mr. Baker said the reason for the evacuation was “math. 8,000 Israelis in the middle of 1.3 million Arabs doesn’t work.” I’m not quite sure what Mr. Baker meant by that. However, after several days, I think perhaps he meant that the Israeli government may feel that it cannot properly protect and guarantee the safety of the residents of Gaza. This is certainly a reasonable and even a caring position.

So here’s the drama: the Israeli government is saying to the Israeli residents of Gaza, leave, because we cannot protect you. And those residents of Gaza are saying back, passionately, even if we can’t have any more protection than we already have, even if we have to suffer from the undending deadly attacks on us, we don’t want to leave. We love our homes, we love Israel, and for the sake of these things, we want to stay.

Stay tuned.