re: yak, Have a read... The outposts: A distraction The...

re: yak, Have a read... The outposts: A distraction





The opposition of Yesha settlement leaders to dismantling the illegal outposts, like the evasiveness of their great friend Ariel Sharon, show that neither he nor they are acting in good faith. The Yesha leaders are threatening that their people will dig in their heels at sites slated for evacuation, thereby compelling IDF troops to evict them by force. Between the lines, there have also been allusions to more active resistance and intentions to reoccupy the hills after the evacuation is complete, in order to make life more difficult for the army and basically, to taunt it.

This proves yet again that in the eyes of the settlers themselves, as well as their political supporters, the so-called distinction between "legal" settlements and "illegal" outposts is nothing but a disingenuous trick. What is not legal today will become legal tomorrow. All they have to do is maneuver properly in the halls of power. As proof, they point, justifiably, to three decades of successful maneuvering - always with the support of their patron, Sharon - and to the fact that they have stubbornly kept a grip on almost every place they have put down stakes.

Their goal was, and still is, preventing the Palestinians from establishing a viable state. Every settlement, every outpost, every water tank propped up on poles on a hilltop, is meant to drive home to the Palestinians the hopelessness of their aspirations for an independent state on their own land.

Today the settlers find it convenient for public discourse and their negotiations with the defense minister, a Labor party man, to revolve around the formal legal status of certain outposts. There are also grounds for believing that some of them were established with the express purpose of political distraction.

It is clearly in the interests of peace-seeking Israelis for the defense minister to stand firm against the onslaught of pressures orchestrated by the settlers. It is also in their interests that the IDF follow the defense minister's orders to remove illegal settlements. But seekers of peace must not be led astray by this formalistic distinction between legal and illegal, which is largely an illusion.

In the final assessment, dismantling a couple of illegal outposts is nothing but a mockery of the poor. These outposts are the offspring of older settlements, some of them also established illegally at the time, but achieving a kind of pseudo-legitimacy over the years.

Having been forced, in these troubled times, to wrangle over a handful of caravans, the settlers and their supporters are now trying to avoid the impression that any precedent has been set. By objecting to the evacuation and making political moves designed to minimize the number of outposts slated for removal, they are signaling to their Palestinian neighbors that the great campaign to crush their aspirations goes on.

The settlements, and not just the outposts, are the obstacle to peace. That basic truth cannot be hidden, even if they scatter caravans on every rocky peak.