If the world has been holding its collective breath since the start of Israel’s disengagement from Gaza, then Jews are practically faint. No one knows yet how this historic step will play out. It’s just too soon to tell.
Some in the press remarked that American Jews have shown a measure of apathy over the disengagement, given the momentous nature of the move.
We don’t agree with that assessment. Rather, what may have been mistaken for apathy is actually a kind of queasiness over the whole operation.
We are simply unaccustomed to seeing Israeli soldiers arresting Jews en masse and tearing them away from their homes. Neither can we bear to see Jewish mothers and children convulsed in grief, or hauled away on buses. We Jews have too much familiarity with forcible dislocation to derive any pleasure from this ordeal.
So far, Israeli security forces have moved swiftly but respectfully in removing the settlers. While there were some nasty scuffles and many arrests (as of press time, the most defiant settlers were not yet evicted), the pullout went as smoothly as could be expected. The water canons on scene were used not on settlers but only to put out fires.
Still, American Jews, not to mention Israelis, can’t help but feel nervous when thugs from Hamas and Islamic Jihad make bombastic comments about disengagement being merely the first step toward liquidating all of Israel and the Jews.
That’s not what we signed up for.
Yet when mainstream groups such as the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations reinforce their support for disengagement (as they did in a press release this week), then most American Jews have to reassure themselves that this is the right move for Israel.
Meanwhile, Jews on the left (such as Americans for Peace Now) see the disengagement as simply a long-overdue first step and not worth clapping ourselves on the back. Jews on the right, such as members of the Zionist Organization of America, see it as catastrophic mistake. Both sides passionately want peace. So which side has the more developed talent for prophecy?
The biggest questions of all remain unanswered. Will Israel next undertake a more comprehensive pullout of the West Bank? Will Palestinians and the rest of the Arab world spin this as an Israeli defeat? Or will this truly be a first step towards the fabled two-state solution and a real peace?
No Jew, in Israel, America or anywhere else could be apathetic over the answers to those questions.
The whole world is watching and waiting.