Let them refuse

[Violet_Crumble]

By Gideon Levy

With cynical manipulation the settlers aim to aggrandize the dimensions of the disengagement from the Gaza Strip - from the threat of civil war to the description of the evacuation of a few thousand settlers as a national calamity. To this their leaders have now added their "Doomsday weapon" - backing soldiers' refusal to obey a command to evacuate settlers.

Here too it's a case of much ado about almost nothing and here too the settlers have chalked up another impressive achievement in their war of blackmail. They have again succeeded in instilling fear into everyone, though it's a false fear.

The IDF is strong enough and large enough to carry out the evacuation without the refuseniks, and the state is strong enough to withstand the hitch. The two strongest forces in the Israeli society, the IDF and the settlers, have again hooked up to conduct a baseless campaign of intimidation. The systematic campaign serves the interests of both groups well.

For the settlers it is an effective and brutal means to frighten the largely indifferent public; for the IDF it is one more way to perpetuate its status as the central factor in Israeli life. It is only in this light that it is possible to understand the statements made by generals and rabbis, all of which bordered on hysteria.

From Rabbi Yoel Bin Nun, who said that "refusal endangers the state," to Rabbi Shlomo Riskin, who described refusal as "one step before civil war;" from the prime minister, who warned that refusal is liable to cause a calamity, to the chief of staff, who called refusal a "danger to Zionism," no less.

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