Avrohom Shmuel Lewin’s JNS Feature article “Disbanding Gush Katif a failed experiment, says general who helped carry out evacuation,” is an important read – and reminder – of the destruction of Jewish homes and many lives of 8,500 Jews 14 years ago this week.
The Gush Katif expulsion was led by Major General Gershon Hacohen. Today he says “No one in his right mind in Israel will now agree to a disengagement from Judea and Samaria except for a few left-wing radicals.” Yet, the “two state solution” continues to be touted – a position AFSI strongly opposes.
The U.S. Congress recently overwhelmingly passed an anti-BDS bill (H. Res. 246) which was widely applauded. However within that was language calling for the “two state solution.” Twenty one Knesset members sent a letter to Congress arguing that the two state solution is “far more dangerous” than the BDS movement. With which terrorist entity would Israel share it’s land? Hamas? Hezbollah? Fatah? Iran? Israelis have learned their lesson from the Gush Katif tragedy, and Trump is not dictating terms, but Israel’s enemies are still furiously at work.
AFSI believes the Resolution was put forward by Representatives Jerrold Nadler, Eliot Engel, and Lee Zeldin. We have come to expect little from the first two. But Zeldin has been a big disappointment.
The expulsion from Gush Katif 14 years ago was not only a great mistake, as Lewin’s article discusses, but a great human tragedy. Never again should any Jewish community in Judea and Samaria be expelled from their land only to be used as a pilot program to test the potential for peace.
Disengagement harmed Israel’s security ~Akiva Bigman