Margy Pezdirtz
2008
In this article by member of CFOIC’s board of directors, Margy Pezdirtz, Allah is the god of the terrorists, Islam, Muslims and those who would want to destroy Israel.
Three years ago a dispersion – a pogrom – ripped through the hearts and minds of the Jews of Gush Katif, Israel, leaving destruction, despair, and death in its wake. We watched as young people filled synagogues and the streets of Gush Katif, crying and seeking the face of Hashem to dispel them from this evil threat of eviction from their homes by the same government that had instructed and encouraged them to build those homes in the first place.
They didn’t believe it would happen – the Jews. We didn’t believe it would happen – the Christians. They prayed and cried. We prayed and cried. Demonstrations were held. Voices were lifted. Arms were linked. Faith in a delivering G-d was shouted from the roof tops and city streets but fell on deaf ears of the Israeli government as police officers donned their black garb reminiscent of storm troopers only sixty short years before. Allah licked his lips and laughed.
The halls of the Knesset shook with the evil voices of determined destruction while the foundations of the United States State Department and the American government began to crumble as we pushed and prodded and threatened that this was the only way to a Two-State Solution for a problem that was as old as time. Resolute in having it their way, no matter what the cost became the mantra of those in hidden chambers as they devised their plans to destroy what thirty-eight years of hard work and sacrifice had built.
Fifty-five miles of a human prayer chain wasn’t enough to stop it. Treacherous moonlit marches of solidarity by the Youth of Israel slipping beyond razor wire into the communities of Gush Katif wasn’t enough to stop it. Lives of innocent men and women and children sacrificed to the idol of the terrorists’ bullets wasn’t enough to stop it. Lost limbs and eyes and voices, and maybe even minds, weren’t enough to stop the evil edict that ordered soldiers and policemen to evict brother Jews from their homes one more time. A pogrom had been declared and would be carried out, no matter what the cost. The world demanded it. Ariel Sharon, Ehud Olmert and George W. Bush demanded it, therefore it would be.
The sands of Gush Katif that were once watered and planted with flowers and gardens turned to salt as tears fell from pleading eyes and broken hearts. What had once been like a Garden of Eden was turned into a haven for terrorists in a matter of days. How could this happen? How could a Jew remove a Jew from his home in the land of his heritage? Who had heard of such a thing? Surely, Allah ordered another steak and put his feet up as he sat back to watch the horror of it with absolute delight.
Israeli citizens were forced from their homes and synagogues. Some were carried, weakened by brokenness and disbelief. Some stood erect and moved slowly away from all they had known into uncertainty and waiting buses to be crudely ushered into the night and the unknown. Promises had been made. Reparations would come. All would be well and taken care of by the same government that had told them to go there in the first place. But it didn’t happen.
Synagogues were emptied of their Torah scrolls and giant menorahs were carried on the backs of their loving and dedicated members, reminiscent of the Roman expulsion of Jews carved into the Arch of Titus as a witness to man’s inhumanity to man. What was sacred and holy was carefully guarded by those who now cradled them into the unknown night and darkness.
The long winding roads led to nowhere. Jews who had requested that if they were going to be uprooted at least be allowed to be together and to rebuild their communities as a cohesive unit for the psychological well being of the residents were rudely separated and scattered throughout the land into unwelcoming hotels. Large families were shoved into tiny rooms with no space, privacy or hope. Some were left on the streets to fend for themselves. And the same Israeli government that had made promises thirty-eight years previously, and even recently, turned their backs and walked away. Allah must have been doing high fives with his cronies as they watched the despair of their enemy, the Jews.
Some people say that the hurricane that hit New Orleans, Louisiana, less than two weeks later, was just a coincidence and had nothing to do with the uprooting of Jews. Maybe it didn’t. But, I find it hard to believe that three years later – 1,000 days later – the uprooted Jews of Gush Katif are still homeless and unsettled, just as many of the residents of New Orleans are. Was it tit for tat? I don’t know.
And those who forced the decision upon the Jews of Gush Katif, what has happened to them? Is it coincidence that Ariel Sharon, once the great warrior and encourager of settlements is now lying alone in a nursing home helpless and without reason? Is it coincidence that his crony, Ehud Olmert, the prodigy of Zionist parents, has been inundated with scandal and is being forced in shame from his coveted position of Prime Minister of Israel? What will history say about these men? What will history say about Condelezza Rice and George W. Bush for their roles in this unbelievable destruction? Are these people so focused on their legacy that they forget the simplest and clearest of guidance found in the first book of the Torah…“Those who bless my people, I will bless. Those who curse my people, I will curse.”
Somehow, I can’t help but believe that All