Israeli Rally on Saturday Evokes '82, but Tables Have Turned
By JAMES BENNET
JERUSALEM, May 14 - In 1982, hundreds of thousands of Israelis turned out in Tel Aviv to demonstrate against the conduct of Israel's war in Lebanon by the defense minister at the time, Ariel Sharon.
On Saturday night, leftists hope to produce a comparable throng, this time at least partly in support, if not of Mr. Sharon, now the prime minister, then of his goal: to pull out of the Gaza Strip, which Israelis increasingly see as a quagmire like Lebanon.
This may be evidence that history, and Mr. Sharon himself, can work in surprising ways. It is certainly a sign of new turbulence in Israeli politics, as once sharp Israeli classifications of doves and hawks blur under the pressure of a conflict with the Palestinians that has defied diplomatic or military solution.
The clamor for a Gaza withdrawal grew this week with the deaths of 11 soldiers in separate attacks that destroyed two armored vehicles. Friday's front pages were dominated by photographs of Israeli troops lined up on their knees in the Gaza sand, sifting it for their comrades' scattered remnants.
A new women's group, Shuvi, which includes relatives of soldiers in Gaza, is pressing the government for a withdrawal, in an echo of the "Four Mothers" campaign to pull out of Lebanon. Shuvi means "come back."
Organizers of the demonstration have seized on public polls, including two published Friday, showing that a strong majority of the country supports withdrawing the 7,500 settlers in Gaza and the troops around them.
In a referendum of its membership on May 2, Mr. Sharon's rightist Likud Party rejected his plan for "unilateral disengagement." Only a minority of Likud members cast ballots, and in the end the plan was beaten decisively, but with a total of only 60,000 votes - less than 1 percent of Israel's population.
For the left, that vote has crystallized an argument that a tiny, pro-settler minority is subverting the majority's will.
"This small minority has taken this decision, and solders are getting killed for it," said Galia Golan, a political scientist who is a leader of the Israeli group Peace Now and an organizer of the demonstration. "Everyone who's killed, everyone who falls, is a double tragedy, because there is simply no need to be there."
Bryna Hilburg, a resident of the Gush Qatif settlement bloc in the southern Gaza Strip, said it dishonored the dead to suggest that their sacrifice was meaningless. "It's obvious what they were doing there," she said. "They weren't going there to have a picnic."
Mrs. Hilburg noted that Mr. Sharon planned to continue controlling the area along the Egyptian border even after a withdrawal. Further, he says soldiers will continue to raid Gaza to destroy threats like weapon factories if Israel finds that necessary. Mrs. Hilburg argued that pulling out would only encourage terrorists. "The Arabs, they don't want Gaza," she said. "They want Jerusalem."
Settlers like Mrs. Hilburg have been astonished to feel themselves deserted by onetime stalwarts of their movement, like Shaul Mofaz, the defense minister. On Sunday, Mr. Mofaz called the Gaza settlements "a historical mistake" that was not in Israel's interests.
Then there is Mr. Sharon, who planned the placement of the settlements in the Gaza Strip to help control the Palestinian population, which now numbers 1.3 million there. Gaza, which is 7 miles wide and 25 miles long, is bracketed against the Mediterranean by Israeli fences and patrols.
Mrs. Hilburg said, "I ask that question every day: What happened to Sharon?"
Mr. Sharon says Israel risks losing far more territory in an eventual internationally imposed agreement if it does not act now. He is bidding to hold on to large parts of the West Bank, which like Gaza was taken by Israel in the Arab-Israeli war of 1967. He argues that Israel must act unilaterally because the Palestinian leadership is not a credible negotiating partner.
His advisers say he has also recognized two political realities: that Israelis are demanding change after more than three years of conflict and stalemate, and that most of them do not want Gaza.
A top official involved in drafting Mr. Sharon's plan said that the Likud vote would probably stall it for a couple months but that it would inevitably move forward, given the national will and the international support behind it. He said Mr. Sharon was weighing steps like minor modifications to the plan or whipsawing the broad popularity of a withdrawal against holdouts in his party and government.
In 1982, Israelis poured into the Tel Aviv streets in protest after Lebanese Christian Phalangists, who were backed by Israel, massacred Palestinians in two Beirut refugee camps, Sabra and Shatila. A commission of inquiry, generated in part by the Tel Aviv demonstration, later found Mr. Sharon indirectly responsible, and he was forced to resign as defense minister.
Unprompted, a close adviser to Mr. Sharon drew a parallel on Friday between the political effects of Sabra and Shatila and the deaths of the soldiers this week. Calling them both accidents of history, he said, "These tragic accidents set in motion political pressure that wouldn't have been there." He predicted a huge crowd in Tel Aviv on Saturday.
Professor Golan, of Peace Now, who also helped organize the rally in 1982, said the demonstration on Saturday would not be in support of Mr. Sharon himself. The Labor Party and another leftist party, Yahad, are also sponsoring the rally.
The demonstrators plan to call for not only a Gaza withdrawal but also negotiations with the Palestinians, a step Mr. Sharon rejects. "The slogan that'll be on the stage is 'The majority has decided: Get out of Gaza. Start talking,' " Professor Golan said.
It took Israel 18 years to get out of Lebanon. It did not completely withdraw until May 2000, and it did so unilaterally.
Mrs. Hilburg, who has lived in Gush Qatif for almost 25 years, rejects any comparison between Gaza and Lebanon, where here son Yochanan, a naval commando, was killed in 1997. "We didn't have any civilian population living in Lebanon," she said. "Gaza is Israel. We are here, and we are in Israel."
Her son is buried in Gush Qatif. "How am I going to pull up my kid's grave?" she asked. "My kid died serving his country, and now I feel like he's being treated like a rag."
Shlomo Vishinsky, a famous actor, lost his son, Lior, in one of the armored vehicles this week. In an article he published in the newspaper Yediot Aharonot on Thursday, he blamed his son's death on the Likud vote. "It's clear that no one wants to be in Gaza, except the members of the Likud," he wrote.
Copyright 2004 The New York Times Company |
