Courage of a Nation

An old adage holds that in a democracy, people get the government they deserve. But if there is one thing that last week's events demonstrated conclusively, it is that Israelis do not deserve this government. Nothing could be more alien to the cynicism, cowardice and callousness displayed by our ministers than the courage, compassion and decency displayed by tens of thousands of ordinary citizens last week . . . .

Faced with the job of forcibly evicting fellow citizens from their homes, the normal human response would be to steel oneself against the unpleasantness by viewing them as adversaries, obstacles to the mission's accomplishment, and therefore to become angry at those who made the task more difficult.

Yet not only did police and soldiers resist this temptation almost without exception, refusing to respond to even the most outrageous insults and remaining carefully gentle when physically evicting those who refused to leave voluntarily, but many even demonstrated active empathy, weeping openly as they carried out their orders and giving the settlers hugs of sympathy and support.

The behavior of the vast majority of evicted settlers was also awe-inspiring. Though the media preferred to focus on the handful of hooligans who hurled eggs, paint balloons and cries of "Nazi," the majority set a standard of love for their fellow citizens that would be hard to equal. How many people, faced with the loss of their homes, their jobs and their entire communities, could nevertheless offer cold drinks to those who came to evict them, as Atzmona residents did on Sunday? How many people, in such a situation, could nevertheless view their evictors as brothers rather than enemies, and therefore exchange hugs with them? . . . .

Nevertheless, in a world where millions of people consider the demolition of individual Palestinian houses to be sufficient justification for a suicide bombing, it is surely noteworthy that, faced with the wholesale destruction of 21 entire communities, even the hooligans among Gaza's Jews largely confined themselves to hurling verbal insults and nonlethal weapons such as eggs and paint. No Jewish terrorists emerged from the Gaza settlements . . . .

Looking at our government is often enough to make one despair of Israel. But if so many ordinary Israelis could respond to the horrendous challenges of last week with such courage, compassion and devotion, then despite all our faults, we must be doing something right.