The Sodomite Supreme Court of Israel ordered Jewish families to leave the Peace House in Hebron which the Jews had duly purchased. The court based its decision on the Arab seller’s naked claim that he didn’t sell the house - though the Jewish buyers presented video record of the deal, deed of sale, and the seller’s audio testimony to the contrary.
The court’s decision does not obligate the government to evict the settlers, but removes the legal obstacle (settlers’ petition) for eviction. Now it’s up to Olmert and Barak to set the eviction date. Given Barak’s political cowardice, the eviction might not materialize, but also consider his need to stem the Labor Party’s defection to Meretz. Barak needs to prove his left-wing credentials, and the eviction offers a good chance to do so.
The Peace House is located on a crucial junction on the road from the Jewish Quarter in Hebron to Kiryat Arba - a life-saving position in case of Arab pogrom.
The court disregarded a plea by 50 MKs to hang the eviction until the underlying case on house ownership is decided. The court’s casuistic decision provides for the house to be held by the government until then - but the case will be dragged for years. The government holds hundreds of Jewish properties in Hebron in trust. Arabs looted them after the 1929 massacre of Jews; after taking the properties back in the 1967 war against Jordan, Israeli government stonewalls their disbursement to rightful heirs.
Playing into the leftists’ hands, the court set the stage for an Amona-type fight over the house. Leftists will trumpet the right’s violence and gain more votes on Livni’s “centrist” platform. Netanyahu thus appears in extremely uncomfortable position: if he supports the violent Hebronites, he loses some moderate votes, and if he abandons them, he loses the right-wingers. He will dance a thin line, satisfying no one.
The best course of action would be to silently abandon the house, show tearful faces and children made homeless. Hotheads, however, outnumber cynics, and we would see right-wing violence playing into Tzipi’s hands.
The house’ defenders stand no chance against police which crashed them on all previous encounters. No amount of propaganda in the police forces would change their attitude because the police employ enough hardcore leftists and anti-Semitic Slavs . The defenders’ problem is their vacillation: they cannot decide whether policemen are fellow Jews or enemies to be shot at. Absent of such recognition, any fighting is inherently half-hearted - and worthless. It only allows both sides to blow the steam off.
IDF fight against Jews in Hebron will provoke Arabs for further attacks. It’s a pleasure for Arabs to side with the strong occupying force against Jews.
Human rights activists, so concerned with an occasional demolition of a Palestinian house built illegally on public land, cheer the decision to evict poor Jewish families. Courts, police don’t act on hundreds of petitions filed by Jewish owners of various land plots squatted by Arabs.
