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 a 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 (the settlers’ petition) to 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 him 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 an Arab pogrom.
The court disregarded a plea by 50 MKs to delay the eviction until the underlying case on ownership of the house 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 on 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, the Israeli government is stonewalling their disbursement to the 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 for Livni’s “centrist” platform. Netanyahu thus appears to be in an 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 on a thin line, satisfying no one.
The best course of action would be to silently abandon the house, showing tearful faces and children made homeless. Hotheads, however, outnumber cynics, and we would see right-wing violence playing into Tzipi’s hands.
The house’s defenders stand no chance against police, who crushed them in all their previous encounters. No amount of propaganda in the police forces would change their attitude because the police employ many 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 such recognition, any fighting is bound to be half-hearted—and worthless. It only allows both sides to blow off steam.
An IDF fight against Jews in Hebron will provoke Arabs into further attacks. It’s a pleasure for Arabs to side with a strong occupying force against Jews.
Human rights activists, so concerned with the occasional demolition of a Palestinian house built illegally on public land, cheer the decision to evict poor Jewish families. The courts and police don’t act on the hundreds of petitions filed by the Jewish owners of various land plots being squatted on by Arabs.
