How We Lost

Shaul Goldstein was a central, if reluctant, figure in the Yesha Council's campaign against disengagement.

What are his inner thinkings? Read on.

Goldstein...thinks the [Gush Etzion] fence is a disaster, that it is a political, not a security, barrier. But he knows it will be built, and therefore prefers to choose which battles to fight. That is why the action committees, whose members include Nadia Matar, Datia Yitzhaki and Yehudit Katzover - the wife of Zvi Katzover, head of the Kiryat Arba council - have declared war on it.

...

After the disengagement, Goldstein continues, "a large segment of our public suddenly realized that the flag we had waved all these years hadn?t forged a connection with anyone. We were the vanguard, leading a nonexistent camp behind us. We ran alone, we charged ahead and when we looked back, we saw that there were no armies, that they simply weren't there. So I proposed to my friends in Yesha, after the loss of the Gaza Strip, that we announce that there is no Yesha Council - that in its place is another council, one that can embrace other values. That doesn't mean there is no foundation which people can't continue to love and aspire to. What it does mean is that we weren?t there to explain to them - in their language - what we want."

Did this realization dawn on everyone, or are you alone in your sense that there are at present no supporters among the people for your project?

"Last month, several youth groups came to see me. They wanted to build settlement outposts in Gush Etzion. I told them that if they want to do something for the nation, they should build an outpost in Ra'anana, an outpost in Haifa. In my opinion, that's more important. Because if there is no people, there is no land. People put words in my mouth, as if I've conceded Karmei Tzur, as if I've given up Tekoa. Such nonsense. I'm not conceding anything. But in order to hold on to Tekoa and Karmei Tzur, I need my friends in Ra'anana, Be'er Sheva and Afula."

Most of the leaders feel the same way, most of the public concurs, but it's hard for most people to say the words out loud. Because that puts you in a very lonely place, in which it may be that everything you've built for years was a little bit in the wrong direction. I want you to understand: I think that settlement in Judea and Samaria is one of the most significant chapters in Israel's history. Only I think that we didn't have to begin in Sebastia - we should have begun in Tel Aviv."

In Tel Aviv?

"What happened in Sebastia? We went there, we did something by force, we forced the hand of the government, and we left smiling. But we should have persuaded the government, not forced it. Like the children of Kfar Etzion did. They went to Levi Eshkol, and he said: Go ahead, kinderlach, return home. If the entire settlement enterprise in Judea, Samaria and Gaza had been handled this way, it would have turned out completely different. I can't criticize any of my predecessors. But if we had started out the settlement project with a greater consensus with the people, it would look completely different. Now it's a little late.

Truth tell, I think he's a bit mixed up but it stems more out of a desire to assume that our basic positions were wrong rather than the inability of the Yesha Council to think strategically, do long-term planning, mobilize masses, and sustain a campaign.