To be honest, being a settler is exhausting. Psychologically, we live with perpetual uncertainty. With all our faith in the prophets' vision, when you don't know if you'll be using your pergola [porch covering, usuall of wood but also plastic] next year, you feel exhausted. When you can't promise your son who just started first grade that he will graduate from the same school in the eighth grade, you feel exhausted. When it's hard to imagine your grandchildren being able to play on the same grass, you feel exhausted. We are so, so tired. Tired of thinking maybe tomorrow a bulldozer will come. Tired of living life in Israel's shadow zone, neither here nor there. Tired of all the games. The time has come to decide: yes or no.
After this last confession, I can imagine the reactions from fellow settlers. First, they will cite Olmert's infamous quote, "We are tired of wars." "Where is your faith?" they will ask, "That is exactly what the Palestinians want, you are playing into the Left's hands." Finally, they will add, "The eternal nation does not fear a long road." If you are already at your keyboard, here's another confession: The eternal nation may not fear a long road, but I am afraid of the road to my kids' nursery school.
Let's hope they don't march on our settlements and that none of the dark predictions come to be, but this week I saw a memo instructing grocery store owners in Judea and Samaria to stock a large supply of water, canned food and baby formula, and I started to shake. If things reach the point of a siege on my settlement, I'm not sure I will be able to stay.
And now this incident:
Israeli settlers from the Aish Kodesh outpost in the Binyamin Regional Council area clashed with Palestinians early Friday afternoon, leaving one Palestinian seriously wounded and an Israeli in light condition suffering from stab wounds. It was unclear who initiated the violence..It was unclear what sparked the clash between the settlers and Palestinian residents of the area, although Channel 10 reported that it appeared to be a dispute over a tract of land.
According to Israeli media reports, an Israeli settler shot a Palestinian man during Friday's clash, seriously wounding him. The man was taken to a Ramallah hospital for treatment. An Israeli settler, meanwhile, was lightly wounded after being stabbed by one of the Palestinians.
Settlers claim that they were attacked by knife-wielding Palestinians while hiking in the vicinity of the Palestinian village of Qusra. According to the Palestinian news agency Ma'an, however, settlers entered the village where Palestinians apprehended nine of them.
I can tell you that we in Shiloh have not received any insturctions or directives.
I spoke to a local and a regional senior security person and they confirmed that only the security offices have been briefed but it's a problem.
While the rule is that the communities cannot be penetrated, all are aware that the Pals. might use minors or females or foreign internationalists to do so. Shiloh doesn't have a fence other than an entrance gate and guard dogs.
If Arabs or others think they will be able to move en masse into the community, they should know (and any pro-Pal. reading this is asked to pass on the request) that they will be shot, hopefully non-fatally, although the assumption is that the IDF will be able to intervene. We civilians do not have any non-lethal ammunition or gas pellets,, for example.
They have been warned.
UPDATE
Ma'an reports:
Israeli settlers assaulted a Nablus village Friday morning, leading to clashes with Israeli forces injuring 11 Palestinians....[IDF] Forces surrounded a house sheltering European press agency cameraman Alaa Bedarneh was filming the earlier settler attack, the correspondent reported...An Israeli army spokeswoman said the journalist's agency had requested the army remove him from the village, and he was taken to safety.
Around 20 people were hurling rocks at forces, and the border police were operating in the village, she said, without giving further details.
PA official monitoring settlement activity Ghassan Doughlas told Ma'an that earlier in the day around ten settlers from neighboring settlement Migdalim came into Qusra village south of Nablus.
Fathallah Abu Rida, 25, was injured when settlers shot him in the leg, Doughlas said...Israel police say settler wounded in knifing
Israeli police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld told Ma'an a settler was injured after an argument broke out between two settlers and a 50-year-old Palestinian in an open area near Qusra.
"The Palestinian pulled out a knife and the settler reacted by shooting the Palestinian in the leg," he said. The injured settler and Palestinian were taken to hospitals, he added, saying police who arrived on the scene had opened an investigation into the incident.
The Jews came from Migdalim?
Odd, that is not known radical/extremist/fanatic center.
Odd, too, that the photographer was there. Was he expecting some 'good' shots, er, pictures as Friday is a day noted for demos?
Arutz 7 report
Arab riots continue in the Shilo area after local Arabs attacked Jewish hikers resulting in one hiker stabbed and one Arab shot. The hikers were attacked between the Arab village of Kursa and Jewish community of Esh Kodesh in the Shomron (Samaria).
The knifed hiker was reported to have in serious condition, while the Arab who was shot died of his wounds after evacuation by a Red Crescent amublance.
Esh Kodesh residents said that a group of Jewish hikers who arrived this morning to camp in area adjacent to Shilo and Esh Kodesh were attacked by a group of Arabs from nearby Kusra. The Arabs pressed a knife to the throat of one of them.
At that point another hiker fired shots in the air, and the knifer released the injured Jew. The hikers then retreated to Esh Kodesh. Within moments, a large mob of Arabs from the village came to Esh Kodesh and began to set fires in the community's vineyards.
Jewish residents raced to the site and a running battle began between the two sides. The Arabs threw stones and the IDF arrived on the scene.
According to Esh Kodesh residents, IDF soldiers arriving on the scene did not have sufficient numbers to stop the riot and had to wait until members of the Yassam riot police arrived on the scene - at which point four Jews, rather than Arabs, were first taken into custody as the Arabs continued to throw stones at residents and soldiers.
Three of the detainees were released right away, but one, a resident of Esh Kodesh, was taken to the Binyamin region police headquarters. Attorneys from the Honenu legal aid association are attempting to secure his release.
Clashes between soldiers and rioting Arabs reportedly continue in the area, where MK MIchael Ben Ari (National Union), who arrived at the scene, and residents say Yassam officers have done little to disperse the rioters despite initial reports that "large forces" had been deployed to deal with the violence.
My comment:
This has been going on for over a year now. Last August, the Arabs burned down over 50 dunam of agricultural land. Diplomats witnessed the damage. Why can't the Civil Administration delineate the land inquestion and inform the Arabs what is theirs and what isn't?
^
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