We, The Attention-Getters

Emily Amrousi always has a nice way of phrasing it:-

Do you know that Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas addressed 193 members of the U.N. and dedicated half his speech to me? International concern over the settlements, which altogether constitute an area slightly larger than Central Park, is mind-boggling. Every newborn settlement here gets an automatic 15-minute spotlight, which is actually alarming, not flattering.

...Last month, a special police unit entered homes through windows, at 3 a.m., to remove the residents and destroy their homes. This didn't happen in the Bedouin village of el-Arakib, but in the Jewish village of Migron. That's why the media didn't point out that these were actual homes, in which children were thrown out of their beds into the cold, dark night, without prior warning...We endure a corrupt justice system, selective enforcement, housing and construction discrimination that doesn't occur in other sectors, life under military rule, faulty infrastructure, blocked roads, lack of public services, censorship, harassment at locations designated as secure areas, and character assassinations in the media, theater, literature, satire, social protests, and everywhere else.

...So why do we still camp out in the mountains? Good question. There are advantages to settlementscommunities, but I still haven't found a single personal benefit that can compete with the fear, distance, isolation and cost.  I have the audacity to say out loud that people living in the West Bank Judea and Samaria are not living there for themselves, but for the good of all. And when we all have no more strength to continue, they still carry on.

Perhaps that is what will save us in the end from destruction. “Keep us alive,” for another year, for many years to come, not for ourselves.

We're here for you there.

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