A JERUSALEM INSIGHT: FAITH BATTLING FEAR IN KFAR MAIMON

Over 3000 years ago, during these very forty days, twelve men walked across this land to gain insight and inspiration. Ten of these men walked in fear and trepidation. Every where they looked confirmed their worst fears about themselves and their deepest concerns about the inhabitants of this land. They saw themselves as "grasshoppers" and felt unable to possess the land that had been promised them by the Almighty.

It was impossible not to think about those steps taken in fear and trepidation as we watched tens of thousands of Jews walking through dusty fields and roads and highways attempting to participate in that awesome event in Kfar Maimon. What began, as the March to Gush Katif became an event that will be remembered in Jewish memory as a watershed event.

It began on Monday morning when Prime Minister Sharon, gripped with the same fear that characterized the spies of three thousand years ago sent police cars into all the neighborhoods of the country to stop all the buses that were planning to make their way to the Gush Katif march. As we boarded the buses from the Har Nof neighborhood of Jerusalem, policemen arrived and confiscated the licenses of the bus drivers. One of the residents approached two policewoman, shakily showing them the picture of her son who was killed by Palestinian terrorists.

"Are you going to try to stop me from crying out his cry?" she asked and the policewomen turned aside in shame.

After much heated debate the empty buses left, leaving a very angry group of people. Just before the officer in charge left, I ran over to the patrol car and said "Are you telling me that if we drive down we will also be stopped?" He took off his policeman cap and revealed the kippa he was wearing and he said carefully, "I have had no orders regarding stopping private cars." I thanked him and many of us got into private cars for the drive to Netivot.

As we drove out of Jerusalem the mood was very somber. The very forces that were supposed to protect our rights and liberties, the police and judicial system, were being used by a frightened administration to destroy those rights and liberties. There was a sense of futility and impotence that was almost crippling. Yet we all sensed that we had no choice, we felt compelled to try to make it to Netivot, the starting point of the rally.

As we made our way to the south of Israel we began to see a wonderful phenomenon unfolding before our eyes. Hundreds and then thousands of cars were making their way southward. On the sides of the streets were young people wearing the distinctive Gush Katif orange trying to hitch a ride southward.

Three thousand years ago ten very frightened spies were taking very frightened steps in this same area. Three thousand, one hundred and sixteen years later, their descendants were taking very determined and faithful steps into the promised destiny.

At Netivot we stood for over an hour as we waited to get into the area designated for the prayer gathering and rally. We saw cars packed in with people, with the roofs of the cars packed with sleeping bags, food and diapers. Tens of thousands of people, young and old had gathered in spite of the dire predictions of the media and the sad experience with the police earlier in the day. Tens of thousands gathered to protest against the fear gripping our government.

After the impressive and emotionally laden rally was over, the masses of people began their 8 kilometer walk to Kfar Maimon. It was a march of determination dressed in orange that snaked its way into the dark night. The radio was describing how Sharon had ordered almost twenty thousand soldiers and police to stand and attempt bar this orange army of civilians.

I looked around me and could not understand. Why would this ragtag group of elderly grandparents, parents and young children frighten Sharon so deeply? Twenty thousand soldiers was the number of soldiers conscripted during the Homat Magen war against the terrorists, after the Park Hotel massacre. There was something very disturbing and wrong about this similarity of numbers. The irrational fear behind these numbers was but the tip of the iceberg.

Though the march was stopped before Kfar Maimon the blockade was lifted hours later and by the wee hours of the morning the participants began to settle for the night in a potato field outside Kfar Maimon. Early in the morning the people were woken by frantic calls on the megaphone. They awoke to see thousands of police and army beginning to surround the sleeping camp. Everyone rolled up their sleeping bags, packed up their pup tents and rushed across the road into the village of Kfar Maimon.

The thousands of soldiers and police then formed a circle around this quiet agricultural village and cordoned it off from the rest of the country. During the next two days the people sat together, studied together and prayed together, seemingly cut off from the rest of the world. Meanwhile, across the country when people heard about the police blockade, they simply got into their cars and made their way southward towards the city under siege. They drove through back roads and across fields. They walked tens of kilometers under a blazing hot sun. They encountered roadblocks where they were told that they could not go any further. Yet they found a way to go further and most of them made it into Kfar Maimon.

The mood in the village itself was uplifting. As the level and degree of frantic fear grew in the government offices, the mood in the village was almost pastoral. Every house in the village had opened the doors to their house to let people come in and cool off. Each yard became the home to many families and young people with sleeping bags and tents. Under ever fig tree there were groups of people studying torah and on every grassy mound there was a family playing with their children.

At one point on Wednesday the police seemed to want to stir up trouble. It could be that the Sharon people wanted more violent pictures in the media instead of the pastoral scenes they were getting. The police decided to send their water cannon truck through the village from the eastern to the western gate instead of going the long way around. The driver in the water cannon truck used his loudspeaker in ways that was clearly meant to goad people into violent action. It was not long before crowds of young people attempted to block the truck and it was not long before two army jeeps raced in to "save" the truck. A group of people was quickly organized by one of the Rabbis and they formed two lines and escorted the truck and jeeps "safely" out of the gate.

Yet on the other hand, about an hour later, another army truck entered the village. This time it unloaded boxes of mineral water and bags of bread to give out to the demonstrators. The truck driver simply explained that according to the law the army must provide bread and water to a city under blockade. Then the driver smiled and said "LeBriyut, to your health."

Another jarring set of images occurred as soldiers were beginning to put up barbed wire to surround the village. One elderly woman from inside the village yelled at the soldiers that the last time she had been surrounded by barbed wire was in Europe. Many young people were calling out to the soldiers, "My brother, my sister was this what you were trained to do." At one point I called out to a group of young soldiers "At least shed a tear as you do what you are commanded to do." One female soldier said to me " I haven't stopped crying since this morning."

Yet, only twenty feet away, along the fence there were several breaks in the fence. In these breaks I saw young people sitting with young soldiers and simply talking. Elsewhere there was a group of kids dressed in orange and kids dressed in Israeli army green singing together and playing guitar.

During the day many policemen would not look our way, yet as the day wore on they joined us for the Mincha prayers. Rabbi Shmuel Eliyahu walked along the fence blessing the soldiers and reminding them that we are all part of the same people, the same soul, the soul of an Eternal people.

A day filled with opposites. On one side of the fence one could sense fear and aggression and on the other side faith and determination.

On one side of the fence one of the leading police officers is picked up on channel 10's cameras demanding arrests and that violence should be meted out to the demonstrators. Commander Niso Shacham went on to elaborate, "I want you to use sticks on the lower parts of their bodies and want you to burn them." On the other side of the fence the Rabbis explained again and again that the security forces were our children and our brothers and sisters. The 50,000 residents of the newly formed orange camp were reminded that though we were going to try to march forward towards Gush Katif we would not, under any circumstances resort to violence.

Then came the evening of the third day. Everyone was told to pack up their belongings and that we were going to begin the march to Gush Katif. The press were running feverishly to find the best place to film what one of them called the upcoming "dog fight." Fifty thousand people began a slow march towards the western gate. At the head of the march were the Rabbis and leaders followed by the Yeshiva students, then the men, followed by the women and finally by the families.

Looking back at the seemingly endless line it resembled what I imagine the exodus from Egypt may have looked like.

As we arrived at the gate everyone sat and waited. How do we go forward and avoid the violence we so wanted to avoid. After a long and tense period it was decided by the leadership that we would not violently challenge the army and the police. We would not give Sharon and the media the pictures they so desperately wanted. To the great disappointment of some in our camp a decision was made that the greatest good would be achieved by a peaceful march around the perimeter of the village. As the people walked around the fence the young people sang out affection and love to the soldiers on the perimeter. Instead of fists and altercation the soldiers were met with affection and blessings. As one commander told us later that experience melted their hearts.

Faith determination and restraint proved more powerful than the fear that has gripped our leaders.

Will the message move the hearts of our leaders? Probably not. Yet this message was really directed Heavenward. It was mainly meant for us in order to rediscover the power that rests in our hearts. It is that faith that has been discovered revealed and unfurled by a beleaguered and determined people.

There are many things stirring in the land of Israel.

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Do you have the faith of the two? Gotta trust Sharon. Even though it makes suicidal sense at the present time.
God's will be done. No matter what! You can follow in faith, or flee in the frustration of apparent failure.
Somethins gotta happen to reclaim Jerusalem, this is one step towards that, even though it appears to the contrary.

I no more trust Sharon than I now trust Bush. They are globalists, bent on creating a one world govenment to be handed to the Anti-Christ on a silver platter. They will bring destruction to both their countries. I think they are evil.

I do trust God, this is teaching the Jewish people a real lesson that they may stand apart, they may stand together, but they will stand alone. The only way to survive standing alone, is with God.

Gotta trust Sharon.

Why, pray tell? Right now he is acting no differently than Peres has been for decades. I don't care whether it made sense, at some distant point in the past, to begin settling Gaza. That debate was finished when the settlements were started. To leave now is to hand a great victory to Hamas, and to permanently whet the appetite of the anti-Israel and anti-Jewish forces everywhere. I can hear them now: "Put a little pressure on the Jews, and even an 'uncompromising' warrior like Sharon will buckle. It is only a matter of time before the Jews are defeated - by themselves."

I don't trust Sharon anymore. No, now he's just another politician, interested in his "place in history" and in saving himself and his corrupt sons from criminal charges.

How sad, how very sad, to see Sharon morph into Neville Chamberlain.

As we arrived at the gate everyone sat and waited. How do we go forward and avoid the violence we so wanted to avoid. After a long and tense period it was decided by the leadership that we would not violently challenge the army and the police. We would not give Sharon and the media the pictures they so desperately wanted. To the great disappointment of some in our camp a decision was made that the greatest good would be achieved by a peaceful march around the perimeter of the village. As the people walked around the fence the young people sang out affection and love to the soldiers on the perimeter. Instead of fists and altercation the soldiers were met with affection and blessings. As one commander told us later that experience melted their hearts.

Opponents to Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's disengagement plan attend a protest at the town of Netivot July 18, 2005. Security forces across Israel blocked thousands of rightist protesters on Monday from heading toward Gaza's main Jewish settlement bloc for a march aimed at impeding the evacuation of the enclaves set for next month. Israeli officials, citing fears of violent disturbances, deployed 20,000 police and soldiers to prevent hundreds of buses carrying opponents of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's pullout plan from reaching staging areas in southern Israel. REUTERS/Oleg Popov

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