What is This World Coming To?!

An AP article about the Disengagement

Israeli Forces Storm Two Synagogues To Evict Resisters To Gaza

1,500 Resisters Inside

Aug. 18 - Israeli forces stormed the main synagogue of this Jewish settlement Thursday, one of the last bastions of resistance to the Gaza pullout, to remove about 1,500 protesters inside.

In nearby Kfar Darom, riot police with helmets and shields broke open the door of the synagogue where protesters had barricaded themselves, fired water cannons on the crowd and began removing the protesters.

"Don't expel Jews!" the crowd chanted as police charged into the prayer hall in Neve Dekalim. Protesters booed, whistled and threw water on troops.

In the front rows, young men lay on the ground, linking arms, while those behind them tried to push away soldiers trying to get hold of arms and legs. Some of the protesters had their arms wrapped in leather tefilin prayer boxes and rocked fervently as they recited prayers. Rabbis in the crowd wore orange vests identifying them as clergy.

Protesters chanted "Blasphemy! Blasphemy!" as soldiers dragged some of the young men away by their feet, then carried them feet first down a ramp onto a bus. One man was taken away on a stretcher, with an intravenous drip. Another was draped in an Israeli flag.

Unarmed police entered the synagogue compound after hours of unsuccessful negotiations with settler leaders. They poured sand on the ramp after protesters soaked it in cooking oil to make it slippery.

The troops were enforcing Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's "disengagement plan," which he proposed two years ago to ease Israel's security burden and help preserve Israel's Jewish character by placing Gaza's 1.3 million Palestinians outside the country's boundaries. Israel has occupied Gaza for 38 years.

In Kfar Darom, hundreds of pullout opponents barricaded themselves behind rolls of barbed wire in the synagogue, and security forces dragged screaming residents out of homes. Settlers elsewhere burned houses, fields and tires in protest.

Before the police charged into the synagogue, protesters threw eggs, bags of milk and light bulbs with paint at troops. The army raised two cranes over the synagogue, preparing to hoist metal cages to carry protesters away. A soldier stood atop one of the cages with plastic riot shields.

Many of the settlers and their supporters are devout Jews who believe the West Bank and Gaza were promised to the Jews by God. They say their eviction is sacrilege.

Capturing the two synagogues -- and removing the young extremists inside -- would be an important victory for the forces.

Troops also entered several other hardline Gaza communities.

In the farming settlement of Netzer Hazani, protesters set fire to barricades, fields and houses, sending a huge plume of black smoke into the air.

Youths in Shirat Hayam, a hard-line beachfront outpost, burned tires and garbage. In nearby Kfar Yam, a Jewish settler armed with an M-16 rifle threatened to open fire on troops if they attempt to evacuate him, Israeli media reported.

Thursday's confrontations came on the second day of the government's pullout from Gaza. Troops encountered stiffer resistance than at the start of the operation. However, security officials said they expected to clear out all 21 Gaza settlements by Tuesday, more than two weeks ahead of schedule.

By nightfall, police expected 18 settlements to be empty.

On Wednesday, a Jewish extremist in the West Bank shot dead four Palestinians in an apparent attempt to disrupt the Gaza pullout.

In Kfar Darom, the army set up a special command center, and soldiers formed cordons around Lt. Gen. Dan Halutz, who oversaw the operation, to shield him from shouting settlers.

Thousands of soldiers entered the settlement at dawn and quickly encircled the synagogue and two nearby buildings. After failed attempts to negotiate a peaceful surrender, troops moved into homes.

"Why did you become a soldier, to be in this crazy situation?" screamed a young mother, cradling a baby, as soldiers entered her home.

In another house, a husband and wife lay on the floor, shrieking and clutching their small children. A soldier participating in the evacuation of a religious school suddenly disobeyed orders and was quickly carried away by troops.

Troops also burst into a nursery school crowded with protesters. People sang and danced as the troops entered, and about two dozen young children played with toys. Troops quickly cleared out the building.

The fiercest resistance was at the synagogue. Moti Cohen, who came from Jerusalem to be with the settlers, said protesters have hoarded sand bags and cans of foam spray for the confrontation. A large banner draped over the facade read: "For the Lord will not abandon His people or abandon His land."

Residents jeered the forces throughout the day, driving several soldiers to tears.

"You're right! Cry like we are crying!" shouted one settler who was loaded onto a bus, still wearing his white prayer shawl. By midday, 200 people had been removed, the army said.

Noga Cohen, who had three children maimed in a Palestinian shooting attack on a bus, said Israel was surrendering to Palestinian militants. On the door of her house was a sign reading, "In the event you knock on the door, you are a direct partner in the most terrible crime in the history of the nation of Israel."

Just a few yards outside Kfar Darom, dozens of Palestinians stood on the roofs of their houses watching the evacuation.

"For the first time in the last few years I'm standing here without any fear that Israelis will shoot at me because their battle today is against themselves," farmer Mohammed Bashir said.

In Neve Dekalim, about 1,500 people -- most of them hard-line teenage activists from outside the settlement -- holed up in the synagogue. Residents set homes and trees on fire.

Hundreds of men at the synagogue were praying or readying holy books. Some two dozen had ripped their shirts in a sign of mourning. One of them, Oren Ozeri, said he was praying for a miracle.

"This is a war against God. They are desecrating a place holy to God," he said.

Outside, hundreds of troops formed human chains ringing the building. Protesters formed chains of their own opposite the soldiers, in many cases pleading and arguing with them. Some broke down crying and were escorted by their commanders to a quiet place to calm down.

As the troops approached the synagogue, a bearded settler wearing a skullcap spat on an Israeli flag and ripped it into pieces. The man wore an orange Star of David on his shirt -- reminiscent of the star the Nazis made Jews wear during World War II.

In the small settlement of Netzer Hazani, troops faced off with settlers on either side of a burning barricade of garbage containers and tires soaked in gasoline. There was a pall of smoke over the settlement after settlers burned trees and brush nearby.

A fire truck and large bulldozer cleared out the area, and troops poured into the settlement.

Residents pelted the fire truck with eggs and shouted at the soldiers, who used megaphones to order the settlers back into their homes. Most complied, though several emerged later to try to block an army bulldozer from clearing a path for troops.

Troops also entered the small settlement of Gan Or and Shirat Hayam, a small hard-line outpost, as well. In Gan Or, one house was set on fire, and one family barricaded themselves in their home.

The army declared a curfew in Al-Mawasi, a Palestinian town adjacent to Shirat Hayam, to protect settlers and soldiers during the pullout.

So far the pullout's worst violence occurred not in Gaza, but in the West Bank. A Jewish settler, apparently despondent over the withdrawal, opened fire at Palestinian workers, killing four. Asher Weisgan told an Israeli newspaper Thursday he had no regrets for the shootings and said he hoped someone would target Sharon.

"I'm not sorry for what I did," the Haaretz newspaper quoted Weisgan as saying before entering a courthouse outside Tel Aviv. "I hope someone also kills Sharon."

Sharon branded the shooting an act of "Jewish terror" and said it was "aimed against innocent Palestinians, out of twisted thinking, aimed at stopping the disengagement."

Hamas pledged revenge, but a spokesman for the Islamic militant group indicated the group would not attack exiting Israelis in Gaza since it wants the withdrawal to be completed as soon as possible. After the shooting, three mortar shells and a homemade rocket fired from Palestinian territory exploded near emptied Gaza settlements. No one was hurt.

The Palestinian Authority and the United States want the pullout to be the beginning of the "road map" peace process, meant to bring about an independent Palestinian state alongside Israel.

Palestinian militants are portraying the pullout as a victory for their suicide bombings and rocket attacks, and some Israelis fear they will resume their violence once the withdrawal is complete.