Israel: Settlers shout "Nazi" slogans at IDF Soldiers

Boy, these settlers are more crazy than I thought, talk about extremists!

Anyways, I never thought I would actually say this, but good luck to the IDF with their pullout plan from Gaza, it won't be easy judging by what I read here and elsewhere.

Now, imagine what would happen if Israel decides to pull out from some West Bank settlements, it would probably ignite a civil war if Gaza settlers are giving them this much trouble.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/604435.html

Thousands of troops start pullout training

By Nir Hasson, Amos Harel, Gideon Alon and Yuval Azoulay, Haaretz Correspondents, and Haaretz Service

Thousands of soldiers and policemen began intensive training Monday for the pullout from the Gaza Strip, 20 days before the start of the operation. To make the exercises more concrete, the Israel Defense Forces have constructed a "settlement" at the Tze'elim army base, in a training installation which was once used to simulate a Palestinian village.

The division with principal responsible for the army's part of the pullout in Gaza began its exercises simultaneously at the Tze'elim and Julis bases in the south. Another division has also begun pullout exercises on a smaller scale, at the command level.

The IDF has also rented a school building in the town of Ofakim where the forces will study the theoretical aspects of the disengagement.

The head of the Disengagement Administration (Sela), Yonatan Bassi, Monday toured the housing that will be put at the disposal of the evacuees inside the Green Line.

He said that only now are many of the settlers beginning to realize that they will indeed have to evacuate their homes. "They come to us and burst into tears. It's a painful process, and woe unto us if we do not go through it as brothers," he said. "We have psychologists and social workers to deal with all the evacuees. Many people are threatening to do terrible things. They even say they will commit suicide."

The security forces' training for the pullout will focus this week on "mental preparation." They are to discuss theoretical scenarios, ways of dealing with them and their own psychological preparation. Team consisting of 17 men will practice evacuating a home. They will study techniques for entering - by force if necessary - and dragging out those who refuse to leave. Next week, exercises will be held at the company level with one "side" acting as settlers objecting to being evacuated.

The forces will also practice evacuating larger buildings which may be empty or contain large numbers of protesters. Sources said the exercises would help the various security forces to work together. They said that lessons have been learned from last week's events at Kfar Maimon.

One serious problem is expected to be the failure of communications networks because of the large number of users in a small area. Senior officers said, however, that they had been pleased that the dialogue with the anti-pullout demonstrators at Kfar Maimon had remained calm and that they were hoping that settler leaders and rabbis would also help keep tempers down during the evacuation.

A number of Border Police reservists have already been called up. Some of them arrived Monday at one of the bases in vehicles bearing orange ribbons and were ordered to remove them immediately. A small group of demonstrators were on hand to protest against the disengagement at the entrance to one of the bases.

The exercises will last two weeks. The forces involved in the evacuation are due to arrive in the vicinity of the Gaza Strip on August 14. E-Day is scheduled for August 15, but the IDF will reportedly give the settlers an additional 48 hours to evacuate on their own, so that security forces are expected to begin their operations on August 17.

Police checking car trunks for hidden pullout foes
The IDF and police began checking car trunks at the entrance to Gush Katif on Monday, following their discovery of two teenage girls who had hidden themselves in a settler's car in an attempt to infiltrate into the Gaza Strip.

The security forces' new measure is part of an ongoing struggle against attempts to break the general closure which bars non-resident Israelis from entering the Strip. The government restricted access to the area only to residents in an effort to block an influx of thousands of disengagement opponents bent on foiling the coming evacuation.

Police discovered two teenage girls hiding themselves in a Gush Katif resident's car trunk at the Kissufim checkpoint, the main entry point to the Gaza settlement bloc. They detained the driver of the car, a 30-year-old settler, as well as the two girls, for questioning.

Despite these efforts a small trickle of infiltrators continues to reach Gush Katif. Many of them bypass the checkpoints by foot, or manage to pass through them by evading the soldiers placed there. A tent encampment filled to capacity in the settlement of Shirat Hayam is clear evidence of the infiltrators' success.

Indeed, on Monday settlers at the Gaza settlement of Shirat Hayam began to erect an additional neighborhood of tents to the north of the settlement, so that their guests will be able to continue to arrive. The school in Neveh Dekalim and the religious girls' high school are also being filled every day with new arrivals.

Major General Dan Harel, GOC Southern Command, said Monday at a session of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense committee that around 2,000 pullout opponents have illegally infiltrated into Gush Katif. This constitutes a 25 percent growth to the Gaza Strip's original population of 8,000 settlers.

At this stage, however, police are not intending to search for the illegal residents, but have said that infiltrators caught during illegal protest activities will be ejected from the Strip.

Also on Monday, Harel leveled harsh criticism at protestors whom he said are waging psychological warfare against soldiers in the field.

"Intensive psychological warfare is being waged in an attempt to break the soldiers," Harel told the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee. "Many people from all sectors of the population are taking part in this effort. There is a serious crossing of red lines when calling soldiers 'Judenrat' and 'Nazis.'"

Harel said that soldiers were being brought to tears but nevertheless said the protestors "must have no doubts about the ability of the IDF to stand strong."

The southern command chief also said the IDF is prepared to carry out the entire disengagement process within three weeks, starting in northern Gaza and moving south.

Harel also attacked the refusal of soldiers to obey orders relating to the disengagement.

He said that since January, some 2,000 pullout opponents have managed to slip illegally into Gush Katif.

Regarding the Saturday night terror attack in which Palestinian gunmen killed an Israeli couple on the Kissufim road, Harel said the IDF's ability to defend civilians had failed.

"To my regret, despite all the successful attempts to foil attacks, one terrorist managed to penetrate and carry out a murder and this is no doubt a failure from which the IDF will learn lessons," Harel said.

Ministers back IDF calls for speeding up of pullout
There have been growing calls among members of the government and the defense establishment to speed the implementation of the disengagement plan, in part in a bid to limit rifts within Israeli society.

Public Security Minister Gideon Ezra on Monday called for a maximal cutting down of the timetable of the disengagement plan. If the lead up to the pullout continues according to plan, it will be possible to convene the government and hasten the disengagement, Israel Radio reported Ezra as saying.

The original disengagement plan includes a four-stage evacuation of settlements in the Gaza Strip and the northern West Bank, with the government convening to discuss and vote before the start of every stage.

Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz on Sunday presented Prime Minister Ariel Sharon with the Israel Defense Forces timetable and plan for the disengagement. Mofaz also presented Sharon with the defense establishment's request to complete the evacuation of settlement in a continuous order.

Deputy Prime Minister Ehud Olmert on Monday backed the army's request, saying that there was a lot of logic in having a continuous evacuation of settlements rather than a gradual one.

"Any pause [in the evacuation] could deepen the internal conflict and there is no need for that," Olmert told Israel Radio.

Echoing Olmert's call, Justice Minsiter Tzipi Livni said that the government would be able to approve the stages of the disengagement without affecting the plan's continuous sequence.

Health Minister Danny Naveh called for any change in the evacuation plan to be brought before the government for voting. The plan to evacuate the settlements in four stages was aimed at allowing leeway for decisions based on changing conditions.

Bassi: Some settlers threatening suicide
Bassi said on Monday a significant number of settlers slated for evacuation are threatening to harm themselves.

"We are running into a not insignificant number of harsh statements coming from the settlers to the effect that they will kill themselves or hurt themselves. These statements are being made as part of the difficult and painful process which these people are undergoing," Bassi said during a tour of sites that will be used to house Gush Katif evacuees.

Bassi also said the evacuees will be provided with social workers and psychologists who will assist them during the course of the disengagement process.

Meanwhile in Gush Katif's Neve Dekalim settlers threw scrunched-up garbage bags in the face of Israel's army chaplain in protest at the rabbi's visit to discuss removing graves during the planned Gaza pullout.

"How can you kill a person twice?" one of the 40 demonstrators shouted at Brigadier-General Yisrael Weiss, chief military chaplain. The Orthodox rabbi did not reply. The black plastic bags were meant to symbolise burial shrouds.

Authorities plan to dig up the remains of 48 Jews buried in a tiny hilltop graveyard in Gush Katif and transfer them to cemeteries in Israel.

The reburial, amid concerns that graves left behind might be desecrated, has become one of the most emotive issues surrounding the nearing disengagement.

Protesters threw the rolled up black plastic bags at Weiss and said digging up the dead for a pullout from land many settlers claim as a biblical birthright violated Jewish religious law.

"This goes against the Torah," said Chaya Tzion, 28.

Settlers threw logs, rocks and garbage bins in the path of Weiss's vehicle and scuffled with soldiers who tried to stop them.

 

You mean rubber bullets? Nah, those are reserved for the Palestinians, as well as real life bullets.

 

BTW, I knew what you meant initially.

Pretty funny