I almost feel at a loss of what to say, or at least how to focus. As I write they are clearing out the synagogue at Neve Dekalim. The tv screen is blue with police -- they must have hundreds of police and army -- no, thousands -- that will remove the protestors from the synagogue. I know that something like 40,000 soldiers and police are in Gush Katif. And I have to say that one of the good things about this whole story is their behavior. The have been training for months for this operation. It has been amazing to see them listening to the settlers who are upset at being evacuated, amazing to see how they listen and listen as women scream at them, men curse them, teen-agers argue with them, trying to provoke them. So that's a good thing. The soldiers and police, who after all represent the State, are behaving in an exemplary fashion.

The people who are leaving without protest have left. We have seen their sorrow as they packed up and got on buses and the buses drove out. They deserve sympathy and understanding because their loss is great. The people who are still there, however, are people who are refusing to leave without a fight. The means they are using are horrible and over the top. Many are hysterical, first of all, literally hysterical, and one gets the feeling that they encourage this hysteria for the press. They seem to be completely oblivious to what they are doing to their children. They are exploiting the children, using the children in an attempt to gain sympathy, and they are traumatizing them. Mothers and fathers shove their two-year olds toward the police saying "Take him! Take him!" What must this be like for those young ones?

The people have barricaded themselves inside synagogues and other buildings. They are saying now that some of them are armed. They are religious zealots, messianic Jews who believe that G-d wants Israel to hang onto this piece of territory and that they will defend their right to be there. Many of them believe that they are victims in the same way that Jews were victims during the Holocaust. One family literally dressed up in blue and pinned orange Stars of David to their chests and went out of their house screaming and crying with their hands raised in submission, just as if they were being led to the gas chamber!!! You see what I mean about their behavior being appalling!!! The sight of those many little children (these religious Jews have very large families) screaming in real terror just chilled me to the bone. And frankly, the Holocaust symbolism that has been used by the messianic Jews trivializes the Holocaust altogether. They are not being led to work camps or death camps or gas chambers -- they are moving to Israel.

So, like everyone else, I have mixed feelings about this whole thing. I am sympathetic with those who have to leave their beautiful villages and their tight communities. I am appalled at the behavior of the messianic Jews who are behaving in such an irrational, hysterical way. (I am doubly appalled to think that these images of hysteria wrapped in prayer shawls are being broadcast all over the world!)

And I am completely delighted that we are leaving Gaza. Sharon gave a wonderful speech the night before last. He spoke of how Israel can no longer hold this piece of territory when there are a million and a half Palestinians under occupation there. He sounded like someone on the Left!! Amazing. I have always heard that only someone from the Right can pull off a move like this one, and maybe that's true. In any event, it's a good thing.

Pat & Frank