With the government of Israel maintaining staunch in its position, and opponents to the plan becoming desperate as the day of reckoning comes ever the more closer, an enormous rally was held in the capital of Tel Aviv in protest of the Gaza pullout plan. Youth activists set up a little tent village as their base for singing and handing out orange ribbons to passersby. Demonstrators poured into Rabin Square, asking for general elections while reciting prayers. The police would not give a number, but it is estimated that somewhere between 100,000 and 300,000 people joined the rally Thursday evening. The latter looks closer to accurate.

Tel Aviv became the epicenter of the anti-Disengagement movement Thursday night,with activists operating around the city all day long, leading to a mass rally in the main Rabin Square at nightfall.
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Earlier Thursday, orange ribbons lined Tel Aviv’s bohemian Shenkin street as anti-expulsion activists paint the town orange – the color of the anti-retreat movement.

Groups of teenage activists could be heard marching down the main thoroughfares singing “Everybody knows that Tel Aviv is orange” to the tune of the Beatles’ “Yellow Submarine.”

A tent city was erected in the park opposite the Tel Aviv’s main train station.
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As evening fell, the giant Rabin Square, formerly known as Kings of Israel Square was filled as hundreds of thousands of Jews from Tel Aviv and all over Israel poured into the main plaza from all directions.

Rabbi Yigal Kaminetsky, rabbi of Gush Katif, told those gathered, “Nothing is sealed, in a moment, with the help of Heaven, things can turn for the good – that is the story of the Jewish people throughout history.

For video of the demonstration, click here.

At the rally, an announcement was made to all of those attending about a plan to prevent soldiers from carrying out the evacuation of Gaza. The plan will go into effect on Sunday night and is named “Orange Dawn,” orange being the symbolic color of democracy. Leaders at the rally also said that should an election be held and the will of the people is against them, then they will accept the result.

One of the leaders of the Yesha Council of Settlements, Tzvika Bar-Hai, presented maps to the protesters and told them to make their way on Monday to towns near the Gaza Strip “by car, by bus, and by foot. We will then head for the entrances and routes into Gush Katif.

“We will not be stopped at checkpoints, we will bypass them from the right and from the left. We will not raise a hand against police and army personnel, we will reach our destination by use of our bodies and with our children. We will not confront anyone,” Bar-Hai said.

“Neither the blows from police officers nor the batons of Border Police troops will deter us. We will cling to the ground until the prime minister faces the people and tells them he will hold new elections,” he added.
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One of the key directives is for long convoys to arrive at the Kissufim crossing, the entrance to Gush Katif, and prevent any access to it by evacuating forces.

The Yesha Council said that as Kissufim crossing is the main “oxygen pipe” into Gush Katif, tens of thousands of protesters preventing movement through it it would cause substantial delays to “the expulsion machine,” as Lieberman called the disengagement plan Wednesday.

Settler leaders learned from recent events in Kfar Maimon and Ofakim, and decided on a change of strategy: they are beginning to part with the dream of bringing tens of thousands into Gush Katif but are opting to focus efforts on preventing security forces from reaching the settlements to be evacuated.

I have personally never supported the evacuation from Gaza. Natan Sharansky, who resigned from the government in protest of this and is the author of our much-beloved The Case for Democracy, attended the event. I bring him up because I share his view in particular of why the evacuation shouldn’t go through. Year after year Israel has made concessions to the Palestinians. Meanwhile, United States and Europe continued to empower the corrupt Palestinian leadership, thinking that only a strong Arafat (or now a strong Abbas) could control radical groups like Hamas and bring about a prosperous state. And what did the entire world, and Israel in particular, get in return?

Absolutely nothing. It reminds me of a really bad song.

Now, the exact same thing is happening. Israel is conceding its settlements in Gaza and yet there has been no halt in attacks against Israel. The new Palestinian leadership was supposed to get things under control, but they have proven themselves completely worthless as Hamas and Islamic Jihad grow more powerful and influential by the day. Once again, the Palestinians will learn that violence works and that they don’t have to keep their promises.

Maybe the time will come when Israel will be able to leave Gaza and the West Bank knowing that they are living alongside a peaceful and modern Palesstinian state. But that day has not come, and it certainly won’t be next week when the dismantling of the settlements begins. And until that day comes when the Palestinians actually live up to their promises, Israel should make no more concessions. I guess that makes me an “extremist right winger” today.

MORE: Michael Totten refers me to this piece showing wh the Gaza withdrawal is important to complete. Here is where the main argument starts:

The prerequisites for a final settlement include Israelis???????? confidence in the ability of the Palestinian leadership to crack down on terrorism and to make their administration of Gaza a success. Israel will feel secure enough to withdraw to the pre-1967 boundaries only when it no longer believes they are continuously threatened. On any realistic assessment, this will take time.

That is why Gaza is important. Mr Sharon knows that Israeli security is ill-served by the diversion of effort to protect 8,000 Jewish settlers among 1.3 million Palestinians. To the settlers???????? anguish, he is evicting them as part of a wider plan to create the conditions for dialogue. The wisest course for politicians outside the region is to cease attacking Mr Sharon for not being able to create peace by fiat. The cause of confidence-building and direct negotiations has never wanted for meddlesome outsiders; it should be given a chance to flourish unaided.

I agree with the assessment, including the point that security forces numbering multiple times that of actual settlers have to be present in order to protect them. If that is simply the purpose, then indeed to it not worth the occupation of Gaza. However, I disagree with the last point. It is based on the assumption that giving up Gaza will set into place the conditions necessary for trust and direct negotiations that will actually lead to resolution of the conflict.

Yet this seems highly implausible, as there is still overwhelming hatred in Palestinian society for Israel’s very existence. As for the Palestinian leadership, its cracks are being constantly filled with ever-growing support for groups like Hamas who will never negotiate and abide by any deal. If the withdrawal is supposed to bolster the legitimacy of the PA while building trust with the Palestinian public as a whole, why is it that radical groups alternative to the current government are gaining in legitimacy? To me, staying in Gaza isn’t just about protecting a few thousand settlers living in a bad neighborhood, but telling the Palestinians that it is they who must be the first to initiate the trust building — for once.