Question & Answer With Shifra Shomron - Remembering Neve Dekalim

A Simple Jew asks:

In your book "Grains of Sand" The Fall of Neve Dekalim", you wrote,

"The tragic events regarding Gush Katif burned in me, forcing me to take pen in hand and spill the burning lava of my thoughts and emotions onto white paper."

Now with two years behind you since the time you and your family were expelled from your home in Neve Dekalim, have your opinions about the State of Israel lost any of their intensity? Do you feel that is hard to remain living in a country that betrayed you?

Shifra Shomron answers:

Two years since Disengagement have not lessened my feelings regarding the State of Israel. Perhaps, I should first state that Disengagement itself did not change my feelings towards the State - though perhaps it sharpened them. I do not feel that my country betrayed me - since I never had any trust in its leaders.

Indeed, looking back in our history, we can see that little has changed in the ensuing 60 years of statehood. David Ben-Gurion refused to conquer all of biblical Israel in 1948 though he admittedly had the capacity to do so. He then gave away the Sinai and Gaza in 1956. Levi Eshkol refused to annex the re-conquered lands in 1967. Golda Meir publicly announced that she could forgive the Arabs for attacking us but she could not forgive them for teaching us to kill. In other words, she preferred sacrificing Jews rather than defending them. Menachem Begin was the first Jewish Prime Minister to forcibly remove Jews from their homes in Israel, as he destroyed the Jewish communities in the Sinai region and gave the Sinai to the Egyptians. And the more recent Prime Ministers have done nothing to make us trust them. So why should I feel betrayed? Have I ever been given reason to expect alternative behavior from Israel's leaders?

However, my identity with the State of Israel is not because of the leaders but rather in spite of them! As a daughter of the Jewish nation, this is my land. This is my heritage. And I love my country and my people - and do my best to make this a better place by participating in national elections, writing articles, publishing my historic novel "Grains Of Sand: The Fall Of Neve Dekalim", and studying to become a high-school English and Bible teacher. Yes, it is difficult to live in Israel - but God gave this land to the Jewish nation, and this is where I belong.