Am I the only one who is reminded of the Nazi Germany by this article?

 

Thursday August 18, 2005 2:16 PM

 

AP Photo JRL134

 

By AMY TEIBEL

 

Associated Press Writer

 

NEVE DEKALIM, Gaza Strip (AP) - Israeli troops 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.

 

The protesters, who vowed not to leave after repeated warnings by police, locked arms and legs while lying on the floor, making it extremely difficult for the soldiers to carry them away. They grabbed at soldiers trying to remove their comrades, threw water and plastic bottles at them, and chanted, ``Jews don't expel Jews!''

 

Some of the protesters had their arms wrapped in leather tefilin prayer boxes. Rabbis in the crowd wore orange vests identifying them as clergy.

 

The protesters were carried outside to waiting buses.

 

Unarmed police entered the 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.

 

In the nearby settlement of 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.

 

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

 

On the second day of removing settlers by force, 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 Thursday, troops entered several of the most 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.

 

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 army chief Lt. Gen. Dan Halutz oversaw the operation. Soldiers formed several cordons around him 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 expected at the Kfar Darom synagogue, where hundreds of protesters on the roof barricaded themselves behind rows of barbed wire. Some used mirrors to try to reflect the sunlight into the eyes of troops below.

 

At midafternoon, the army wheeled in a large crane equipped with metal cages to drag protesters off the roof as a bus waited below.

 

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.

 

While most troops focused on Kfar Darom Thursday, they also returned to Neve Dekalim, the focus of evacuation operations on the first day.

 

About 1,500 people - most of them hard-line teenage activists from outside the settlement - remained 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.

 

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 hardline 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.

 

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 West Bank shooting, three mortar shells and a homemade rocket fired from Palestinian territory exploded near emptied Gaza settlements. No one was hurt.

 

Prime Minister Ariel Sharon condemned the shooting as ``Jewish terror'' and appealed to settlers to direct their anger at him, not at the soldiers.

 

Sharon proposed his ``disengagement plan'' 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.

 

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.

Am I the only one who is reminded of the Nazi Germany by this article?

 

Wow. .bad comparison. Nazis didnt negotiate with the Jews to the fullest extent possible. Nazis didnt refrain from using force and weapons as much as possible. Nazis didnt come to tears when they were doing their thing.

Unlike Nazis, these soldiers have found it difficult emotionally to carry out their duties.

Good comparison. We all know Sharon has "plans" for the settlers. Straight to the ghetto they go!

yep ... i'm sure he's using UN monies to set up transport to "showers" ... ariel is instituting his own final solution............

I wasn't speaking of future motives. More specifically, the fact that the settlers resisted in such a way and tried to fight back (Warsaw Ghetto, etc), the oil on the ramp and the human chains, throwing things at the soldiers, lighting things on fire...

Seeing as those in the Synagogue were not put on cattle trains for a death camp, no I'm not reminded.

 

Anyway, things have gone pretty smoothly, all things considered. It's refreshing to see people cooperating for the most part, and not blowing themselves up in buses or something equally retarded.

Seeing as those in the Synagogue were not put on cattle trains for a death camp, no I'm not reminded.

 

Anyway, things have gone pretty smoothly, all things considered. It's refreshing to see people cooperating for the most part, and not blowing themselves up in buses or something equally retarded.

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Minority wackos always operate on either side. Four Palestinians were shot on Wednesday.

The biggest thing it's reminded me of was with the terrorists holed up in the Church of the Nativity. Somehow, going in there to arrest them (who, btw, were desecrating the church) somehow desecrates the church and would cause an outrage with global Christiandom, but this is OK? Color me confused.

At least one Nightly News show said that some of the people fighting to stay in the synagogues and buildings aren't even Israeli citizens. Some are even Americans.