The settler leader who led Israelis to disaster

[Jefferson23]

Hanan Porat understood that if he could fill Judea and Samaria with dozens of settlements and hundreds of thousands of settlers, no government would be able to evacuate the territories and arrive at a peace agreement.

By Nehemia Shtrasler

There were so many accolades and so much praise that I found myself getting confused. Was this the same Hanan Porat that I also knew? True, he was an idealist, and charismatic, and modest, and he always said what he felt in his heart. True, also, that he was the great leader of Gush Emunim. But we must not forget, and this is the tragic part of the story, that his biggest success - covering the West Bank with a carpet of Israeli settlements - was also the greatest disaster that befell the people of Israel.

My father used to say that Hanan Porat was a very dangerous man. He looked so nice, so handsome, and he always smiled a smile of pure olive oil, so that you would become confused and charmed by him and wouldn't notice that he was leading you, pied piper-style to a disaster.

His admirers pointed out this week what a gigantic contribution he had made to the settlement enterprise on the West Bank. But Porat did not make do with Judea and Samaria. He was a maximalist. He wanted everything. When Menachem Begin signed the peace treaty with Egypt, he attacked him with fury and joined MK Geula Cohen, who bolted the Likud to form the rightwing Tehiya Party. Because even in return for peace with Egypt he believed it was forbidden to return even one grain of sand in Sinai. Imagine our situation in the 32 years that have since passed without (even a cold ) peace with Cairo. How many soldiers would have been killed, how many wars would have broken out, how many tens of billions of shekels would have been wasted?

That was also Porat's approach with regard to evacuating Gush Katif. From his point of view, even the Gaza Strip, with its 1.5 million Arabs, was ours and we should not give up even one clod of its earth, despite the fact that it was not part of the Land of Israel.

in full: http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/opinion/the-settler-leader-who-led-israelis-to-disaster-1.388656

[Scurrilous]

1. In memoriam: Hanan Porat, an extremist by any other name

<snip>

"Late Wednesday night, after I finished devouring the Steve Jobs obituary on the New York Times website, my eye happened to catch the headline for another of the day's death reports: "Hanan Porat, Jewish Settlement Leader, Dies at 67." (Actually, my eye didn't so much catch the headline as was forced toward it by the Times's "Recommended for You" list, which has apparently pegged me as member of the all-things-Israel demographic, which is a whole other story ... sort of.)

My first reaction was disgust followed by a strong desire to register my protest by refusing to read. What was the Times doing running an obituary of a settlement leader, a founder of the extremist movement responsible for gobbling up dunam upon dunam of Palestinian land, for dispossession, violence, apartheid, and an ultra-nationalism so toxic it approaches fascism? If a leader of Hamas died, would the Times eulogize him too? It goes without saying that it would never grant precious death-page real estate to a human rights leader like Michel Warshawski or Raji Sourani.

But then curiosity got the better of me and I clicked on the link which brought me, in a matter of seconds, to a 574-word Ethan-Bronner special capped by a photograph of a young and dashing Porat. Based on Bronner's homage, which is written in a tone that can only really be described as sympathetic-masquerading-as-neutral, here is what I learned."

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[Violet_Crumble]

2. Yuck. Does the NYT run obituaries for other extremists? n/t

[Jefferson23]

4. I thought the OP from Harretz by Nehemia Shtrasler was one of the most powerful

I have read in awhile. The never ending settlements serve their desired purpose.

The thing about Bronner, even if the reader is unaware of him, the OP should be an eye opener for anyone remotely
puzzled about Israel's intentions.

[LeftishBrit]

3. Yes.

Although I generally don't like to attack someone just after they've died, I must sadly agree that Porat was a dangerous extremist, and that he and his movement had an awful influence on Israel. And, of course, on Palestine!