Word: gushing
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Logic suggests that for Jews, choosing to live in fortress colonies on captured land packed with 1.3 million Palestinians was always folly. But if you look at Gush Katif through the Hilburgs' eyes, it wasn't like that. When Bryna and Sammy first saw their future home in Gaza, there was nothing there but sand. "Sand, sand, more sand," says Bryna. "I loved it," says Sammy. "I thought he was nuts," she says. "But we needed to eat, to buy shoes for the kids, so I said, O.K., we'll look." As new immigrants in 1972 who wanted to live...
Today the Gush Katif bloc of settlements is a fortress under siege, a surreal mix of suburbia and security. The tight skein of roads in the area, restricted to Israelis, run through barren no-go zones where every tree and plant and dwelling has been bulldozed for a hundred yards. Thriving hothouses and comfortable red-roofed villas set in lush, green gardens spread across the dunes, huddling inside rings of razor wire and electric fence. Three-story military watchtowers draped in camouflage rear up out of back gardens, and tanks patrol the perimeters. The only Palestinians allowed within view...
...raid into Lebanon. The Hilburgs defied family members who urged that Yochanan receive a military funeral in Jerusalem. "He loved it here," says Bryna. "We decided he would be buried here, where he lived, where we can get to him." Now the Hilburgs face a second heartbreak: the Gush Katif cemetery housing 48 Jewish graves will have to be evacuated too. "They have to get out every single particle," says Bryna as she stares at her own hands, "every joint and finger and toe that has fallen away when there are no ligaments left." The Israeli government has said...
...thrived by growing organic crops, notably cherry tomatoes for export to Europe. The Hilburgs say it breaks their hearts to dismantle the hothouses they worked so hard to build, but in the nearby enclave of Gadid, another U.S.-born settler, Lynn Bentolila, expresses a sentiment widely shared in the Gush: "I don't want to see [the Palestinians] using my land or living in my house." The Israeli government and the Palestinian Authority have been wrangling over the issue: both agree the Israeli houses should be destroyed but dispute who would pay to clean up the mess afterward...
...years. My roots are here. Netzer Hazani has what I need and want. We built it up. We made a beautiful place, beautiful in spirit." So the Hilburgs say they will do anything peaceable and lawful that will stop the clock, but nothing more. They obeyed when the Gush Katif council quoted from Isaiah: "You shall triumph by stillness and quiet; your victory shall come about through calm and confidence...