I Have My Doubts About The "Orange Camp"

Where Has the Orange Camp Gone?


More important:

What exactly is the "Orange Camp?"

As a pragmatist, I need to fully define the term. Simply, I do understand it to mean those who opposed Disengagement.

So, if that's the case, who were its leaders? And please don't forget that Disengagement did take place. Gush Katif, Kfar Darom and northern Samarian communities were destroyed by the Israeli Government. Yes, that means that the "Orange Camp" failed.

Again, who led it? Were they independent activists, government employees, like rabbis, or both? Were they the Women in Green or Moetzet YESHA?

Yes, I'm repeating myself. They failed, and unless I missed something, they didn't apologize for that failure... whoever they are.

So, as far as I'm concerned, we're probably better off without them. We need a new leadership. Yes, we need leadership. I was so enthusiastic when the Ichud Le'umi, National Union got back together. But I don't understand why Hatikvah's Ron Breiman or anyone else should be so fixated on those who failed. Why should he have any expectations?

Orange is history. Those who led it didn't succeed in winning the hearts of the Israeli people nor the hearts and minds the Jews in the Diaspora. If they had, our IDF soldiers would never have cooperated with the army. They would have found themselves incapable of taking innocent Jews from their homes.

We're a People in search of leadership, inspiration and confidence in our National Right and Legitimacy.

Orange--Losing Its Luster

I still wear my orange bracelet, which shows me as someone who considers Disengagement a great tragedy. Orange became the protest color against Disengagement.

Orange became the euphemism for the leadership of the Gush Katif communities.


My orange bracelet is no longer bright orange. And it's starting to split. And I have no doubt that some day soon, in another few days, weeks, or maybe even months, I'll suddenly notice that it's gone.

Now, will I try to replace it? Should I already be looking to buy a new one?

No, I won't. It's not that I've changed my mind about Disengagement. It's simply because my suspicions about the "orange leadership" are getting stronger. I haven't trusted the "political judgement" of Moetzet YESHA for years, actually ever since they began their "camp out" protests during the anti-Oslo times. I even wrote an article in Hebrew opposing it, insisting that they were making a game out of our possibly being homeless, making it look too easy to leave our homes. I refused to even visit those protests.

Then during the anti-Disengagement protests, I was firmly against the slogan "Ten l'Am L'hachlit," "Let the People Decide," which demanded a referendum, rather than protesting the principle of destroying Jewish communities and giving our Land to our enemies.

It seems more and more true that the orange leadership and Moetzet YESHA have/had been working together. That's hard for me to accept. And it's even harder for me to show any sign that I may support that very same leadership.

When this bracelet falls off, it won't be replaced by another. It symbolizes their mistakes. I will have to find another way of expressing my feelings.

Hope For The Future

This is 15 year old, Tzurit Berenson (or Bronson or some other pronunciation of the consonants.) Tzurit, very impressively, defeated all of the other contestants in the World Bible Contest on Israel's Independence Day.

Afterwards the press was filled with reports of how she had handed Olmert a letter requesting that Israel fight to free Jonathan Pollard, but I didn't notice anything about her choice of jewelry. In the print edition of The Jerusalem Post, I noticed her bracelets, orange* bracelets. This extremely precocious young woman has a good grasp of present-day Israel, besides knowing the Bible better than her peers and better than most adults. Remember that it takes a very knowledgeable committee to make up the questions in the contest, but each contestant must be able to answer the questions without assistance.

*Orange is the protest color against Disengagement. You may find it strange that the previous sentence is written in present tense, although Disengagement already happened.

Before Disengagement you could see orange flags and orange bracelets and orange clothes all over. I still wear an orange bracelet, rather dingy after all this time. My favorite summer skirt has big, bright orange flowers. I bought it to wear when I spoke at an anti-Disengagement Rally in Times Square, NY.

Israel is still suffering the price of Disengagement, not only the law-abiding Israeli families whose homes were taken from them. The Israeli south is suffering a blitz of kassam rocket attacks launched by the Arab terrorists from what was Gush Katif. The Arab produced rockets may be "primitive," but they kill and destroy very effectively.

Tzurit Berenson, the same young girl who impressed all by her superior knowledge of the Bible also understands that we need our HolyLand. I can see it in her choice of jewelry.