Picture, if you will, the United States entering into a war with Mexico. And imagine that Mexicans were given autonomy over San Francisco’s Mission and Excelsior Districts.
And, figure what would happen if Mexicans lobbed rockets onto Twin Peaks or shot up coffee shops in the Financial District, and then retreated back to their autonomous zones where they could not be pursued.
What would Mayor Gavin Newsom do?
Israel “Izzy” Danziger, a Brooklyn-born settler activist knows what the mayor wouldn’t do.
“You wouldn’t talk to them about taking over other parts of the country because they laid claim to it. And you certainly wouldn’t be concerned about their civil rights,” he said.
Abruptly drawing his analogy to a close, the 51-year-old construction worker and father of eight makes it clear that Israel shouldn’t be giving away any land to the Palestinians, or be overly concerned with their civil rights.
“If you just take the last four years alone, with almost 1,100 dead and tens of thousands wounded in collateral damage with their lives and families destroyed, [we’re supposed to say], ‘We’ll give you this land and here, take it and we’ll be done with it?'” he asked, an incredulous tone in his voice.
“Maybe that might give them the idea that what they’re doing is exactly the thing to do. In a war, like any war, you fight the war. You fight those attacking you and you do everything possible to protect your citizens. That’s something that’s not being done now at all.”
Danziger will be in San Francisco this weekend for a pair of speaking engagements: At 11 a.m. Saturday, June 25, at Conservative Congregation Ner Tamid and 11 a.m. Sunday, June 26, at Orthodox Chevra Thilim. His Bay Area trip is sponsored by San Francisco’s Club Maoz and the New York-based Americans for a Safe Israel, and Danziger encourages people not to drive to see his appearance on Shabbat.
An Israeli for the past 33 years, Danziger is the director of operations on the ground for Mishmeret Yesha, an organization providing aid and security to settlers. He’s helped establish 32 free loan societies that have helped more than 600 settlers borrow or purchase bulletproof vests and helmets. He’s also been instrumental in an effort to plant vineyards and olive trees around settlements as he notes Palestinians will snatch up any land near a settlement left untilled.
Danziger, incidentally, refused to provide a photograph for this story. He claims that operatives of Hamas, Islamic Jihad and al-Qaeda are active in this country, and a photo could be passed to terrorists in Israel or even here.
“I’m not going to lock myself in my room, but I’m not going to be proactive and provide them with a photograph,” he said.
Danziger said American Jews are sadly misinformed about the proposed unilateral disengagement from Gaza. First of all, he said, don’t think it’s a dead certainty to occur. Recent polls, Danziger claims, show a majority of Israelis now oppose the idea.
Secondly, he asks: How can an evacuation of Gaza settlers who have been entrenched for years be organized in a matter of months when it took years and years to pull off the removal of far fewer settlers in the Sinai who had only been living there for a couple of years?
Finally, he wonders, why would Israel give away a quarter of its land? From Chomesh, where Danziger recently led a tour, he noted that one can gaze down upon 75 percent of Israel’s population, from Haifa to Hadera.
“And that’s the same thing [the Arabs] will see. But they will be seeing it through the scope” of a weapon, he said, glumly.
In fact, no “thinking person” would ever think Israelis and Palestinians could live side-by-side or in mixed cities.
“It is an impossibility. No question about it, anyone would be fooling himself to believe that the Arab nation, which holds something like six-and-a-half-million square miles of land … that if Israel gave up what is called the West Bank, East Jerusalem, Gaza, roughly one-fourth of the state of Israel, they’ll be satisfied,” he said.
“If you were sitting across the table and negotiating a deal, how many people would take a claim like that seriously? I don’t think too many people.”
Israel Danziger will speak 11 a.m. Saturday, June 25, at Congregation Ner Tamid, 1250 Quintara St., S.F. Information: (415) 661-3383. He will speak 11 a.m. Sunday, June 26, at Chevra Thilim, 751 25th Ave., S.F. Admission is free. Information: (415) 752-2866.