A Time of Mourning

The "Three Weeks" of mourning for the Holy Temple in Jerusalem that stretch from the 17th of Tamuz (which fell out this year on July 20) to the 9th of Av (this year on August 10) now hold additional tragic memorial days. This year we will commemorate the third anniversary of the Expulsion from Gush Katif and Northern Shomron - the 'sensitive but determined' pogrom that the Jews perpetrated against their brothers, referred to in Israeli Newspeak as the 'Disengagement.' During this time period we also commemorate the second anniversary of the War for the Success of the Convergence Plan. In Israeli Newspeak it is called 'The Second Lebanon War -' the war that was supposed to have afforded a 'tail wind,' in Olmert's words, to the expulsion of the Jews from the rest of Judea and Samaria.

One would think that in the Information Era, it would no longer be possible to hide information from the public. But that is not the case. The truth is not concealed by a lack of information. It is concealed by a deluge of information. The average person does not have the time or desire to organize and filter the torrents of facts to which he is subjected, even though some of those facts are the truth that he would like to access. Instead, he relies on the established media to organize the information for him, on commentators to think for him and on the Israeli thought police to let him know what he is allowed to think and what is forbidden, what is legitimate and what is, Heaven forefend, extreme.

Israel's censorship is even worse than the Soviet brand. In Israel, Big Brother controls the public consciousness in the name of democracy. "I was afraid to invite you for an interview on my program," a famous television broadcaster said to me. "And then I realized that I am being subjected to terror."

In all the ceremonies held to commemorate the second anniversary of the war, nobody dared tell the truth. And the destruction of the Jewish communities of Gush Katif and Northern Shomron is still called 'Disengagement' even though it has created the strongest engagement ever between Israel and Gaza. Just ask the residents of Ashkelon when the disengagement ended and when the engagement began.

For those people who wish to retain their liberty to think, I humbly proffer this update. It contains a short, simple and uncensored synopsis of the 'Disengagement' and 'The War.'

Moshe Feiglin