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MK Stav Shafir gets today's FSotD for her comment on the budgetary consequences of the Amona agreement.
Shafir writes:
If the people of Amona had true Zionism in their hearts, if they had true love of Israel - they would not take even a shekel of the money designated for them. They would be terrified from the thought that because of them money is going to be cut from the budgets for the poor, the sick, the disabled.
Instead, they would announce that they are leaving Amona quietly and the 130million nis the government earmarked for them - on the backs of the education, welfare and health of everybody - they will give it to families in distress, to the elderly, to the Holocaust survivors, to children who go to school without sandwiches..
This would be true Zionism. This would be true love of Israel.
To receive 130million nis, more than 3million per family, after breaking the law and threatening soldiers with violence - that is not love of the homeland, but it is extorting the homeland.
Without getting involved in arguing the details and technical points - how much money is being given per family and what other budgetary issues are being cut and what other budgetary items are being funded...
with what money does Shafir expect these people to build new houses elsewhere? If the State is moving them and pulling them out of thir houses, paying for the relocation is the most minor of obligations the State has to the people. These aren't hilltop youth that just went and plunked themselves down on private property. These people moved to a community built and supported by the government, Evicting them 20 or so years later makes relocation funds (plus) a basic.
As well, Shafir herself is receiving State monies on a monthly basis as a State employee. Should we say she, and her peers with similar beliefs, is not a Zionist because she is taking money from the State and not giving it to Holocaust survivors and families in distress?
As well, are these not families in distress? People who built their homes and lives and are having that taken away from them forcibly by the State - if that isnt distress, what is? Look at the evacuees of Gush Katif and the high percentage of distress caused by that evacuation - the high percentage of people who have had difficulty finding work since the relocation, the high percentage of dropouts form school, the high percentage that have required communal assistance and continue to require it, the high percentage reliant on welfare services... are these people, who have to suffer the evacuation, also not considered families in distress deserving of Stav Shafir's attention and compassion?
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