Yet Another "National Mission"...

In an interview with Haaretz, (Israel's President Moshe) Katsav called the absorption of the evacuees a "national task."

This comes in the wake of an article in this past Friday’s Jerusalem Post, which called upon the Jewish refugees of Gush Katif to take upon themselves the national mission of settling and developing the Negev desert.

Developing the Negev has long been recognized as one of Israel's top national missions. Israel's leadership must admit what we all know: Only a community of faith, comprised of determined, selfless people, possesses the wherewithal to achieve this mission. I'd like to believe that such a project could capture the imagination of thousands of former Gazan Jews..

If the President of Israel is calling the process of absorbing the Jewish refugees who were recently expelled from their homes as a "national mission" - just as settling and developing the Negev is a "national mission" then the Jewish refugees need not hold their breath waiting for the government, or those on the political and ideological left to lend a hand.

Israel's leadership must admit what we all know: Only a community of faith, comprised of determined, selfless people, possesses the wherewithal to achieve this mission.

Thankfully, it has been these very people who have undertaken the mission of taking care of the needs of the Jewish refugees - their Jewish brothers and sisters - from the very start, without needing to be told by any government official where our national and responsibilities priorities should lie.

Perhaps the first message that the Religious Zionist camp should make an effort to impart to the Jewish People here in the Land of Israel in the aftermath of "Disengagement" is the concept of "Kol Yisrael areivim zeh la'zeh" - "Every Jew is responsible for his fellow Jew". If we can, as a nation, internalize this age old message, I am certain that the State of Israel will once again regain its sense of purpose and direction, and will be well on its way to becoming a truly Jewish State (and not ot mention the settling of the Negev).