WASHINGTON -- The world has noted -- though it will not credit,
and will soon forget -- those deeply moving scenes of the
Israeli evacuation of Gaza: the discipline and self-control of
the Israeli army; the cohesion of a society torn over policy but
determined to follow the dictates of democracy; and the deep,
abiding attachment of Israelis to every inch of soil they have
reclaimed from sand and swamp. But there was one detail of the
evacuation that went little noticed: the manner of the
evacuation of the great menorah from the last synagogue of the
last settlement to be evacuated, Netzarim. This menorah is not
the nine-branched Hanukkah thingie that shows up on an equal-
time basis by the shopping-mall reindeer display at Christmas
time. It is the seven-branched candelabra -- like the one that
was in the ancient temple in Jerusalem and is today the official
seal of the state of Israel. The Gaza menorah was carried off in
a very remarkable and significant way, perched on a horizontal
rod borne on the shoulders