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Peace Process

'Sharon intent on tearing Israel in two'


By Jerusalem Newswire Editorial Staff
October 18, 2004

Prime Minister Ariel Sharon is “leading the nation to a split that could end up as a civil war,” and refuses to even consider taking steps that would maintain national unity, settler leaders said after meeting with the Israeli leader Sunday.

During the course of what was said to be a tense meeting, Sharon reportedly told the heads of the Council of Jewish Communities in Judea, Samaria and the Gaza Strip (Yesha) that he was intent on removing “everything” Jewish in Gaza.

“Jews don't need to be in the Gaza Strip,” Sharon told his guests.

The Yesha officials, who once counted Sharon as their top political ally, pleaded with the prime minister to avoid deepening social rifts, and put his “disengagement” plan to a national referendum.

Sharon rejected the very notion of a referendum, telling President Moshe Katsav a day later he would prefer early elections.

But members of his Likud Party gathered Monday to discuss the possibility of holding a nationwide survey. Sharon said their decision on the matter would make little difference, since he alone leads the nation.

Meanwhile, at least one settler official has condemned the idea of a referendum or any other vote on relinquishing control over land given to all generations of the Jewish people by God.

‘Disgraceful’ meeting

Speaking to reporters immediately after, the settler leaders described their first formal get-together with Sharon in more than 18 months as “one of the most disgraceful meetings with a prime minister of Israel.”

"We came here to calm the atmosphere and instead we understood from the prime minister that is an interest of his to cause a rift in the nation and to bring the nation into a civil war," Eliezer Hasdai, head of the Alfei Menashe Regional Council, said.

Sharon was “unwilling to talk, unwilling to listen,” noted Yesha head Benzi Lieberman.

Yesha spokesperson Yehoshua Mor-Yosef said Sharon had made himself “deaf” to all their concerns, and simply responded to every question put to him by reading from a script prepared by his aides.

“The disengagement has been launched, Sharon has disengaged from the people,” Mor-Yosef told reporters.

The meeting was simply “pathetic and no use came out of it,” said Binyamin Regional Council head Pinhas Wallerstein.

"Either someone is controlling [Sharon] or he took Prozac before the meeting," Wallerstein said. "Everyone looked at each other and had no idea what Sharon was doing."

Sharon in charge

Sharon remained adamantly opposed to subjecting his plan to transfer Gaza’s Jews to a national referendum.

Last week, Sharon claimed a referendum would delay the implementation of his plan for at least one year, which according to him was unacceptable.

[ Ed. Note – It is important to point out that implementation of Sharon’s plan has yet to be officially approved by either the government or the Knesset, meaning at this point it remains a personal initiative of the prime minister. ]

Sharon told the Yesha leaders that putting the Gaza withdrawal to a vote would set a dangerous precedent.

Allowing the public to decide on “disengagement” today, would mean that tomorrow other sectors would be demanding referendums on Shabbat or the fate of Jerusalem and the Golan Heights, he maintained.

Sharon repeatedly asserted that responsibility for the future of the nation was on his shoulders, Mor-Yosef said.

The prime minister was completely “impervious,” according to the Yesha spokesman.

Elections or referendum?

On Monday, Sharon told Israeli President Moshe Katsav he would rather call early elections than hold a national referendum on his retreat plan.

If elections were held today, all indications are that Sharon and his Likud Party would emerge victorious, despite widespread public opposition to his policies.

The opposition Labor Party and its “land-for-peace” platform have been overwhelmingly rejected in both of the last two national elections.

There is no question

For at least one settler leader, however, the true disgrace lies in Jews even discussing handing over land given to the Jewish people by God.

“For decades, we have taught our youth that it is inconceivable to think of giving away a single piece of the Land. This is a question that must not even be asked; the question itself is a desecration,” Daniella Weiss, mayor of the Samarian town of Kedumim, told Arutz 7.

“Even Yitzchak Tabankin, one of the leaders of the Labor Movement, once said, that in order to decide any question of giving away parts of the Land of Israel is to convene all the Jews of all previous generations - those who already died and those who are not yet born,” Weiss said.

She explained, “Our starting point must be that every piece of the Land of Israel is sacred just as is every letter of the Torah, and just as we would never give up on a letter of the Torah, we will never give up on a piece of the Land.”

Weiss’s position echoes that of millions of Evangelical Christian supporters of Israel, who back the Jewish claim to all the land biblically deeded to them by the Almighty.

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