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Peace Process

Netanyahu: Retreat 'poses great danger' to Israel


By Jerusalem Newswire Editorial Staff
May 11, 2005

Finance Minister Binyamin Netanyahu Wednesday unleashed his most scathing criticism yet of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's "disengagement" plan, in what many believe to be an escalation of his campaign to regain leadership of the Likud Party.

Netanyahu told The Jerusalem Post that unilaterally quitting Gaza and northern Samaria would fuel the Arab belief that Israel could ultimately be destroyed by means of unrelenting terror and international pressure.

"Anything that persuades the Palestinians that we are being pushed by their superior will and their acts of terror to vacate one position after another emboldens terror and pushes peace away," he said in an interview with the newspaper. "This poses a great danger to us."

Senior anti-retreat politicians have looked to the influential Netanyahu to lead their efforts to safeguard the right of Jews to live where they choose.

Netanyahu, however, said he believed Sharon's disengagement was a done deal, and that opponents should now focus on preventing any additional withdrawals.

The finance minister delivered an even more serious shock to those faithful to the Land of Israel when he explained that he too would have relinquished Gaza, but only in exchange for more Arab promises.

"Gaza is a very small place, with a very large Arab population," he said, echoing leftist warnings over the perceived demographic threat.

Netanyahu's former and present supporters are still chafing from his surrender of the biblical Judean city of Hebron to the PLO during his term as prime minister.

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