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Peace Process

Left to use Sharon's retreat as precedent


By Jerusalem Newswire Editorial Staff
May 25, 2005

The Israeli Left intends, after regaining power, to use Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's ?disengagement? plan as a precedent for future withdrawals from much of Israel's biblical heartland, former Prime Minister Ehud Barak said Monday.

In an interview with Ynetnews, Barak said Sharon was placing Israel on the right path, but that his Likud Party would be unable to make the tough decisions that must be made following the planned pullout from Gaza and northern Samaria.

The Gaza-Samaria withdrawal is ?just the first one, and a partial one,? the former prime minister explained.

Barak believes the political storm sure to follow this initial surrender of Israel's birthright will bring down the current ruling party.

?They can hardly execute the pullout from Gaza without collapsing under the political pressures,? he said, noting that new elections should be called immediately following the uprooting of Jewish Gaza.

?It?s about time to put the wheel in more capable hands.?

In related news, Sharon told the American Israel Public Affairs Committee's annual policy conference Tuesday that appeasing terrorism was a recipe for disaster.

?Progress towards [peace] can be achieved only after the terrorist organizations are dismantled. Appeasing the terrorists...will only strengthen them,? Sharon said, referring to PLO chief Mahmoud Abbas's failure to back up his words with actions.

But Sharon's detractors say that is exactly what he is doing by surrendering Gaza and northern Samaria in the face of unrelenting terror and by opening the door for additional withdrawals, as planned by future leftist governments.

Meanwhile, recent events indicate it is becoming taboo to identify with the Jewish settlers slated for evacuation within Israel's halls of power.

MK Michael Gorlovsky (Likud) was forcibly evicted from the Knesset plenum Monday after refusing to remove an orange skullcap (kippa) he had donned in protest over the expulsion plan.

Orange has been adopted by the settlers and their supporters as the official color of the anti-disengagement movement.

A day earlier, Knesset guards confiscated numerous orange scarves from a visiting Indian parliamentarian. The guest planned to present the garments, which bore the official color of his political party, as gifts to his Israeli counterparts.

Similarly, Israeli teens were forbidden by police to enter Jerusalem's Western Wall Plaza wearing orange shirts on Memorial Day earlier this month.

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