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Peace Process

Retreat plan set to become official policy


By Jerusalem Newswire Editorial Staff
May 06, 2004

The nearly four-year “Palestinian” terrorist war will culminate in Israel evacuating its soldiers and civilians from the Gaza Strip, Deputy Prime Minister Ehud Olmert told The Jerusalem Post Wednesday.

Prime Minister Ariel Sharon is reportedly set to take his “disengagement” plan to the Cabinet for approval, despite its overwhelming defeat in Sunday’s internal Likud Party referendum.

If it is approved, uprooting Jewish civilians as a direct result of Muslim terrorism would for the first time ever become official Israeli policy.

Washington too rejected the outcome of the Likud referendum, and in a letter to Sharon, US President George W. Bush insisted Israel proceed with the Gaza withdrawal, officials reported.

‘It’s all or nothing’

Olmert on Wednesday rejected the idea that Sharon would formulate a “diet” version of his disengagement plan in order to make it more palatable to Likud ministers and the party rank and file.

If Israel doesn’t retreat from all of Gaza, “you have no choice but to retain your military presence across the entire Strip,” the deputy prime minister insisted.

Olmert, who also heads the Trade and Industry Ministry, said revising the plan wouldn’t make any difference anyway, since its opponents within the Likud reject the idea of leaving any settlements.

"Even leaving only, say, two of the Strip's 17 settlements will not satisfy them.”

He also repeated the threat that if Israel did not implement Sharon’s plan in full, it would lose the support of US President George W. Bush.

"What is the chance that President Bush will say that what he conceded to Sharon in return for the original plan remains relevant even if he only moves from two settlements? It's a nonstarter,” Olmert told the Post.

Irrelevant referendum

But all is not lost, Olmert said, indicating the pullout plan would soon become official government policy, the results of Sunday’s referendum notwithstanding.

"We will implement the disengagement plan. The prime minister must now create a mechanism that will allow him to pass this resolution, and that he will do.”

Opposition leader and Labor Party Chairman Shimon Peres echoed Olmert, saying Sharon had told him “he just needs a week or two to consult his ministers” before pushing the original plan through the cabinet.

Journalist David Bedein told Arutz 7 Wednesday that he believes Sharon will attempt to cement the plan sooner than that.

"Sharon has scheduled a crucial…government meeting this coming Sunday…to ratify the...plan, assuming that activists who exhausted themselves in the referendum campaign will not have time to reorganize to influence government ministers,” Bedein said.

US demands withdrawal

While publicly the Bush administration has been fairly mum on the outcome of the Likud referendum, intense behind-the-scenes pressure appears to be influencing Sharon’s disregard for the poll’s results.

According to US officials cited by World Tribune, Bush sent a letter to Sharon following the referendum demanding that the Israeli proceed with his planned withdrawal from Gaza.

"The president placed a lot of diplomatic capital into the plan,” and the White House and State Department have rejected the idea that a Likud Party vote could kill the initiative, one official said.

Sharon can modify the plan however he sees fit, but in the end Washington wants to see real movement towards the establishment of a Muslim Arab state on Israel’s biblical heartland, the officials said.

Policy of retreat

If the government approved the plan, it would make uprooting Jewish civilians as a direct result of Islamic terrorism official Israeli policy for the first time.

Military officials have warned that the move would be seen as a victory for “Palestinian” terror, and likely lead to increased violence against the Jewish state.

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