By Jerusalem Newswire Editorial Staff
Jun 07, 2004
The Bush administration and the Arafat terror authority were pushing Monday, each in its own way, to try to ensure that Israel implement the plan it passed Sunday to see all Jews removed from the Gaza Strip within 19 months.
In a statement welcoming what some observers mocked as a farcical vote by the Sharon cabinet, White House press secretary Scott McClellan said, "We urge that practical preparatory work to implement the plan now proceed as rapidly as possible in Israel."
Scoffing, Arafat spokesman Saeb Erekat expressed his belief that Sharon would never succeed in implementing the plan.
This combination of approval from the US and derisively expressed doubts from the "Palestinians" has worked successfully for over ten years to get Israel to give in to demands that it trade land for "peace."
Savoring Washington's support for his plan, and dismissing the expressed Arab doubts, Sharon affirmed that he was going to do precisely what both parties want him to when, according to the Associated Press, he told a group of young Jews visiting Israel Sunday that "disengagement has begun."
Since the 1993 signing of the Oslo Accords, every move by Israel's leaders to relinquish parts of the Jews' biblical and historic land has only increased the level of Arab terrorism on the one hand, and upped the intensity of western pressure on the other.
US approves
In line with US President George W. Bush's commitment to a "two-state solution" of the Arab-Israeli conflict, the White House Monday welcomed the decision by the Sharon government to prepare for the removal of all Jewish civilians and military personnel from the Gaza Strip.
Spokesman McClellan urged Israel to move ahead rapidly to prepare for implementation of the plan. While these preparations are slated for completion by next March, a "senior Israeli source" said he believed everything could be in place to begin uprooting Gaza's 8,000 Jews as early as December this year.
The Bush vision for the birthing of a State of Palestine in Gaza and Judea-Samaria - the biblical heartland of the nation of Israel – has remained official US policy despite the unrelenting terrorism against Israel since it was annunciated in June 2002.
Steadily since the Madrid peace conference of 1991, successive American presidents, both Democrats and Republicans, have directed policies that have left Israel weakened and more vulnerable - with the creation of an implacable armed Arab force in its midst, and Israel's increased diplomatic isolation abroad.
Tried and tested tactic
In its reaction to the cabinet decision to retreat from Gaza, Yasser Arafat' PLO Authority employed a tactic it has used with much success when it welcomed "Israeli withdrawal from any part of our Palestinian land," but said it would not believe it until it saw it.
It was extremely unlikely that Sharon would carry out the dismantling of settlements, senior “Palestinians” said.
"If approving this fragmented plan took the Israeli government this long, I wonder how much time it will take to implement it," said PA "cabinet minister" Saeb Erekat.
Sharon:The disengagement has begin
Dismissing such expressions of "disbelief," Sharon announced after the cabinet meeting that Israel's "disengagement [from the Palestinian Arabs] has begun."
"The government decided today that by the end of 2005, Israel will leave Gaza and four settlements in the West Bank," the man once regarded as a strong champion of Zionist settlement of the Land of Israel declared.
His words led concerned supporters of Israel who have closely monitored the cause and effect of Israeli concessions on the level of terrorism against Israeli Jews to brace for a successful attack.