By Ryan Jones
Jun 17, 2004
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon Wednesday told a Jerusalem gathering he was following in the footsteps of Menachem Begin by initiating an Israeli flight from the Gaza Strip in the face of a “Palestinian” terror threat his government has deemed insurmountable.
Begin’s dismantling of the Israeli Sinai settlements as part of the peace accord with Egypt “broke his heart. However, he did not hesitate to carry it out,” Sharon told those attending the opening of the Begin Heritage Center.
“As Prime Minister, I have acted in this spirit,” said Sharon, referring to his plan to unilaterally uproot the Jews of Gaza and northern Samaria, despite ongoing “Palestinian” terrorism and outside the framework of a peace agreement.
But Knesset Speaker Reuvin Rivlin reminded the audience that Begin himself vowed never to relinquish control over Judea, Samaria or the Gaza Strip – essential parts of the biblical Israeli homeland.
During the ceremony, Sharon also promised never to divide “our liberated and united
capital.” However, just days earlier his chief deputy, Ehud Olmert, suggested the government was mulling the transfer of several Arab neighborhoods of Jerusalem to PA control.