By Ryan Jones
Jun 18, 2004
Jewish residents of the Gaza Strip will be forced from their homes by the government of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon much sooner than originally expected, two Israeli daily news outlets reported Friday.
According to a new timetable apparently floated to the media to gauge public reaction, the ethnic cleansing of Gaza would begin next month with the removal of those Jews prepared to voluntarily leave their homes, followed by a forced evacuation of the rest by the end of December.
Security sources cited by Ma’ariv said the accelerated timetable is preferable, because a drawn-out, year-long withdrawal would encourage “Palestinian” terrorists to use the time to murder as many Jews as possible in order to claim they had forced Israel from the Strip.
Earlier this month, Israel’s cabinet decided to approve Sharon’s “disengagement” plan, but only after the prime minister promised its implementation would not take place until after a further cabinet vote later next year.
The new timetable would nullify that pledge.
Accelerated flight
Israel’s Ma’ariv and Arutz 7 reported Friday that a new timetable for the implementation of Sharon’s “Gaza-first” retreat plan had been floated that moved up the forced evacuation of the Strip’s Jewish residents by the end of this year.
As of next month the Jews of Gaza would be able request financial compensation and voluntarily leave their homes.
Those that did not choose that route would be forcibly uprooted from their land in December.
Unnamed security sources told Ma’ariv the accelerated timetable would make it harder for “Palestinian” terror groups to use the time prior to the evacuation to launch an intensified campaign of violence in order to claim they had chased Israel from the Srip.
Sharon’s original plan and the corresponding timetable provided for a final Israeli withdrawal from Gaza by the end of 2005.
Many of his cabinet ministers only voted in favor of the plan after Sharon promised its implementation would not take place until after another cabinet vote in March 2005. The settlers were looking to that vote to save their homes.
The new timetable would nullify the compromise Likud ministers Binyamin Netanyahu, Silvan Shalom and Limor Livnat reached with Sharon.
‘Jews can fight for homes’
The former head of the Prime Minister’s Office during Netanyahu’s term, Uri Elitzur, told a Hebrew newspaper this week that the use of violence by Jewish residents to defend their homes would be completely understandable to him.
"Uprooting a community is illegal and shocking, and therefore it is justified [for a soldier] to refuse orders to do so, and [for a resident to use] violence and any other means by which to defend his home from which he is being expelled for political reasons,” Elitzur said in the pages of B’Sheva .
"In my opinion, any use of force, except for live weapons, is legitimate in such a case,” he added.
Left-wing politicians reacted hysterically to Elitzur’s comments, calling on Israel’s attorney general to investigate him for incitement.
PA, terror groups plan Gaza’s future
Meanwhile, the Palestinian Authority has been busy working together with the various terrorist organizations operating out of territories under its control to plan for the future of the Gaza Strip.
Following a meeting with Egyptian dictator Hosni Mubarak Friday, “Palestinian” Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia confirmed that an agreement between the PA and the terror groups on joint rule of Gaza was being drawn up.
He said the document would be completed following additional talks with Cairo, which is helping to facilitate the full take-over of Gaza by organizations such as Hamas and the Islamic Jihad.
Egypt wants Israel to commit itself to stop targeting Gaza-based terrorists so that its own advisors can move in to train the PA and terrorist forces stationed there.
Sign of things to come?
And in an ominous sign of things to come, “Palestinian” terrorists operating out of northern Gaza fired an advanced Kassam rocket at the western Negev town of Sderot Friday morning, sending one Israeli into shock.
Israel radio reported that the improved missile featured greater range and a heavier payload.
Security experts have been warning for months that a full Israeli flight from Gaza would result in the area being flooded with long-range weapons capable of hitting nearby Israeli population centers.