By Jerusalem Newswire Editorial Staff
Aug 30, 2004
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon made perfectly clear Monday he would not be deterred from his plan to unilaterally uproot and transfer the Jews of northern Samaria and the Gaza Strip.
Sharon told his cabinet he would present a detailed timetable for Israel’s retreat from those areas during a meeting with lawmakers from his own Likud Party on Tuesday.
When another minister questioned why only the Likud would be privy to the plan’s details, Ha’aretz quoted Sharon as responding, “Nothing can stop me. Nobody can shackle my hands and legs.”
The offending cabinet member was Labor and Social Affairs Minister Zevulun Orlev, who’s National Religious Party openly opposes relinquishing to the “Palestinian” Authority any land deeded by God to the Jewish people.
A day earlier, Knesset Speaker and long-time Sharon supporter Reuven Rivlin offered harsh criticism of the prime minister for pushing ahead with the Gaza-first evacuation, despite being roundly defeated in an internal Likud referendum on his plan.
Sharon’s policies are resulting in the collapse of Likud ideology, Rivlin said Sunday evening during a gathering to mark the publication of a new book on the Likud’s ideological father, Ze’ev Jabotinsky.
"The iron curtain of Jabotinsky collapsed when the prime minister, a Likud man, initiated a program that results in the uprooting of portion of land for nothing," the veteran politician stated.
“Rivlin was referring to a concept promoted by Jabotinsky in the formative years of the Zionist movement, which called for unbending, uncompromising dedication to Jewish settlement and defense in the Land of Israel - an "Iron Wall" of determination - until the Arabs were simply forced to accept Jewish sovereignty,” Arutz 7 explained.
Rivlin warned that the outcome would be the strengthening of “Palestinian” efforts to eradicate the Jewish state.