By Jerusalem Newswire Editorial Staff
Dec 31, 2004
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s plan to uproot the Jews of Gaza and northern Samaria will snowball until Israel has relinquished control over all its biblical heartland, the Golan Heights and part of its eternal capital — Jerusalem.
So indicated Likud MK Uzi Landau, who leads his party’s anti-retreat efforts, in response to comments by Deputy Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to the effect that a far wider withdrawal would be necessary following the evacuation of Gaza’s Jews.
Finance Minister Binyamin Netanyahu chimed in Thursday night, calling the plan to uproot the Jewish communities of Gaza and northern Samaria a “tragedy in the making.”
Netanyahu went on to say, however, that Sharon’s acquiescence to his demands had forestalled his joining the official opposition to transferring Jewish civilians from their homes.
He failed to address the fact that Sharon had since trampled many of his publicly declared conditions.
Disengagement II
“Israel's interest requires a disengagement on a wider scale than what will happen as part of the current disengagement plan,” Olmert told The Jerusalem Post Wednesday.
He said even if a viable peace partner failed to emerge on the “Palestinian” side, Israel would still need to withdraw from large swaths of Judea and Samaria.
Olmert’s comments have often served as trial balloons for policy shifts in the Sharon government.
Last year, Olmert called for a unilateral evacuation of all Jews from Gaza just weeks before Sharon officially unveiled his disengagement plan.
On Thursday, the Prime Minister’s Office issued a statement vehemently rejecting Olmert’s assertion, and reiterating Sharon’s commitment to the US-backed Road Map peace plan.
“Olmert's comments are completely unacceptable to the Prime Minister. There will be no other diplomatic plan besides the Road Map, as was agreed with US President George W. Bush on April 14,” the statement read.
‘Once they start, they won’t stop’
Disengagement opponents, meanwhile, were unconvinced Sharon and his deputy had not coordinated the entire affair.
Olmert is now laying the groundwork for eventually leaving all of Judea, Samaria, the Jordan Valley, the Golan Heights and eastern Jerusalem, said Landau, leader of the so-called Likud “rebels.”
"Once they start [retreating] they won't be able to stop. This is why they are bringing Labor into the government and adopting [leftist] policies," the Post quoted Landau as saying.
National Union MK Aryeh Eldad told the English-language daily he was unsurprised by Olmert’s comments.
“He always said [quitting Gaza] was just a start, and that is the reason why we object [to disengagement],” Eldad said.
Bought-off Netanyahu speaks out
On Thursday night, Netanyahu made a rare public statement on the planned withdrawal.
Speaking to Likud activists in Tel Aviv, the former prime minister said he had vocally opposed the Gaza pullout in all his meetings with Sharon, but had voted in favor of the plan nevertheless because “the conditions I presented were met.”
He called disengagement a “tragedy in the making.”
Dr. Aaron Lerner of Independent Media Review and Analysis said the Ma’ariv report on Netanyahu’s meeting failed to indicate whether or not the activists had pointed out that many of the finance minister’s conditions had actually not been met.
In particular, Netanyahu agreed to vote in favor of the plan with the understanding that implementation of each phase of the withdrawal would require a separate cabinet vote prior to its execution.
But this week, Sharon announced he would lump all the votes together in a single cabinet session to be held in January — half a year before the withdrawal is scheduled to begin.
Netanyahu had also insisted the “West Bank” security fence be completed before any Jewish families were uprooted from Gaza.
Sharon’s timetable for the pullout would preclude that condition being met.
Lerner questioned whether at any point in his career Netanyahu would choose to “give priority to avoiding a national tragedy over avoiding a personal tragedy, such as losing his seat in the cabinet.”