By Jerusalem Newswire Editorial Staff
Apr 21, 2005
In a pre-Passover interview, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon told The Jerusalem Post that present realities meant part of the Zionist dream of resettling the land God deeded to the Jewish people would have to be forfeited.
Sharon said it was impractical for Israel to maintain control over an area where a small handful of Jews live among millions of Arabs.
“I don't see, looking at the long-term picture, any possibility of a community of a few thousand Jews, for all its achievements and its special heroism, remaining in Gaza,” explained the prime minister.
But, he asserted, quitting Gaza would strengthen Israel’s ability to retain sovereignty over major settlement blocs in Judea and Samaria.
"I am doing everything I can to save as much as I can,” Sharon said.
The prime minister indirectly blamed the situation, at least in part, on the failure of millions of Diaspora Jews to immigrate to Israel.
Had more Jews chosen to make their homes in Israel, Sharon said, a different strategy would have been possible.
Leftist elements in Israel’s government have long argued that the demographic situation necessitated withdrawing from all lands liberated during the 1967 Six Day War.
Opponents of that position have pointed that when Israel declared its independence in 1948, the Jews were in the minority, but miraculously managed to establish a Jewish state nevertheless.
In related news, Gaza Coast Council head Avner Shimoni reported to Arutz 7 Thursday that IDF Chief of Staff-designate Dan Halutz recently told him Sharon’s “disengagement” could be thwarted if enough protestors showed up on the day of the evacuation.
The IDF cannot fight 100,000 demonstrators, Halutz reportedly told Shimoni. If that many participated, the government would be forced to reconsider its plans, according to the army chief.
Sharon’s government intends to declare Gaza and northern Samaria closed military zones prior to the withdrawal to prevent such an occurrence.