By Jerusalem Newswire Editorial Staff
Aug 10, 2005
Israeli Knesset Member Binyamin Netanyahu appealed Wednesday to all his fellow lawmakers who ?grasp the danger? to help thwart the uprooting of Jews from Gaza and northern Samaria before it is too late.
In his first address to the parliament since resigning as Finance Minister Sunday to protest the ?Disengagement,? Netanyahu described the plan as ?evil,? saying it would turn the Gaza Strip ? situated less than 30 km south of the Israeli city of Ashkelon ? into ?a huge base for terror.?
While he did not know whether the pullout could be halted altogether, he hoped it could still be stopped in its initial stages.
Certainly Israel should do nothing to militarily strengthen the Arabs in Gaza.
?Don?t give them guns; don?t give them rockets; don?t give them a seaport; don?t give them a huge base for terror,? he urged.
Pounding the government, Netanyahu said he had in vain warned Prime Minister Ariel Sharon about the likelihood of Gaza becoming a major center for terrorist operations once Israel pulled out.
?They have eyes but don?t see. They have ears but don?t hear,? he said, apparently quoting from the ancient Hebrew prophet Isaiah, who foretold national blindness for the people of Israel.
?Only we in the Knesset are able to stop this evil. Everything that the Knesset has decided, it is also capable of changing.?
Netanyahu has weathered a storm of criticism since his resignation, with people on both sides of the political divide accusing him of positioning himself to challenge Sharon in the next elections.
Responding to Netanyahu?s broadside Wednesday, Sharon swiped at him for resigning in a manner he said did not ?warrant a medal of honor.?
Meanwhile, different opinion polls conducted since Sunday show that Netanyahu would handily thrash Sharon were the Likud Party to hold primaries today.
The results led to widespread speculation that the party would split, with Sharon starting a new party in order to ensure he would retain the premiership in the next elections.
Sources close to the prime minister denied that he was even contemplating leaving the Likud.