By Jerusalem Newswire Editorial Staff
Aug 15, 2005
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon went on the air Monday night to address the nation as the first official day of the implementation of his ?disengagement? plan drew to a close.
In a message recorded earlier, the Israeli leader called the expulsion of his citizens from ancient Jewish lands ?painful,? but said ?changing reality? dictated that Israel had no choice but to uproot its people and destroy their 25 thriving towns.
?Gaza cannot be held onto forever,? he said, causing critics to score him for failing to explain why Israel was departing in such haste, and without receiving anything from the Arabs in return.
Sharon insisted that leaving the area was ?good for Israel.? It also offered the Palestinian Arabs the chance to accept the olive branch the Jewish state would continue to offer them from behind the redrawn border around Gaza.
Should they choose to continue their violent ways, however, they would feel ?the full might? of Israel?s security forces.
While he had wanted to retain Gaza?s Jewish towns into the future, the prime minister said changing realities ?in this country, in this region, and in the world? had forced Israel to reassess and alter its position.
In recent months, individuals close to Sharon have expressed hope that the international community would be so impressed by the unprecedented sight of Jews evicting Jews that it would at last turn the screws on the Arabs to make the concessions necessary to secure a peace agreement with Israel.
However, a former Foreign Ministry spokesman told Sky News Monday that Israel did not regard its decision to redeploy as ?magnanimous.? Israel was primarily making the move for the security of its own people, though it hoped an opportunity would be created for those Arabs who sincerely wanted peace to respond positively to it.
In response, ?Palestinian? officials interviewed on CNN Monday described the Gaza pullout as a ploy and accused Sharon of pushing ahead with it in order to ensure that Israel need not render the ?West Bank? Jew-free.
PA spokesman Nabil Sha?ath warned that if Israel failed to follow up the current expulsions with the mass eviction of all Jews from Judea and Samaria as well, there would be no peace.
Also on Monday, Hamas leader Mahmoud al-Zahar swore that after the withdrawal, his men would direct withering fire and unending bomb attacks against Israel?s cities until ?all Palestinian lands are free.?
IMRA has the full text of Sharon?s speech here.