By Jerusalem Newswire Editorial Staff
May 04, 2004
The crushing defeat of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s “disengagement” plan in Sunday’s Likud referendum is a mere “setback” to the designs of the Gentile nations to birth a Muslim Arab state on Israel’s biblical heartland.
Members of the Middle East Quartet met in New York Tuesday to discuss how Sharon’s pullout plan could best be used to kick-start the Road Map “peace” process and lead to the creation of “Palestine.”
They said they viewed the unilateral Gaza withdrawal as a positive step.
US Secretary of State Colin Powell brushed off the plan’s rejection by the ruling Likud Party, and pointed to Sharon’s declared intention to “move forward with evacuations.”
The sweetener offered Israel for leaving Gaza posthaste:The creation of a new terror-combating Palestinian Authority alongside the Gaza retreat.
It was the same, as yet unfulfilled, promise made repeatedly since 1993.
Irrelevant referendum
“Six million Israelis and three million Palestinians are being held hostage by fifty thousand settlers that don’t want to leave Gaza or the West Bank,” said Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Moritanos Tuesday in response to Sunday’s Likud referendum.
The heads of the Middle East Quartet – comprising the US, EU, UN and Russia - did their best to free those “hostages” when they met in New York later in the day.
Brushing off the referendum results as a mere “setback,” Powell pointed out to reporters following the meeting that Sharon is still determined to “move forward” with the evacuation of Jewish communities in Gaza and Samaria.
UN Secretary General Kofi Annan said Sharon’s retreat plan offered a unique opportunity to restart the battered Road Map “peace” process, and that the international community was standing at the ready to supervise the Jews’ uprooting from Gaza.
Opponents of the disengagement plan have vowed to remove Sharon from power if he did not honor the results of the referendum.
What’s in it for Israel?
The Quartet offered to compensate Israel for relinquishing part of its biblical patrimony by overseeing the creation of a new Palestinian Authority dedicated to combating terror.
It was the same, as yet unfulfilled, offer made repeatedly since 1993.
While the Quartet chiefs focused heavily on Israeli settlements and the fact that under the Road Map they would all be removed, they said little regarding the “Palestinian” terror plaguing Israelis and the fact the PA has refused for more than a decade to curb it.
PA’s feigned ‘outrage’
Meanwhile, PA “Foreign Minister” Nabil Sha’ath accused Israel of attempting to force the “Palestinians” out of the peace process by formulating unilateral plans.
But the “Palestinians” outrage over Sharon’s plan to quit Gaza is all an act, said Palestinian Media Watch Director Itamar Marcus in a radio interview with Arutz 7.
Marcus cited several senior “Palestinians,” from PA officials to Hamas terror chiefs, praising Sharon’s intended retreat as a direct result of their terrorist campaign against the Jewish state.
"Israel's retreat from Gaza and from several settlements in the West Bank are the most important accomplishment of the intifada," said Yasser Arafat-confidante Mohammed Dahlan in a quote carried by the PA-controlled Al Quds daily newspaper on February 20.