By Jerusalem Newswire Editorial Staff
May 10, 2004
Following the defeat of his “disengagement” plan in last week’s Likud referendum, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon needs to formulate a completely new course of action regarding the “Palestinians,” said senior Likud ministers.
Simply revamping the defeated plan to evacuate all Jews from the Gaza Strip is not good enough, Finance Minister Binyamin Netanyahu told Sharon Sunday.
Netanyahu and chief Likud disengagement opponent Uzi Landau urged Sharon to honor the results of the referendum and drop unilateral withdrawal from his agenda.
Netanyahu said Sharon should put together his new plan in full consultation with all his ministers – something he refused to do with the Gaza retreat plan.
Sharon, for his part, told the cabinet he would do just that, and cancelled his upcoming trip to Washington in order to work on a new blueprint. He said a new plan would be presented within three weeks.
Netanyahu rejected the timeframe, saying a fully new policy would take much longer to prepare.
‘New’ plan, no trip
During the Sunday cabinet meeting, Sharon held a limited discussion on his defeated “disengagement” plan with his top ministers.
He promised to revise the plan and present it anew within three weeks.
But this time around Sharon said he would formulate the plan in close consultation with his ministers, and cancelled his upcoming trip to Washington to allow time for meetings.
The prime minister, who believes Israel must make some kind of unilateral move, faces the daunting task of creating a plan acceptable to both his Likud colleagues – most of who reject any kind of concessions to the “Palestinians” – and the Shinui Party – which demanded Sharon push forward the “diplomatic” process.
‘Drop unilateral withdrawal’
Netanyahu urged Sharon to honor the results of last Sunday’s Likud referendum, and formulate a completely new course of action regarding the conflict with the “Palestinians.”
"The Likud's decision obligates all Likud members, including the prime minister as he himself has said," Netanyahu told the cabinet.
The finance minister said Likud members “are prepared to make large sacrifices for peace, but they are not willing to do so during these times of intense terror attacks, and they are not willing to make deals that they are not sure will be actualized."
An official close to Netanyahu told The Jerusalem Post that Likud members rejected Sharon’s plan “because of the principle involved,” and that as such “cosmetic changes” to the same plan would not be sufficient.
Netanyahu also rejected the notion that Sharon’s “new” plan could be put together within three weeks.
“A diplomatic plan is not a pair of socks that you change every day or so. The prime minister came up with this current plan over a long period of time, therefore there is a need to allow time to come up with the next plan,” he said.
Minister-without-Portfolio Uzi Landau further articulated Netanyahu’s comments by insisting Sharon drop the idea of unilaterally uprooting the Jews of Gaza from his agenda.
After Netanyahu reluctantly endorsed Sharon’s plan last month, Landau led the Likud’s anti-Gaza withdrawal camp.
Mofaz:Gaza is not ours
But according to Defense Minister Sha’ul Mofaz, the Gaza Strip does not belong to the Jewish people anyway, and is a liability for Israel.
“The Gaza Strip is not the land of our forefathers,” Mofaz told a gathering of Likud members in Eilat Sunday.
The entire area known today as the Gaza Strip was in fact given to the Tribe of Judah following the Exodus from Egypt, and contained a thriving Jewish community up until the widespread massacres of Jews by their Muslim neighbors in 1929.
“The decision to establish settlements inside the Gaza Strip was an historical mistake. They are not on the map of interests of the State of Israel,” Mofaz went on to say.
And whether or not Israel succeeds in making peace with the “Palestinians,” the Jewish settlers in Gaza “will not be there in five years.”
Deputy Minister Zvi Hendel Monday accused Mofaz of encouraging terrorism while Jews are continuing to be murdered by the Palestinian Arabs.
Smokescreen?
Meanwhile, chief Yasser Arafat-advisor Jibril Rajoub indicated all the talk of formulating a new plan in response to the Likud referendum might be nothing more than a smokescreen by Sharon and his supporters.
Rajoub told the Arabic daily A-Shark-Al-Awsat this week that Israel, Egypt and the US are holding ongoing talks about the implementation of Sharon’s Gaza withdrawal.