By Jerusalem Newswire Editorial Staff
May 16, 2004
Ignoring the lessons of the failed “Oslo” peace process, over 100,000 Israeli leftists gathered in Tel Aviv’s Rabin Square Saturday to insist the government of Ariel Sharon evacuate all Jews from the Gaza Strip and restart negotiations with Yasser Arafat’s PLO.
The event’s keynote speaker, opposition leader Shimon Peres, claimed “80 percent” of the Israeli public agreed with the demonstrators’ demands.
But what most Israelis want is “peace and security, not running away in defeat like they preached at the rally,” Likud MK Ehud Yatom said Sunday.
The Likud’s rejection of the idea of unilateral withdrawal notwithstanding, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon plans to present a slightly modified Gaza pullout plan for government approval in two weeks.
Leftist rally
Up to 150,000 Israeli leftists gathered in Tel Aviv’s Rabin Square Saturday to demand the government of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon go forward with his plan to unilaterally uproot the Gaza Jewish community and restart negotiations with the terror-supporting Palestinian Authority.
While the Left has latched on to Sharon’s pullout plan, it has been unreceptive to military assessments that evacuating Gaza under fire would provide terrorism with a victory, and lead to increased efforts by the “Palestinians” to murder Israeli Jews.
And despite ever mounting evidence of the PA’s direct involvement in anti-Israel terror, the rally’s participants called on Sharon to immediately restart negotiations with Yasser Arafat and his underlings.
It was the political left’s belief that it could strike a peace accord with Arafat and his PLO ten years ago that led to the disastrous “Oslo” peace process and the terrorist murder of more than 1,300 Israeli Jews since then.
Representing public will?
Opposition leader Shimon Peres, the rally’s keynote speaker, claimed “80 percent” of the Israeli public agreed with the demonstrators.
Claiming to represent the public will based on the number of participants appeared somewhat dubious, however, considering that a recent rally in favor of maintaining the Jewish presence in Gaza garnered similar numbers.
Last month more than 70,000 Israelis gathered in solidarity with the residents of southern Gaza’s Katif Bloc of Jewish communities.
Police cut that demonstration short after the number of participants far exceeded expectations.
Had the tens of thousands of Israelis still en route to that event been permitted to reach their destination, organizers estimated the Katif rally would have included 120,000 participants.
Israel’s wants security, not retreat
Responding to Saturday’s left-wing rally, Likud MK Ehud Yatom indicated those responsible for the demonstration were out of touch with what the public really wanted.
“The nation wants peace and security, not running away in defeat like they preached at the rally,” Ma’ariv quoted Yatom as saying.
Yatom and other criticized the rally’s organizers for holding the event only days after 13 IDF soldiers were killed battling “Palestinian” terrorist in Gaza.
They accused the Left of capitalizing on the soldiers’ deaths.
Irrelevant referendum
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon is determined to continue pushing his Gaza pullout plan until he gains government approval for it, according to sources in his bureau.
Sharon will present a slightly modified “disengagement” plan in two weeks, after his original plan was rejected in a May 2 Likud referendum, the sources told Ma’ariv.
According to the report, the “modified” plan is almost identical to its predecessor, and includes the evacuation of all Jewish settlements in the Gaza Strip.
The primary difference is a planned security arrangement with Egypt in order to keep Gaza under control.