Prime Minister Sharon, your stated goal was to achieve "peace and security" for Israel. You said nothing about "retreat."



Your announcement of a unilateral dismantling and withdrawal of seventeen Jewish communities in the Gaza Strip will be a retreat and will offer, at best, a specter of peace and security. In time ? and a short time at that ? it will prove to be a defeat and will encourage even more terrorism.



Ever since the rebirth of the Jewish State, Arab governments and religious leaders have encouraged genocide against Israel and Jews in general. If there are any unilateral concessions to be made, they should be the unilateral re-programming of the Arab world.



Israel has made enough one-sided goodwill gestures and concessions. For starters, not expelling enemy Arabs after one-sided victories in 1948-9 and 1967. Even agreeing to negotiate with the murderous PLO and agreeing to the Oslo "Peace" Accords were concessions.



Sucking up to Yasser Arafat after nearly 1,400 Jews were murdered by that same PLO or their supporters was another concession.



Agreeing to an American-sponsored "Road Map" was yet another.



But national suicide should never be a concession, and neither should a cowardly retreat from Gaza.



Gaza has for some time been free-falling into complete anarchy. Hamas now has a firm foothold and even the PLO dare not attempt to dislodge it. Part of that clever 1993 Rabin-Peres-Beilin Oslo peace plan was to bring in Arafat and his PLO thugs, call them the "Palestinian Authority," arm them to the teeth and then send them into Gaza to do what the IDF should have done.



It backfired and so the Three Stooges looked the other way and took the appeasement route.



And now you, Arik, have made it a foursome.



This may seem an odd thing to say but I wish Israel had leaders with the same steadfast, idealistic pride and commitment as do those of Hamas. True, Hamas is a despicable pack of murderous thugs, but they say what they mean and do what they say. They do not compromise with their enemies. They don't appease their enemies. They don't put up with traitors who side with their enemies.



And so, when Muhammad Mahdi Othman Akef recently declared in the Arab media: "Resistance in Iraq and Palestine is legitimate and martyrdom operations [suicide bombing] are a religious obligation in Iraq and Palestine," he meant it.



And when he added, "America is Satan and will soon collapse; Islam will invade America and Europe," he meant that as well.



But when you, Mr. Prime Minister, say that you will bring peace and security, you brought instead more fresh graves, more concessions, more miles of security fences, and now you speak of the destruction of seventeen brave Jewish communities.



Hamas talks victory; you talk retreat.



There are some obvious lessons to be learned here, Mr. Prime Minister. Are you going to be an attentive student or are you one of those with Attention Deficit Disorder?



Hamas has declared war on Israel. The PLO, Islamic Jihad, Fatah, Al-Aqsa Brigades and most Palestinian "policemen" have declared war on Israel. Teenagers and women have strapped on explosive belts and declared war on Israel. Six year-old kindergarten kids have declared war on Israel. In fact, 75-85% of all so-called "Palestinians" have declared war on Israel.



Even the dogs and cats roaming Jenin have declared war on Israel!



In all their hearts, minds and fists, the war against the Jews is already on. So, Mr. Prime Minister, where is your heart? Where is your mind? And whatever happened to your fists?



Israel has not seen a day pass when there was no threat along her borders. Even victory after victory did not assure long-term peace with her Arab neighbors. Now those enemies and those borders are within the heart of the heart of Israel.



Concession after concession, truce after truce, conference after conference, deal after broken deal, treaty after broken treaty, murder after murder and Israel has absolutely nothing to show for it. Never has so much been risked, and so many innocent Jewish lives sacrificed, without a single worthwhile result.



If anything, things are far worse. And now, we retreat from Gaza.



So you want to leave your mark on the history of modern-day Israel, do you, Mr. Prime Minister? You want to change from "The Bulldozer" to "Mahatma Gandhi?" Well then, resign and go to India. The Children of Israel elected Arik Sharon, the Warrior; the hard-fisted leader of Unit 101 who went into Gaza and brought more "peace and security" to Israel.



They did not elect a begging Jew in a choke collar at the end of George Bush's leash. If you cannot act like a proud Jew, then step aside before Israel is chopped up like some unclaimed body on a porcelain slab.