Israel’s High Court yesterday was the scene of an unintentionally revealing admission by a representative of Ariel Sharon’s government.

The Court convened to examine the issue of whether the 30 synagogues still standing in Gaza should be destroyed, as Sharon would like to do, despite opposition by Israel’s Chief Rabbis and other prominent people.

During the hearing, Chief Justice Aharon Barak asked the state attorney why no agreement was reached with the Palestinians regarding the need to protect the synagogues, to which the state representative replied:

“Even if the Palestinian Authority would take it on itself (to guard the synagogues), it couldn’t live up to such a commitment”.

Hmmmm. Now that’s an interesting argument, if only because it points to the utter absurdity of the Government’s position. For while Sharon is willing to admit that the Palestinians are incapable of protecting synagogues in Gaza – he was only too happy to turn over the entire Strip to Palestinian control in the hopes that they will control rocket attacks against Israel.

Logical? Hardly. If the Palestinians can not be relied upon to live up to their word, then why on earth was Sharon willing to hand them more territory?

And if they can not be trusted to respect the right of a Jewish house of worship to exist in their midst, then why does anyone think they will ever truly respect the right of a Jewish state to do so?

The government’s follies grow stranger by the day.