'Shas, Yisrael Beiteinu Endanger Israel by Remaining in Gov't'
'Shas, Yisrael Beiteinu Endanger Israel by Remaining in Gov't'

Columnist Caroline Glick states that the Shas and Yisrael Beiteinu parties are placing Israel's very existence in jeopardy and are leading to war by refusing to quit the government now.

In her columns of late last week in Makor Rishon and the Jerusalem Post, Glick wrote that she views the upcoming Mideast summit as a critically dangerous juncture for Israel in which Prime Minister Olmert will discuss splitting Jerusalem, giving up Judea and Samaria, and enabling the establishment of an armed Palestinian state. Olmert's very ability to conduct negotiations on these issues is enabled, she writes, by "the preference of Shas and Yisrael Beiteinu for empty rhetoric over action."

Shas leader Eli Yishai had a chance last week to make perfectly clear to visiting U.S. Secretary of State Rice that Olmert could never hope to make such concessions and remain with a whole government.  However, all he said was something along the lines of, "If the summit leads to an agreement, the government might fall."  Rice was clearly not impressed, and continued to prepare for the summit as if Israel's consent was in the bag.

Yisrael Beiteinu leader Avigdor Lieberman is even more supportive of Olmert's policies. He announced his support for Israel's departure from Arab neighborhoods around Jerusalem.  "But then this week," Glick writes, "Lieberman suddenly remembered that he has voters to consider. And so on Sunday, he announced that he opposes Olmert's attempt to reach an agreement regarding [the division of Jerusalem]."  Here, again, this did not give Rice cause to believe that her efforts might actually lead to the end of the Olmert government - and so she proceeded onward.

Glick writes, "Yishai and Lieberman talk because they don't want to take the only step open to them if they truly wish to prevent damage to the country. That step, of course, is resignation from the Olmert government and support for new elections. And Olmert knows this. It is because he understands their ardent desire to remain in office that Olmert feels he runs no political risk by negotiating away Israel's survivability to Abbas. Yishai's and Lieberman's vacuous pronouncements enable Olmert to move forward toward national capitulation."

"Additionally, their empty declarations of opposition to Olmert's moves lull the public into complacency. They make us believe that they are curbing Olmert's urge to capitulate and so mitigating the dangers to the state. But as Olmert's repeated statements regarding the partition of Jerusalem make clear, as long as they are inside the government they exert no influence over him.  Even if Yishai and Lieberman resign in the aftermath of the conference at Annapolis, their move will come too late to make a difference. The damage to Israel's security will already have been wrought."

Failure Followed by Jihad

The dangers of the Annapolis conference are clear and present, Glick explains:

"We know with near absolute certainty that the conference will end in failure because there is no offer that Israel can make that Abbas can accept. Abbas, who doesn't even control his own Fatah terrorists - let alone Hamas and Islamic Jihad - has no real support among Palestinians...  Statements by both Hamas and Fatah leaders over the past several weeks also make clear what will happen after the summit collapses. As was the case after the failure of the Camp David peace conference in July 2000, in the aftermath of the Annapolis conference, Fatah and Hamas will reunite and the Palestinians will open a new round of jihad against Israel. And in light of Egypt's open and stalwart backing of Hamas, and given Hamas's subservience to Iran, it is impossible to assume that the coming war will be limited to the Palestinian arena."



An initiative is underway to send email to the Shas and Yisrael Beiteinu Knesset Members on this issue.  Their addresses appear on the Knesset website and include:

Shas leader Trade Minister Eli Yishai

Shas MK Nissim Ze'ev of Jerusalem 

Yisrael Beiteinu leader Avigdor Lieberman of the Yesha (Judea and Samaria) community of Tekoa

Yisrael Beiteinu MK Esterina Tartman, a resident of Hadasha, a Yesha community north of Jeruslem

Yisrael Beiteinu MK David Rotem of Efrat, fax number: 02-6496506 (from abroad: +9722-6496506)