Tuesday, Palestinian suicide bombers struck, shortly before 3:00pm, setting off explosions on two buses in the southern Israeli city of Beer Sheva, which killed at least 16 and wounded more than 100. Of the wounded, 16 were children. Twelve people died immediately at the scene, and four others died while being treated, including a three-year-old boy.



The same morning, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon presented to the Likud Knesset members a rushed-up disengagement timetable to implement his plan to uproot the Jewish residents of Gaza and northern Samaria and to withdraw all Israeli presence, even though his plan has not as yet been voted upon by the Knesset. His so-called "majority" (11-9) in the Cabinet only came about because he fired two ministers who were adamantly opposed to disengagement just 48 hours before the Cabinet vote.



Immediately after the tragic attack in Beer Sheva, Sharon said that "there is no connection between this and the Disengagement Plan. This attack will not derail the Disengagement Plan."



On the other hand, Member of Knesset Tzvi Hendel (National Union Party) said: "The Prime Minister has a responsibility that is not insignificant, for this bloodshed. His obsession with evacuation is aiding the terrorists in killing more and more Jews."



Minister Zevulun Orlev (National Religious Party) said: "Disengagement is exploding in our faces. Instead of the army investing energy in evacuation, it should be putting its effort into fighting terror."



The majority of Israelis have no doubt that there is a connection between Tuesday's tragic attack and Sharon's Disengagement Plan. Neither do the Arabs have any doubt. They have learned that terror is the most effective tool in their plan to eliminate the Jewish State.



Hundreds of Arabs in Judea, Samaria and Gaza celebrated the double suicide bombings, marching in the streets, opening fire into the air and shouting "Allahu Akbar!" ("God is great.") Sweets were handed out to the crowd as a sign of jubilation. Yasser Arafat told the celebrants in the town of Solfit, "We will march towards Jerusalem, we will sacrifice millions of martyrs. Jerusalem is the capital of the state of Palestine."



We often hear that Israel is the only democracy in the Middle East. However, Ariel Sharon's dictatorial maneuvering has revealed to us how easily Israel's democracy can be breached.



200,000 people participating in the Human Chain from Gush Katif to the Western Wall proved that the great majority of the Israeli electorate is opposed to Sharon's Disengagement Plan. His own Likud Party has handed him two important and severe defeats on his unilateral Disengagement Plan from Gaza. The first one was the Likud referendum, May 2, 2004, which Sharon had promised to honor, but which he subsequently ignored, even though the Likud members' vote went against him by a margin of 19.5%. The second stinging defeat was a vote by the Likud Convention against the Disengagement Plan two weeks ago, on August 18, 2004.



But Sharon marches ahead, seemingly oblivious to anything that blocks his way towards the implementation of his plans. Defeats within his own party are mere distractions to be ignored. Papa Sharon knows what it best for Israel.



It is important to understand that under present Israeli law, no one in the last election was able to cast a vote for Sharon, but only for the Likud Party. The Likud Party is certainly against unilateral withdrawal. That was the centerpiece of Labor's policy under Amram Mitzna, who was soundly defeated. And, of course, the Likud Party's platform is against the creation of a Palestinian state.



Thus, Sharon has no mandate. The mandate conferred by the election victory belongs to the Likud Party, not to Ariel Sharon.



The Sharon who campaigned before the elections that he was going to protect the Israeli people from Arab terror is not the same Sharon who is now planning to transfer Jews from their homes. Sharon has done a 180-degree turn and has made the platform of the Left his new religion. What is Sharon's unilateral Disengagement Plan but an exact replica of Labor's platform in the last election - the leftist platform that was so overwhelmingly rejected by the Israeli people?



Sharon's policy now is a continuation of Oslo, only worse. I am quoting here from a few articles that Sharon wrote when he was a Likud Knesset Member, while Yitzchak Rabin was the Prime Minister of Israel. Especially interesting, in the present circumstances, is his article "Deaf to the Voice of the People".



The Jewish Press, August 11, 1995 - "The Dangers of Cooperation" by Ariel Sharon:



"As a soldier and commander who has fought in every one of Israel's wars in the most desperate and fateful battles and campaigns, I say that a General Staff which fights Jewish women and children whose safety has been abandoned by the government? and which cooperates with its worst extremes against part of its own people, can no longer win. It will not be capable of standing up to the real foes, should it have to."



Jerusalem Post, August 18, 1995 - "Amazing Role Reversal" by Ariel Sharon:



"True, the IDF hasn't yet withdrawn. But this can change within a short time; and we must prepare for it, in case these communities are abandoned by the government? the Jewish towns and villages in Judea, Samaria and Gaza are the last line of defense before the armistice lines of 1949.



"To help the Jewish residents across the Green Line doesn't mean forming an underground or an armed militia. It means defending and preserving life. Nothing could be more legal, moral, honorable or right."



Jerusalem Post, November 17, 1995 - "Pain Must Not Obscure Judgment" by Ariel Sharon:



"The settlers aren't 'a cancer in the body politic' as the left has called them? Even three percent of the population is entitled to protection. Their settlements were set up by every government of Israel. They are citizens and tax payers; they all serve in the IDF; some serve in the most elite combat units?"



The Yesha Report, No. 33, August, 1995 - "Deaf to the Voice of the People" by Ariel Sharon:



"Government ministers, public figures and columnists have abandoned all affairs of state and are busying themselves with one issue: the danger of isolation facing the Jewish residents of Yesha if they continue in their struggle against the government? What are they worried about? Or perhaps this just goes to show how taken by surprise they are by their own loss of touch with the sensibilities of extensive sectors of the general public. They haven't grasped what is actually going on, in the grass roots, and now it has finally dawned on them. History has witnessed, time and time again, how callous and alienated governments have, slowly but surely, crumbled. It has happened to many tyrants in the past."



There's no doubt that Sharon has become completely "deaf to the voice of the people." He keeps repeating, at every opportunity, "I will do whatever I have to do. They [the Likud Party] will not tie my hands. The Disengagement Plan will be carried out, period." Deputy Minister Michael Ratzon, one of the leaders of the anti-withdrawal camp in the Likud, disagrees with Sharon's attitude. Ratzon told his fellow Likud members, "I heard the Prime Minister say that nothing will stop him - and I say to him: the majority will stop you. The Likud has a majority against the disengagement."



I pray that not only the majority of the Likud Party, but the majority of the Jewish People, will rise up and stop Sharon from executing his evil plans of transferring Jews from their homes, built on the Land promised them by G-d as an everlasting inheritance.