MK Benny Elon (National Union-Yisrael Beiteinu) told Arutz-7 today that the ultimatum his party issued Prime Minister Sharon earlier this week against a Peres-Arafat meeting is very much in force. Party leaders made it clear that they would not remain in the government coalition if Peres gets to meet with the PLO leader.
\"It\'s not just a technical question of whether there\'s a meeting or not,\" Elon said. \"Sharon has to be a leader - there cannot be two leaders and two voices, as Rashi taught us in last week\'s Torah portion. It cannot be that we miss the entire momentum of the \'new world order\' because Peres embroils us with Colin Powell and tries to run a contrasting policy. This type of unity government is not unity; we don\'t need this...\" Elon continued,
\"The problem is that there is no leadership; Sharon is not taking advantage of the situation, and instead the terrorists here are continuing to kill us... If Peres and Arafat meet, our ultimatum is very much in effect, in my opinion... It\'s very awkward for me to be threatening Sharon; I don\'t want him to be scared of our threats - I want him to lead. The truth is, I don\'t understand what he is afraid of; even if Labor leaves the government, the National Religious Party and Gesher will join, giving him over 70 seats [out of 120]. I am in favor of unity - but not this type of unity, where the Foreign Minister undermines the government\'s policy. Enough. There comes a time when a leader should sense that a moment comes that if he misses the opportunity to lead, he will slip and fall.\"
Ma\'ariv editorialized today that the time might have come to consider disbanding the present national unity government, since it \"makes the formulation of a single, clear political line difficult and creates the global impression that Israel speaks with two voices... The fact that the Foreign Minister serves as Yasser Arafat\'s chief defense attorney… and idly dismisses all of the intelligence assessments which hold that the PA Chairman is \'only playing around\' is not new - but since Peres began his obsessive pursuit of a meeting with Arafat, the disagreement within the government has taken on the dimensions of a crazy farce that is occasionally halted by a shooting attack.\"
\"It\'s not just a technical question of whether there\'s a meeting or not,\" Elon said. \"Sharon has to be a leader - there cannot be two leaders and two voices, as Rashi taught us in last week\'s Torah portion. It cannot be that we miss the entire momentum of the \'new world order\' because Peres embroils us with Colin Powell and tries to run a contrasting policy. This type of unity government is not unity; we don\'t need this...\" Elon continued,
\"The problem is that there is no leadership; Sharon is not taking advantage of the situation, and instead the terrorists here are continuing to kill us... If Peres and Arafat meet, our ultimatum is very much in effect, in my opinion... It\'s very awkward for me to be threatening Sharon; I don\'t want him to be scared of our threats - I want him to lead. The truth is, I don\'t understand what he is afraid of; even if Labor leaves the government, the National Religious Party and Gesher will join, giving him over 70 seats [out of 120]. I am in favor of unity - but not this type of unity, where the Foreign Minister undermines the government\'s policy. Enough. There comes a time when a leader should sense that a moment comes that if he misses the opportunity to lead, he will slip and fall.\"
Ma\'ariv editorialized today that the time might have come to consider disbanding the present national unity government, since it \"makes the formulation of a single, clear political line difficult and creates the global impression that Israel speaks with two voices... The fact that the Foreign Minister serves as Yasser Arafat\'s chief defense attorney… and idly dismisses all of the intelligence assessments which hold that the PA Chairman is \'only playing around\' is not new - but since Peres began his obsessive pursuit of a meeting with Arafat, the disagreement within the government has taken on the dimensions of a crazy farce that is occasionally halted by a shooting attack.\"