Yesha Council leaders who met with Prime Minister Ariel Sharon last night left unsatisfied. Sharon rejected claims that the government has been conducting ongoing negotiations with the Palestinian Authority despite the continuing violence, and said that the perception of Peres\' influence on government policy is exaggerated.
To the Yesha members\' claim that Sharon was essentially rehabilitating Arafat and the Oslo conception, he reacted angrily, saying, \"We have been pursuing Arafat for 30 years, and we continue to do so. I don\'t trust him.\" Several times during the course of the meeting, Sharon told them that if they want, they should \"go ahead and topple the government.\"
Council spokesman Yehoshua Mor-Yosef later summed up the participants\' frustration when he said, \"We reached the sad conclusion that Sharon adheres to the Palestinian state idea, albeit with certain restrictions, which is very dangerous, and that he also is sticking with Peres. He doesn\'t understand that by making an agreement with Arafat to leave Abu Sneineh means the revival of the Oslo conception.\"
Prime Minister Sharon outlined future diplomatic policy, mentioning in this regard the Mitchell and Tenet documents that specify seven days of absolute quiet, six weeks of calm, and three months of confidence-building steps. He emphasized that no stage would begin without the full implementation of the preceding stage. He did not convince his listeners, however; they plan to organize protests throughout the nation regarding the deteriorating security situation, and a major rally is planned for Jerusalem for this Monday night.
Following are excerpts from a transcript of the meeting, as received by Arutz-7:
Yesha Council Member: The significance of withdrawing from Abu Sneineh and the Haret A-Sheikh hills [in Hevron] is the revival of the Oslo conception and of Yasser Arafat. You are relying on Arafat and entrusting the security of the Jews of Hevron in his hands.
Prime Minister Sharon: I am not relying on Arafat. For 30 years… The Oslo process will not be revived, it is dead.
YCM: You say that Arafat is our Bin Laden, but then you send Peres to meet with him. If Arafat is a terrorist, why do you make deals with him? Why do you declare that you will give him a state, which is a danger to Yesha and to Israel? By continuing to talk with him, you grant him international legitimacy. This policy is what enabled the meeting between Tony Blair and Arafat, and will lead to a meeting with Colin Powell.
PMS: Just because I call Arafat Bin Laden doesn\'t convince the world. [Regarding the announcement in favor of a Palestinian state], I will fix it. I should have noted its limitations, such as it being disarmed, without the division of Jerusalem, etc.
YCM: You are dependent on Shimon Peres, and are conducting secret talks with the PA via him… We can\'t defend ourselves as long as Peres is Foreign Minister. The government policy is his. You can reach your goals only if you fire him.
PMS: There are no negotiations.
YCM: There are.
PMS: There are not. You attribute to Peres power that he does not have. I am not in his hands, nor do I want to be in the hands of Yvette [Lieberman] and Gandhi [Ze\'evi].
YCM: The gestures, the easing of restrictions on the Palestinians that Peres initiated endanger our security.
PMS: The security demands that Peres made on Arafat no one on the right ever thought of. I receive updates from the IDF commanders in the field, and it\'s OK… The army can act in three ways: Immediate reaction to any event - in this framework the army has an unlimited range of action; IDF-initiated actions such as in Abu-Sneineh and Haret A-Sheikh; and preventative actions such as the Hamas militant who was killed yesterday by special police forces… We decided not to carry out long-lasting actions, which complicate us internationally.
YCM: You don\'t know the situation on the ground. They don\'t tell you. There is no improvement in the security situation, and the easings you decided on yesterday clearly endanger the residents.
Sharon at this point admits that the army is a little \"heavy,\" and instructs his military secretary to look into this matter.
In response to the Yesha request that Jewish worshippers be allowed onto the Temple Mount, Sharon said, \"It is not convenient or correct to cause a fight now around the Temple Mount. The Temple Mount will never be given over. My government will never divide Jerusalem, and the Palestinians will never again act out of the Orient House. Neither will I give them [outlying Jerusalem neighborhoods] Abu Dis or Isawiya [that Barak promised them].
MK Moshe Arens later told Arutz-7:
\"I think that if we fight the war of terrorism only in individual points, we won\'t win. We must defeat terrorism in a comprehensive manner, such as not trusting Jibril Rajoub, and not relying on Arafat for the security of Israeli citizens; we must rather defeat terrorism altogether… Most of the Likud does not support this policy of restraint. The party convened recently and gave Sharon a clear message to this effect, and it could be that we must do so again in a larger forum.\"
To the Yesha members\' claim that Sharon was essentially rehabilitating Arafat and the Oslo conception, he reacted angrily, saying, \"We have been pursuing Arafat for 30 years, and we continue to do so. I don\'t trust him.\" Several times during the course of the meeting, Sharon told them that if they want, they should \"go ahead and topple the government.\"
Council spokesman Yehoshua Mor-Yosef later summed up the participants\' frustration when he said, \"We reached the sad conclusion that Sharon adheres to the Palestinian state idea, albeit with certain restrictions, which is very dangerous, and that he also is sticking with Peres. He doesn\'t understand that by making an agreement with Arafat to leave Abu Sneineh means the revival of the Oslo conception.\"
Prime Minister Sharon outlined future diplomatic policy, mentioning in this regard the Mitchell and Tenet documents that specify seven days of absolute quiet, six weeks of calm, and three months of confidence-building steps. He emphasized that no stage would begin without the full implementation of the preceding stage. He did not convince his listeners, however; they plan to organize protests throughout the nation regarding the deteriorating security situation, and a major rally is planned for Jerusalem for this Monday night.
Following are excerpts from a transcript of the meeting, as received by Arutz-7:
Yesha Council Member: The significance of withdrawing from Abu Sneineh and the Haret A-Sheikh hills [in Hevron] is the revival of the Oslo conception and of Yasser Arafat. You are relying on Arafat and entrusting the security of the Jews of Hevron in his hands.
Prime Minister Sharon: I am not relying on Arafat. For 30 years… The Oslo process will not be revived, it is dead.
YCM: You say that Arafat is our Bin Laden, but then you send Peres to meet with him. If Arafat is a terrorist, why do you make deals with him? Why do you declare that you will give him a state, which is a danger to Yesha and to Israel? By continuing to talk with him, you grant him international legitimacy. This policy is what enabled the meeting between Tony Blair and Arafat, and will lead to a meeting with Colin Powell.
PMS: Just because I call Arafat Bin Laden doesn\'t convince the world. [Regarding the announcement in favor of a Palestinian state], I will fix it. I should have noted its limitations, such as it being disarmed, without the division of Jerusalem, etc.
YCM: You are dependent on Shimon Peres, and are conducting secret talks with the PA via him… We can\'t defend ourselves as long as Peres is Foreign Minister. The government policy is his. You can reach your goals only if you fire him.
PMS: There are no negotiations.
YCM: There are.
PMS: There are not. You attribute to Peres power that he does not have. I am not in his hands, nor do I want to be in the hands of Yvette [Lieberman] and Gandhi [Ze\'evi].
YCM: The gestures, the easing of restrictions on the Palestinians that Peres initiated endanger our security.
PMS: The security demands that Peres made on Arafat no one on the right ever thought of. I receive updates from the IDF commanders in the field, and it\'s OK… The army can act in three ways: Immediate reaction to any event - in this framework the army has an unlimited range of action; IDF-initiated actions such as in Abu-Sneineh and Haret A-Sheikh; and preventative actions such as the Hamas militant who was killed yesterday by special police forces… We decided not to carry out long-lasting actions, which complicate us internationally.
YCM: You don\'t know the situation on the ground. They don\'t tell you. There is no improvement in the security situation, and the easings you decided on yesterday clearly endanger the residents.
Sharon at this point admits that the army is a little \"heavy,\" and instructs his military secretary to look into this matter.
In response to the Yesha request that Jewish worshippers be allowed onto the Temple Mount, Sharon said, \"It is not convenient or correct to cause a fight now around the Temple Mount. The Temple Mount will never be given over. My government will never divide Jerusalem, and the Palestinians will never again act out of the Orient House. Neither will I give them [outlying Jerusalem neighborhoods] Abu Dis or Isawiya [that Barak promised them].
MK Moshe Arens later told Arutz-7:
\"I think that if we fight the war of terrorism only in individual points, we won\'t win. We must defeat terrorism in a comprehensive manner, such as not trusting Jibril Rajoub, and not relying on Arafat for the security of Israeli citizens; we must rather defeat terrorism altogether… Most of the Likud does not support this policy of restraint. The party convened recently and gave Sharon a clear message to this effect, and it could be that we must do so again in a larger forum.\"