Defense Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer, anxious to get his "Gaza First" plan off the ground, is now willing to discuss an IDF withdrawal from Hevron and Bethlehem as well. Ben-Eliezer was to meet today with top PA officials, including Muhammad Dahlan - who, as head of the Gaza security services, planned and facilitated the school bus attack outside Kfar Darom in which two teachers were killed and several children were maimed - on the matter. The new proposal stipulates that the PA assume security control in the above areas immediately following the IDF's withdrawal. Prime Minister Sharon has given his blessing to the plan, although just a few days ago he expressed his strong objections to a withdrawal from Bethlehem.
In another apparent turn-around, Prime Minister Sharon has agreed, contrary to his earlier pronouncements, to discuss changes in the proposed 2003 budget with his Labor party coalition partners. He said last night that his only condition is that the framework of the budget - which calls for a cut of several billion shekels - be maintained. Sharon has said that if the budget is not passed, he will declare early elections - which could be held as early as February 2003.
Arutz-7 spoke today with Uri Dan, a long-time friend and confidante of Prime Minister Sharon. Asked whether Sharon was being inconsistent in both his approach to budget changes and to the "Gaza First" plan, Dan dismissed the first claim by saying that the Prime Minister has been "consistent all along, and everything else is just a matter for journalists and commentators to write about and then to write the opposite..." Regarding the second matter, he said, "I have not heard Sharon say that he is in favor of withdrawing from Bethlehem. He is adhering to his principles of fighting terrorism and of fighting the PA that he recently called a 'gang of crime and terror...'"
When Arutz-7's Ariel Kahane asked him why Sharon is negotiating with Muhammad Dahlan, the man who oversaw the terrorist murder of two teachers and maiming of several children in Kfar Darom, Dan said,
"Have you heard of the verse, 'By deception you should make war?' Engrave it on your heart. This is a very cruel war, that of cleaning out all the weapons that Yossi Beilin allowed in here at the beginning of the Oslo process is a very weighty job... Listen clearly to what I am saying: The only one who is able to run this war on behalf of the Jews, their future, and their security - better than anyone else - is Ariel Sharon. He has proven this over these past difficult months, with the war in and for our homes."
"But we are trying to learn how exactly he will do this, and you're not exactly answering," Kahane probed. Dan:
"Because I think that this is not a matter for discussions on the radio. Everyone with eyes in his head can see that if Sharon had not acted this way, we would have had not 600 painful deaths, but 6,000. Note the accomplishments of this war against terrorism. Note how Pres. Bush stood by Israel's side when he called for a change of PA leadership, and note how Sharon prevented a deterioration into the regional war that Arafat was hoping for, with international intervention, and note how he preserved national unity during this difficult time..."
Kahane: "But it looks like he is planning to waste these accomplishments by doing things like talking with Dahlan...?"
Dan: "Have you seen him talking to Dahlan?"
Kahane: "No, but he sent his Defense Minister Ben-Eliezer to talk with him."
Dan: "So then wait and see. Wait and see. Look, we don't live from newspaper headlines. What's nice about our country is that the good things here usually happen despite and against the headlines..."
In another apparent turn-around, Prime Minister Sharon has agreed, contrary to his earlier pronouncements, to discuss changes in the proposed 2003 budget with his Labor party coalition partners. He said last night that his only condition is that the framework of the budget - which calls for a cut of several billion shekels - be maintained. Sharon has said that if the budget is not passed, he will declare early elections - which could be held as early as February 2003.
Arutz-7 spoke today with Uri Dan, a long-time friend and confidante of Prime Minister Sharon. Asked whether Sharon was being inconsistent in both his approach to budget changes and to the "Gaza First" plan, Dan dismissed the first claim by saying that the Prime Minister has been "consistent all along, and everything else is just a matter for journalists and commentators to write about and then to write the opposite..." Regarding the second matter, he said, "I have not heard Sharon say that he is in favor of withdrawing from Bethlehem. He is adhering to his principles of fighting terrorism and of fighting the PA that he recently called a 'gang of crime and terror...'"
When Arutz-7's Ariel Kahane asked him why Sharon is negotiating with Muhammad Dahlan, the man who oversaw the terrorist murder of two teachers and maiming of several children in Kfar Darom, Dan said,
"Have you heard of the verse, 'By deception you should make war?' Engrave it on your heart. This is a very cruel war, that of cleaning out all the weapons that Yossi Beilin allowed in here at the beginning of the Oslo process is a very weighty job... Listen clearly to what I am saying: The only one who is able to run this war on behalf of the Jews, their future, and their security - better than anyone else - is Ariel Sharon. He has proven this over these past difficult months, with the war in and for our homes."
"But we are trying to learn how exactly he will do this, and you're not exactly answering," Kahane probed. Dan:
"Because I think that this is not a matter for discussions on the radio. Everyone with eyes in his head can see that if Sharon had not acted this way, we would have had not 600 painful deaths, but 6,000. Note the accomplishments of this war against terrorism. Note how Pres. Bush stood by Israel's side when he called for a change of PA leadership, and note how Sharon prevented a deterioration into the regional war that Arafat was hoping for, with international intervention, and note how he preserved national unity during this difficult time..."
Kahane: "But it looks like he is planning to waste these accomplishments by doing things like talking with Dahlan...?"
Dan: "Have you seen him talking to Dahlan?"
Kahane: "No, but he sent his Defense Minister Ben-Eliezer to talk with him."
Dan: "So then wait and see. Wait and see. Look, we don't live from newspaper headlines. What's nice about our country is that the good things here usually happen despite and against the headlines..."