Thank you, Ariel Sharon, for your Gaza Disengagement Plan. Due to your willingness to call for "transferring" the Gazan Jewish community - i.e., expelling Jews from a part of their historic homeland - an estimated 70-100,000 people (120-150,000 including those stuck in traffic or turned away by the police) came to Gush Katif in Gaza on Israeli Independence Day, to show their support for the Gazan Jews and to register their opposition to your plan. It brought the largest Jewish presence to Gaza in modern times. More Israelis are interested in seeing Gaza today, and connecting to the communities there, than ever before.
Thank you, Ministers Ehud Olmert, Tzipi Livne, Silvan Shalom and others from the Likud; and thank you Shinui Party Ministers Yosef Lapid, Avraham Poraz and Avraham Paritzky for helping also.
So as not to "discriminate" against the opposition politicians in Israel: thank you members of Knesset Shimon Peres, Dalia Itzik, Avraham Burg, Matan Vilnai, etc. from the Labor Party; and let's not forget MKs Zahava Gal-On, Yossi Sarid and those from Yahad (formerly Meretz), who just as graciously helped the Gazan Jewish community by threatening its very existence.
I'd also like to thank all those in the Israeli electronic and print media who have jumped on the "disengagement bandwagon" to promote an ethnic cleansing campaign in Israel. In particular, I'd like to thank the trinity of Larry Derfner from the Jerusalem Post and Haaretz's Akiva Eldar and Amira Hass for their constant prattle against "settlers," and their support for Prime Minister Sharon's expulsion plan.
Finally, I'd like to thank Chief Justice Aharon Barak and the Israeli Supreme Court. If it would uphold the Sharon government's Gaza plan to expropriate the property of Israeli citizens - with or without compensation - and expel them from their homes, the Court would be setting an important legal precedent for the future.
All these supporters of Sharon's Disengagement Plan believe it is for the best interests of the State of Israel and that it is for national security.
Why, might you ask, do I thank all these people?
Plain and simple. Because it has dawned on me that, as good, democratically minded citizens of the State of Israel, if they support "ethnic cleansing" of Jews from Gaza today, tomorrow their support can be counted on if a future Israeli government comes to power that wants to remove Israeli Arabs and the so-called Palestinians from the historic Land of Israel, for the best interests of the State of Israel and its national security.
Since I assume that none of these fair-minded people mentioned above would contemplate treating Jews in a different and inferior way to how they would treat Arabs, I assume that none of these fine Israeli citizens planning to "ethnically cleanse" their fellow citizens from Gaza would discriminate against people just because they are Jews. Thoughts of calling them racist, Nazi, Judeo-path or anti-Semite might cross one's mind, if it were true that they only support the expulsion of "settlers" - i.e., Jews - from parts of Israel. But since I'm convinced that's not the case, one needn't worry.
No, these fine citizens, from Sharon, Netanyahu and Olmert to Peres and his Labor colleagues on down, have opened the Pandora's Box of "ethnic cleansing," never to be shut again.
In the future - I believe not so distant - a Jewish leader can rest assured of the political support of these people to carry out a "transfer" policy against "enemies" that threaten the lives and welfare of Israel's Jewish population. Based on legal precedent, such policy will demand the support of those who earlier worked to expel Jews from Gaza. If they won't want to be accused of being racists, Nazis, Judeo-paths or anti-Semites, they will have to support such a policy.
Then again, they can admit the truth -- and be prosecuted by that future Israeli government.
Thank you, Ariel Sharon.
Thank you, Ministers Ehud Olmert, Tzipi Livne, Silvan Shalom and others from the Likud; and thank you Shinui Party Ministers Yosef Lapid, Avraham Poraz and Avraham Paritzky for helping also.
So as not to "discriminate" against the opposition politicians in Israel: thank you members of Knesset Shimon Peres, Dalia Itzik, Avraham Burg, Matan Vilnai, etc. from the Labor Party; and let's not forget MKs Zahava Gal-On, Yossi Sarid and those from Yahad (formerly Meretz), who just as graciously helped the Gazan Jewish community by threatening its very existence.
I'd also like to thank all those in the Israeli electronic and print media who have jumped on the "disengagement bandwagon" to promote an ethnic cleansing campaign in Israel. In particular, I'd like to thank the trinity of Larry Derfner from the Jerusalem Post and Haaretz's Akiva Eldar and Amira Hass for their constant prattle against "settlers," and their support for Prime Minister Sharon's expulsion plan.
Finally, I'd like to thank Chief Justice Aharon Barak and the Israeli Supreme Court. If it would uphold the Sharon government's Gaza plan to expropriate the property of Israeli citizens - with or without compensation - and expel them from their homes, the Court would be setting an important legal precedent for the future.
All these supporters of Sharon's Disengagement Plan believe it is for the best interests of the State of Israel and that it is for national security.
Why, might you ask, do I thank all these people?
Plain and simple. Because it has dawned on me that, as good, democratically minded citizens of the State of Israel, if they support "ethnic cleansing" of Jews from Gaza today, tomorrow their support can be counted on if a future Israeli government comes to power that wants to remove Israeli Arabs and the so-called Palestinians from the historic Land of Israel, for the best interests of the State of Israel and its national security.
Since I assume that none of these fair-minded people mentioned above would contemplate treating Jews in a different and inferior way to how they would treat Arabs, I assume that none of these fine Israeli citizens planning to "ethnically cleanse" their fellow citizens from Gaza would discriminate against people just because they are Jews. Thoughts of calling them racist, Nazi, Judeo-path or anti-Semite might cross one's mind, if it were true that they only support the expulsion of "settlers" - i.e., Jews - from parts of Israel. But since I'm convinced that's not the case, one needn't worry.
No, these fine citizens, from Sharon, Netanyahu and Olmert to Peres and his Labor colleagues on down, have opened the Pandora's Box of "ethnic cleansing," never to be shut again.
In the future - I believe not so distant - a Jewish leader can rest assured of the political support of these people to carry out a "transfer" policy against "enemies" that threaten the lives and welfare of Israel's Jewish population. Based on legal precedent, such policy will demand the support of those who earlier worked to expel Jews from Gaza. If they won't want to be accused of being racists, Nazis, Judeo-paths or anti-Semites, they will have to support such a policy.
Then again, they can admit the truth -- and be prosecuted by that future Israeli government.
Thank you, Ariel Sharon.