One of the most dangerous men for the survival of Israel as a democratic Jewish State is one of its erstwhile Jewish heroes, Ariel Sharon.
After many attacks by the Arab terrorists against the Jews in Gaza during the current Oslo War, Sharon decided on a brutal assault of his own -- but against his own people, the Jews:
"I have given an order to plan for the evacuation of 17 settlements in the Gaza Strip," Sharon said in an interview with the Israeli Ha'aretz newspaper, "It is my intention to carry out an evacuation - sorry, a relocation - of settlements," he said. "I am working on the assumption that in the future there will be no Jews in Gaza."
If this happened anywhere else in the world, were any government to declare its intention to expel Jews, and only Jews, from their homes, this will be denounced as rampant anti-Semitism and racism. And all this is to take place not in a country like Nazi Germany, but in the Land promised by G-d as an everlasting inheritance to the Jews.
Ariel Sharon is caving in to Arab terror and joining forces to realize the fondest dreams of the Arabs, namely to drive the Jewish People out of their Promised Land, regained by a miracle of Biblical proportions. Ironically, Sharon's initial focus is on Gaza, which the Bible tells us was apportioned to the Tribe of Judah (Joshua 15:47 and Judges 1:18) as part of its eternal patrimony.
Make no mistake about this, Sharon's planned transfer of Gaza's Jews is just the beginning of the dismantling of Israel. In the Jerusalem Post, we read that Ehud Olmert, Sharon's Vice-Premier, is announcing a plan for the division of Jerusalem as well. By the way, four Jewish communities in Biblical Samaria are also already on the chopping block as part of Sharon's "Unilateral Disengagement Plan".
Simply put, what does Sharon's Unilateral Disengagement Plan entail? To abandon 7,500 Jews, who have built their communities in Gaza, with the encouragement of all Israeli governments, and specifically with the encouragement of then-General Ariel Sharon. Ariel Sharon was the head of the Southern Front Command, which included Gaza, between December 1969 and February 1972.
Sharon had called for a referendum of all Likud members on his Unilateral Disengagement Plan. The vote went heavily against him - 39.7% for and 59.5% against (a 19.8% difference).
However, Sharon continued pushing his plan in the cabinet, declaring that insignificant cosmetic changes - such as altering the plan's title - were sufficient to comply with the referendum results. In so doing, he made a mockery of the referendum, his prior public pledge to honor the results, and, most importantly, the democratic process.
Sharon managed to pass his Unilateral Disengagement Plan in the Cabinet by firing those of his ministers who had pledged to vote against his plan, and by letting other ministers know that they were expendable if they disagreed with him.
In order to understand Sharon's 180-degree turn with regard to the Jews reestablishing their communities in Biblical Gaza, Samaria and Judea, it is essential to read Chapter 18 of his autobiography, Warrior.
In this book, Ariel Sharon describes his anti-terrorist effort:
"I recommended the establishment of several Jewish settlements, Jewish 'fingers', as I call them, to divide the Gaza district. I wanted one between Gaza and Deir el Balah, one between Deir el Balah and Khan Yunis, one between Khan Yunis and Rafah, and another west of Rafah - all of them built, like the Judean and Samarian settlements, on state-owned land. ...In addition, it was essential to create a Jewish buffer zone between Gaza and the Sinai to cut off the flow of smuggled weapons and - looking forward to a future settlement with Egypt - to divide the two regions." (Page 258, Warrior)
"At the same time we succeeded in maintaining the calm that we had worked so hard to achieve. The settlements we built cut off the flow of weapons from Sinai, and we also devised a way of preventing the infiltration of arms into Gaza by sea." (Page 261)
"Until the Yom Kippur war I used to think that the Gaza anti-terror campaign was one of the most significant chapters in my military experience. Certainly it was the most interesting. ...Above all, it proved, to me at least, that terrorism was neither inevitable nor unresolvable, that a population upon whom the worst horrors were being visited could be freed from the hold of PLO organizations that look on terror as their standard tool of policy." (Page 262)
Also in Chapter 18, Sharon speaks about how the United States asked Israel to mobilize its forces to prevent a Syrian attack on Jordan. King Hussein of Jordan was fighting for his life against the PLO, which had established itself in the very heart of his country (as it was to do in Lebanon later) and was progressively undermining his ability to govern. Yasser Arafat's people made several attempts to assassinate the king. On the morning of September 20th, Syrian tank columns invaded Jordan.
These events did not take place in a vacuum. Hussein's attack on the Palestinians and the growing tension between Jordan and Syria had already triggered a series of moves and countermoves by the American government - which maintained close ties with Hussein - and the Soviets - whose clients included the Syrians and the threatened PLO. The Israeli army and air force now became crucial to American policy. Hussein's survival was at stake and only Israeli forces were positioned to meaningfully threaten the Syrian tank army that had quickly overrun much of northern Jordan. On September 21, the United States asked Israel to mobilize her forces. This we did. Aware that their bluff had been called and unwilling to risk direct confrontation, the Syrians began to pull back. By the 23rd of the month, the last Syrian tank was gone from Jordan.
Two days later, Henry Kissinger sent a note of thanks to the Israeli government: "According to the latest available information, the forces which invaded Jordan have withdrawn to Syria. We believe that the steps Israel took have contributed measurably to that withdrawal. We appreciate the prompt and positive Israeli response to our approach."
Now, I quote Sharon's own words: "The resolution of this crisis was considered a success by the Americans and the Jordanians. Most Israelis were also pleased with the outcome. But I was not one of them. Prior to our decision to mobilize, Israel's options had been closely analyzed by General Headquarters. While most of the senior officers favored complying with the American request, a minority, including myself, believed that Israel should not interfere with events in Jordan.
"In my view, Israel was facing two separate dangers, one immediate, one long-term. The immediate danger was that if the Syrians were allowed to defeat Hussein's army, Jordan would become a Palestinian state. In point of fact, Jordan already was a Palestinian state in everything but name. Originally Palestine had included Jordan. The two had only been separated in 1922 by the British, who gave what was then known as Transjordan to their allies, the Hashemite royal family from Saudi Arabia. In 1970, 70 to 80 percent of Jordan's population was Palestinian; its leading political and cultural figures were Palestinian; most of its parliament was Palestinian; its most prominent cabinet members were Palestinian; many of its prime ministers had been Palestinian. If the PLO unseated Hussein, Jordan would formally become a Palestinian political entity.
"I needed no instruction on the dangers a Palestinian state of Jordan could pose. On the other hand, as I said to the general staff, we were also facing a long term danger. And this danger was that the Palestinian issue would weigh heavier and heavier over our heads as the years went by. Though in the short term it might appear that the first danger was more serious, in the long run it was the Palestinian issue that would be our true bane. We should not doubt that for a moment. These clouds would only grow thicker and thicker. So if it had now become possible to resolve the most crucial of these Palestinian problems, through the formal creation of a Palestinian state in Jordan, that is the direction I believed we should move in.
"I did not undervalue in the least the arguments on the opposite side, arguments that had to do not just with the Palestinian issue but also with a weighty matter of our relationship with the United States. but Israel's foreign policy needs were matters of survival, whereas in this case America's needs were those of geopolitical advantage. From this perspective, I had not the least uncertainty about which should take precedence. As a result, I argued as hard as I could against Israeli intervention in Jordan. Dayan was also against it. But the majority felt differently, and in the end events took the course they did. Even today I believe this was one of Israel's most crucial mistakes, one whose evil consequences we are continuing to suffer."
This was the Sharon we all loved, admired and, most of all, trusted. Today's Sharon asks approval for Israel's policies, first of all with the American President, and even with some European leaders, before he bothers to enlighten his own Cabinet, his own Knesset and his own Jewish people. He has truly become a lackey of foreign powers, instead of fighting for the interests of his own people. This new Sharon has nothing to offer us but despair, anguish and retreat, unilaterally and under fire.
The Jewish people desperately need someone like American President Ronald Reagan, of blessed memory, who just passed away. We need someone who will stand up to the world, who will stand up to our enemies, someone with love for his people, with pride in his country and faith in Israel's G-d-given right to the Holy Land.
I do not want to speculate on the reasons why Sharon has changed in such a drastic manner. Many Israelis feel that he is a desperate man resorting to desperate measures, one who is putting his own personal interest ahead of the country in a transparent attempt to deflect attention away from his entanglements with the law.
The Jews must unseat Sharon, before he "unseats" the Jews. It is urgent to send Sharon back to his sheep farm and to topple his government forthwith. We will not be led like sheep to the slaughter again.
Whatever Sharon's past accomplishments, he is no longer fit to serve as leader of the Jewish State and the Jewish People.
After many attacks by the Arab terrorists against the Jews in Gaza during the current Oslo War, Sharon decided on a brutal assault of his own -- but against his own people, the Jews:
"I have given an order to plan for the evacuation of 17 settlements in the Gaza Strip," Sharon said in an interview with the Israeli Ha'aretz newspaper, "It is my intention to carry out an evacuation - sorry, a relocation - of settlements," he said. "I am working on the assumption that in the future there will be no Jews in Gaza."
If this happened anywhere else in the world, were any government to declare its intention to expel Jews, and only Jews, from their homes, this will be denounced as rampant anti-Semitism and racism. And all this is to take place not in a country like Nazi Germany, but in the Land promised by G-d as an everlasting inheritance to the Jews.
Ariel Sharon is caving in to Arab terror and joining forces to realize the fondest dreams of the Arabs, namely to drive the Jewish People out of their Promised Land, regained by a miracle of Biblical proportions. Ironically, Sharon's initial focus is on Gaza, which the Bible tells us was apportioned to the Tribe of Judah (Joshua 15:47 and Judges 1:18) as part of its eternal patrimony.
Make no mistake about this, Sharon's planned transfer of Gaza's Jews is just the beginning of the dismantling of Israel. In the Jerusalem Post, we read that Ehud Olmert, Sharon's Vice-Premier, is announcing a plan for the division of Jerusalem as well. By the way, four Jewish communities in Biblical Samaria are also already on the chopping block as part of Sharon's "Unilateral Disengagement Plan".
Simply put, what does Sharon's Unilateral Disengagement Plan entail? To abandon 7,500 Jews, who have built their communities in Gaza, with the encouragement of all Israeli governments, and specifically with the encouragement of then-General Ariel Sharon. Ariel Sharon was the head of the Southern Front Command, which included Gaza, between December 1969 and February 1972.
Sharon had called for a referendum of all Likud members on his Unilateral Disengagement Plan. The vote went heavily against him - 39.7% for and 59.5% against (a 19.8% difference).
However, Sharon continued pushing his plan in the cabinet, declaring that insignificant cosmetic changes - such as altering the plan's title - were sufficient to comply with the referendum results. In so doing, he made a mockery of the referendum, his prior public pledge to honor the results, and, most importantly, the democratic process.
Sharon managed to pass his Unilateral Disengagement Plan in the Cabinet by firing those of his ministers who had pledged to vote against his plan, and by letting other ministers know that they were expendable if they disagreed with him.
In order to understand Sharon's 180-degree turn with regard to the Jews reestablishing their communities in Biblical Gaza, Samaria and Judea, it is essential to read Chapter 18 of his autobiography, Warrior.
In this book, Ariel Sharon describes his anti-terrorist effort:
"I recommended the establishment of several Jewish settlements, Jewish 'fingers', as I call them, to divide the Gaza district. I wanted one between Gaza and Deir el Balah, one between Deir el Balah and Khan Yunis, one between Khan Yunis and Rafah, and another west of Rafah - all of them built, like the Judean and Samarian settlements, on state-owned land. ...In addition, it was essential to create a Jewish buffer zone between Gaza and the Sinai to cut off the flow of smuggled weapons and - looking forward to a future settlement with Egypt - to divide the two regions." (Page 258, Warrior)
"At the same time we succeeded in maintaining the calm that we had worked so hard to achieve. The settlements we built cut off the flow of weapons from Sinai, and we also devised a way of preventing the infiltration of arms into Gaza by sea." (Page 261)
"Until the Yom Kippur war I used to think that the Gaza anti-terror campaign was one of the most significant chapters in my military experience. Certainly it was the most interesting. ...Above all, it proved, to me at least, that terrorism was neither inevitable nor unresolvable, that a population upon whom the worst horrors were being visited could be freed from the hold of PLO organizations that look on terror as their standard tool of policy." (Page 262)
Also in Chapter 18, Sharon speaks about how the United States asked Israel to mobilize its forces to prevent a Syrian attack on Jordan. King Hussein of Jordan was fighting for his life against the PLO, which had established itself in the very heart of his country (as it was to do in Lebanon later) and was progressively undermining his ability to govern. Yasser Arafat's people made several attempts to assassinate the king. On the morning of September 20th, Syrian tank columns invaded Jordan.
These events did not take place in a vacuum. Hussein's attack on the Palestinians and the growing tension between Jordan and Syria had already triggered a series of moves and countermoves by the American government - which maintained close ties with Hussein - and the Soviets - whose clients included the Syrians and the threatened PLO. The Israeli army and air force now became crucial to American policy. Hussein's survival was at stake and only Israeli forces were positioned to meaningfully threaten the Syrian tank army that had quickly overrun much of northern Jordan. On September 21, the United States asked Israel to mobilize her forces. This we did. Aware that their bluff had been called and unwilling to risk direct confrontation, the Syrians began to pull back. By the 23rd of the month, the last Syrian tank was gone from Jordan.
Two days later, Henry Kissinger sent a note of thanks to the Israeli government: "According to the latest available information, the forces which invaded Jordan have withdrawn to Syria. We believe that the steps Israel took have contributed measurably to that withdrawal. We appreciate the prompt and positive Israeli response to our approach."
Now, I quote Sharon's own words: "The resolution of this crisis was considered a success by the Americans and the Jordanians. Most Israelis were also pleased with the outcome. But I was not one of them. Prior to our decision to mobilize, Israel's options had been closely analyzed by General Headquarters. While most of the senior officers favored complying with the American request, a minority, including myself, believed that Israel should not interfere with events in Jordan.
"In my view, Israel was facing two separate dangers, one immediate, one long-term. The immediate danger was that if the Syrians were allowed to defeat Hussein's army, Jordan would become a Palestinian state. In point of fact, Jordan already was a Palestinian state in everything but name. Originally Palestine had included Jordan. The two had only been separated in 1922 by the British, who gave what was then known as Transjordan to their allies, the Hashemite royal family from Saudi Arabia. In 1970, 70 to 80 percent of Jordan's population was Palestinian; its leading political and cultural figures were Palestinian; most of its parliament was Palestinian; its most prominent cabinet members were Palestinian; many of its prime ministers had been Palestinian. If the PLO unseated Hussein, Jordan would formally become a Palestinian political entity.
"I needed no instruction on the dangers a Palestinian state of Jordan could pose. On the other hand, as I said to the general staff, we were also facing a long term danger. And this danger was that the Palestinian issue would weigh heavier and heavier over our heads as the years went by. Though in the short term it might appear that the first danger was more serious, in the long run it was the Palestinian issue that would be our true bane. We should not doubt that for a moment. These clouds would only grow thicker and thicker. So if it had now become possible to resolve the most crucial of these Palestinian problems, through the formal creation of a Palestinian state in Jordan, that is the direction I believed we should move in.
"I did not undervalue in the least the arguments on the opposite side, arguments that had to do not just with the Palestinian issue but also with a weighty matter of our relationship with the United States. but Israel's foreign policy needs were matters of survival, whereas in this case America's needs were those of geopolitical advantage. From this perspective, I had not the least uncertainty about which should take precedence. As a result, I argued as hard as I could against Israeli intervention in Jordan. Dayan was also against it. But the majority felt differently, and in the end events took the course they did. Even today I believe this was one of Israel's most crucial mistakes, one whose evil consequences we are continuing to suffer."
This was the Sharon we all loved, admired and, most of all, trusted. Today's Sharon asks approval for Israel's policies, first of all with the American President, and even with some European leaders, before he bothers to enlighten his own Cabinet, his own Knesset and his own Jewish people. He has truly become a lackey of foreign powers, instead of fighting for the interests of his own people. This new Sharon has nothing to offer us but despair, anguish and retreat, unilaterally and under fire.
The Jewish people desperately need someone like American President Ronald Reagan, of blessed memory, who just passed away. We need someone who will stand up to the world, who will stand up to our enemies, someone with love for his people, with pride in his country and faith in Israel's G-d-given right to the Holy Land.
I do not want to speculate on the reasons why Sharon has changed in such a drastic manner. Many Israelis feel that he is a desperate man resorting to desperate measures, one who is putting his own personal interest ahead of the country in a transparent attempt to deflect attention away from his entanglements with the law.
The Jews must unseat Sharon, before he "unseats" the Jews. It is urgent to send Sharon back to his sheep farm and to topple his government forthwith. We will not be led like sheep to the slaughter again.
Whatever Sharon's past accomplishments, he is no longer fit to serve as leader of the Jewish State and the Jewish People.