Last Monday, September 26, the Likud Central Committee members voted on the exact date of the upcoming primary. They were to decide if it should be moved forward to November, as Binyamin Netanyahu and Uzi Landau desired, or remain in April, as the Sharon camp favored. It was a very close vote. The camp led by Ariel Sharon received 1,443 votes and the opposition received 1,329 votes. Thus, 51.3 percent voted for Sharon's proposal to keep the April date in place.
Ariel Sharon ballyhooed this as a tremendous victory. The headline in the Jerusalem Post of Tuesday, July 27, states: "Sharon Sees Likud Win As Vindication Of His Policies; Says he will no longer accept rebellious behavior."
"Vindication of His Policies"?
Hardly! He won by a margin of 104 votes, which amounted to 51.3 percent of the votes cast. An article in Ha'aretz, entitled "Who will Remember Sharon" by Israel Harel, states: "The inevitable process of his disengagement from his political home has begun; and Sharon's victory in the Likud Central Committee will only prolong the agony of this departure. And despite his being a known lover of homes (even his home in the Old City of Jerusalem, which he hasn't visited in recent years, he still keeps, or more accurately, the Border Policemen at the taxpayers' expense do)."
So, how come Sharon won - even by only a margin of 1.3 percent? The Ha'aretz article explains it as follows: "Activists from the orange camp, who in the days leading up to the vote visited Likud Central Committee members, are not surprised by the results. Nearly two-thirds of those they met, they report, object to the path where Ariel Sharon is leading the Likud. However, only some of them said they would vote against him, as indeed was the case. Among the explanations: heavy pressure, primarily in matters relating to livelihood; Sharon's departure would result in a loss of power."
Many Likud Central Committee members presently enjoy political patronage under the current Sharon regime, and they want to continue enjoying it as long as possible.
Sharon received 104 more votes then the Binyamin Netanyahu and Uzi Landau camp. The Jerusalem Post, of the same date as the Ha'aretz article, gives examples of a number of irregularities during voting. For example, one woman came to vote in her election district, but somebody had already voted in her name. In that same election district there were 100 people registered and, lo and behold, 105 persons had cast their vote before she arrived.
Above all, it must be remembered that the Likud Central Committee does not necessarily represent the opinions of the membership of the Likud. On May 2, 2004, in a membership referendum, the Disengagement Plan was defeated by a whopping 20%. Ariel Sharon totally ignored this vote, even though he had pledged to honor same.
"Sharon Says He Will No Longer Accept Rebellious Behavior
Silly us. We thought that Israel was a democracy. And in a democracy, the prime minister has to contend with conflicting opinions. "Rebellious behavior" is only an appropriate phrase in dictatorships.
Has Sharon's Disengagement Plan, the expulsion of all the Jews form Gaza, the leveling of all the homes, schools, farms and religious institutions, improved Israel's security position? Has the Arab desecration and burning of synagogues quenched the desire of the Arabs to destroy the Jewish people? Has all this brought an improvement in Israel's situation, as the prime minister promised us?
The opposite is true. The situation in Israel has worsened considerably.
The Kassam rockets are still falling on Sderot and other communities within the Green Line. As a matter of fact, there are now more rockets falling on Israeli targets then before the Disengagement.
Thousands of Arabs streamed into Egypt after the last Jew was forced to leave his home. According to Shin Bet data, 300 rifles, 1.5 million bullets, 150-200 rocket-propelled grenades and hundreds of kilograms of explosives have been smuggled into Gaza so far. Unconfirmed reports state that shoulder-fired Strella and Stinger missiles and advanced anti-tank rockets were also smuggled into the Gaza Strip.
Terrorism has increased considerably in what is left of Israel after abandoning Gush Katif. You will not find this information publicized by the leftist Israeli media on television, radio or newspapers, but my friends who live in communities in Judea and Samaria tell me that rocks are again being thrown at them when they drive on the roads. The Arabs also prepare ambushes for Israeli cars on the highways. Tragedies are just waiting to happen. Terror has moved, as promised by Mahmoud Abbas, Fatah, Hamas, Islamic Jihad, Hizbullah and others, from Gaza to the rest of Israel.
Terror has also intensified in Jerusalem since the Disengagement. Hamas is engaging in a new tactic, the kidnapping and murder of Jews. A fifty-year-old Jewish Jerusalem resident was kidnapped and murdered by Hamas. It is believed that his long-time Arab employees were accomplices in the kidnapping. Hamas released a video of the bound and blind-folded Jewish factory owner pleading for his life. This video was broadcast world-wide. This is certainly reminiscent of the many kidnappings, tortures and murders of innocent civilians in Iraq.
Previously, the valiant Gush Katif settlers took the brunt of Arab hatred. Sharon's "unilateral disengagement" (land for nothing) has brought the enemy closer to the entire Israeli population.
We should not be surprised that Sharon has effectively changed the frontline of terror. The Arabs kept telling the world that the Jews were forced to leave Gaza because of the persistent Arab terror campaign, and that they were planning to liberate all of "Palestine". Sharon taught them that "terror works', and that an increase in terror leads to even better results.
As the graffiti written on the ruins of Jewish Gush Katif homes reads, "10 years of Oslo: Nothing. Five years of terror: Victory."
Ariel Sharon, you can't afford to be too happy about your victory of 1.3 percent.
To quote from the Ha'aretz article (and Ha'aretz is certainly not a right-wing paper): "...his days as the leader of the Likud are numbered and consequently, his days as a national leader are also numbered.... The camp that remembers and that rent its clothes and swore on the ruins of Gush Katif to remember and never forget, to remember and not forgive, will remember. Ariel Sharon will go down in infamy."
A song by American country singer Willie Nelson keeps reverberating in my head: "The party's over." The lyrics of this song fit the current political situation to a T.
Dear friends, do not despair. It's not over until the fat man sings. In the near future, with G-d's help, Sharon will be singing, "The Party's Over".
Ariel Sharon ballyhooed this as a tremendous victory. The headline in the Jerusalem Post of Tuesday, July 27, states: "Sharon Sees Likud Win As Vindication Of His Policies; Says he will no longer accept rebellious behavior."
"Vindication of His Policies"?
Hardly! He won by a margin of 104 votes, which amounted to 51.3 percent of the votes cast. An article in Ha'aretz, entitled "Who will Remember Sharon" by Israel Harel, states: "The inevitable process of his disengagement from his political home has begun; and Sharon's victory in the Likud Central Committee will only prolong the agony of this departure. And despite his being a known lover of homes (even his home in the Old City of Jerusalem, which he hasn't visited in recent years, he still keeps, or more accurately, the Border Policemen at the taxpayers' expense do)."
So, how come Sharon won - even by only a margin of 1.3 percent? The Ha'aretz article explains it as follows: "Activists from the orange camp, who in the days leading up to the vote visited Likud Central Committee members, are not surprised by the results. Nearly two-thirds of those they met, they report, object to the path where Ariel Sharon is leading the Likud. However, only some of them said they would vote against him, as indeed was the case. Among the explanations: heavy pressure, primarily in matters relating to livelihood; Sharon's departure would result in a loss of power."
Many Likud Central Committee members presently enjoy political patronage under the current Sharon regime, and they want to continue enjoying it as long as possible.
Sharon received 104 more votes then the Binyamin Netanyahu and Uzi Landau camp. The Jerusalem Post, of the same date as the Ha'aretz article, gives examples of a number of irregularities during voting. For example, one woman came to vote in her election district, but somebody had already voted in her name. In that same election district there were 100 people registered and, lo and behold, 105 persons had cast their vote before she arrived.
Above all, it must be remembered that the Likud Central Committee does not necessarily represent the opinions of the membership of the Likud. On May 2, 2004, in a membership referendum, the Disengagement Plan was defeated by a whopping 20%. Ariel Sharon totally ignored this vote, even though he had pledged to honor same.
"Sharon Says He Will No Longer Accept Rebellious Behavior
Silly us. We thought that Israel was a democracy. And in a democracy, the prime minister has to contend with conflicting opinions. "Rebellious behavior" is only an appropriate phrase in dictatorships.
Has Sharon's Disengagement Plan, the expulsion of all the Jews form Gaza, the leveling of all the homes, schools, farms and religious institutions, improved Israel's security position? Has the Arab desecration and burning of synagogues quenched the desire of the Arabs to destroy the Jewish people? Has all this brought an improvement in Israel's situation, as the prime minister promised us?
The opposite is true. The situation in Israel has worsened considerably.
The Kassam rockets are still falling on Sderot and other communities within the Green Line. As a matter of fact, there are now more rockets falling on Israeli targets then before the Disengagement.
Thousands of Arabs streamed into Egypt after the last Jew was forced to leave his home. According to Shin Bet data, 300 rifles, 1.5 million bullets, 150-200 rocket-propelled grenades and hundreds of kilograms of explosives have been smuggled into Gaza so far. Unconfirmed reports state that shoulder-fired Strella and Stinger missiles and advanced anti-tank rockets were also smuggled into the Gaza Strip.
Terrorism has increased considerably in what is left of Israel after abandoning Gush Katif. You will not find this information publicized by the leftist Israeli media on television, radio or newspapers, but my friends who live in communities in Judea and Samaria tell me that rocks are again being thrown at them when they drive on the roads. The Arabs also prepare ambushes for Israeli cars on the highways. Tragedies are just waiting to happen. Terror has moved, as promised by Mahmoud Abbas, Fatah, Hamas, Islamic Jihad, Hizbullah and others, from Gaza to the rest of Israel.
Terror has also intensified in Jerusalem since the Disengagement. Hamas is engaging in a new tactic, the kidnapping and murder of Jews. A fifty-year-old Jewish Jerusalem resident was kidnapped and murdered by Hamas. It is believed that his long-time Arab employees were accomplices in the kidnapping. Hamas released a video of the bound and blind-folded Jewish factory owner pleading for his life. This video was broadcast world-wide. This is certainly reminiscent of the many kidnappings, tortures and murders of innocent civilians in Iraq.
Previously, the valiant Gush Katif settlers took the brunt of Arab hatred. Sharon's "unilateral disengagement" (land for nothing) has brought the enemy closer to the entire Israeli population.
We should not be surprised that Sharon has effectively changed the frontline of terror. The Arabs kept telling the world that the Jews were forced to leave Gaza because of the persistent Arab terror campaign, and that they were planning to liberate all of "Palestine". Sharon taught them that "terror works', and that an increase in terror leads to even better results.
As the graffiti written on the ruins of Jewish Gush Katif homes reads, "10 years of Oslo: Nothing. Five years of terror: Victory."
Ariel Sharon, you can't afford to be too happy about your victory of 1.3 percent.
To quote from the Ha'aretz article (and Ha'aretz is certainly not a right-wing paper): "...his days as the leader of the Likud are numbered and consequently, his days as a national leader are also numbered.... The camp that remembers and that rent its clothes and swore on the ruins of Gush Katif to remember and never forget, to remember and not forgive, will remember. Ariel Sharon will go down in infamy."
A song by American country singer Willie Nelson keeps reverberating in my head: "The party's over." The lyrics of this song fit the current political situation to a T.
Dear friends, do not despair. It's not over until the fat man sings. In the near future, with G-d's help, Sharon will be singing, "The Party's Over".