Like a child playing "Red Light, Green Light, 1-2-3," Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has taken another small step forward in his drive to make way for a Palestinian state in Yesha (Judea, Samaria, and Gaza) before his electorate notices.
Sharon told Ha'aretz reporter Ari Shavit today that he would agree to remove some Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria as part of a comprehensive peace arrangement with the Palestinian Authority. Though he himself is considered one of the main architects of the Jewish settlement enterprise in these parts of the traditional Jewish homeland, Sharon said that under certain circumstances, "I would definitely say that we will have to take steps that are painful for every Jew and painful for me personally... [W]e are talking about the cradle of the Jewish people. Our whole history is bound up with these places. Bethlehem, Shilo, Beit El. And I know that we will have to part with some of these places. There will be a parting from places that are connected to the whole course of our history. As a Jew, this agonizes me. But I have decided to make every effort to reach a settlement. I feel that the rational necessity to reach a settlement is overcoming my feelings."
Sharon made it contingent upon real peace: "If we reach a situation of true peace, real peace, peace for generations, we will have to make painful concessions. Not in exchange for promises, but rather in exchange for peace."
Sharon has thus backtracked from definitive statements he made to the contrary only two years ago. "No Jewish community will be uprooted in Judea, Samaria and Gaza, period," he told Arutz-7 at the time. "In any arrangement, the communities will have to remain in our hands."
Shilo and Beit El are two of the oldest and most established Jewish communities in Yesha. Both were established 25 years ago; Beit El has a population of some 6,000, and Shilo, though smaller, features one of the sites of the Biblical Tabernacle.
Palestinian Authority spokesman Saeb Erekat reacted with disdain to Sharon's remarks, calling them "public relations tactics." As if the PA's war of terrorism against Israelis had not brought the diplomatic process to a grinding halt two and a half years ago, Erekat said that what the PA demands from Israel are "deeds, not hollow words."
Sharon's chief of staff, Dov Weisglass, is in Washington to discuss Israeli reservations about the Road Map plan that calls for a temporary PA state as early as this year. Sharon told Ha'aretz that Israel's "14 or 15 reservations" deal with security, the timing of the stages of the plan - whether they will be implemented only one after the other (as Israel demands) or simultaneously - and the Arabs' demand for the "right of return." This '"right" includes the Arabs who left Israel in 1948; together with their descendants, they number in the millions. Sharon made it clear that without resolving this last issue, an "end to the conflict" cannot be declared - implying that a peace agreement could still be reached, as was the case with Egypt and Jordan.
Sharon told Ha'aretz reporter Ari Shavit today that he would agree to remove some Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria as part of a comprehensive peace arrangement with the Palestinian Authority. Though he himself is considered one of the main architects of the Jewish settlement enterprise in these parts of the traditional Jewish homeland, Sharon said that under certain circumstances, "I would definitely say that we will have to take steps that are painful for every Jew and painful for me personally... [W]e are talking about the cradle of the Jewish people. Our whole history is bound up with these places. Bethlehem, Shilo, Beit El. And I know that we will have to part with some of these places. There will be a parting from places that are connected to the whole course of our history. As a Jew, this agonizes me. But I have decided to make every effort to reach a settlement. I feel that the rational necessity to reach a settlement is overcoming my feelings."
Sharon made it contingent upon real peace: "If we reach a situation of true peace, real peace, peace for generations, we will have to make painful concessions. Not in exchange for promises, but rather in exchange for peace."
Sharon has thus backtracked from definitive statements he made to the contrary only two years ago. "No Jewish community will be uprooted in Judea, Samaria and Gaza, period," he told Arutz-7 at the time. "In any arrangement, the communities will have to remain in our hands."
Shilo and Beit El are two of the oldest and most established Jewish communities in Yesha. Both were established 25 years ago; Beit El has a population of some 6,000, and Shilo, though smaller, features one of the sites of the Biblical Tabernacle.
Palestinian Authority spokesman Saeb Erekat reacted with disdain to Sharon's remarks, calling them "public relations tactics." As if the PA's war of terrorism against Israelis had not brought the diplomatic process to a grinding halt two and a half years ago, Erekat said that what the PA demands from Israel are "deeds, not hollow words."
Sharon's chief of staff, Dov Weisglass, is in Washington to discuss Israeli reservations about the Road Map plan that calls for a temporary PA state as early as this year. Sharon told Ha'aretz that Israel's "14 or 15 reservations" deal with security, the timing of the stages of the plan - whether they will be implemented only one after the other (as Israel demands) or simultaneously - and the Arabs' demand for the "right of return." This '"right" includes the Arabs who left Israel in 1948; together with their descendants, they number in the millions. Sharon made it clear that without resolving this last issue, an "end to the conflict" cannot be declared - implying that a peace agreement could still be reached, as was the case with Egypt and Jordan.