The future of Yesha - Judea, Samaria and Gaza - is on the line, as evidenced by several developing news stories today. For one thing, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon refuses to promise not to uproot Yesha communities in the framework of unilateral gestures towards the PA.
Despite massive criticism from his Likud MKs during the party's weekly faction meeting yesterday, Sharon said that it is in Israel's interest to take unilateral steps if the negotiations with the PA "meet up with a dead end." Education Minister Limor Livnat asked if these gestures include the uprooting of Jewish towns; Sharon did not answer, saying only that it's obvious that in the end, we will not be in all the places we are now. He said that he is still committed to the Road Map, which calls for a PA state.
Palestinian Authority leader Ahmed Qurei (Abu Ala) was quick to issue a statement of approval for the plan to remove isolated Yesha communities.
The Yesha Council is taking the above quite seriously, fearing that Sharon is serious about plans to uproot Yesha towns. The Council published a large ad in today's newspapers, likening Netzarim in central Gaza - the most isolated Jewish community and the most-often mentioned for possible uprooting - to Negba and Tel Chai. "The Jewish people in the Land of Israel always looked to these places as historic symbols of our struggle to be here," Yesha Council leader Pinchas Wallerstein told Arutz-7 this morning. "We held our collective breath at the reports that Negba might fall during the War of Independence, and the same with the Galilee's Hanita and Tel Chai earlier, and in their merit, today we have the Negev and the Galilee. The same is true of Netzarim today."
The ad quotes the famous Israeli poet Natan Alterman as saying, "There is no nation that would retreat from the excavations of its history," and continues, "For over 100 years, the Jewish Community in the Land of Israel has been fighting for the excavations of its history. In each generation, there was a town that heroically withstood Arab terrorism. We, too, will not give in to terror. In Netzarim, too, Israel will emerge victorious."
A quote from Ariel Sharon of last year concludes the ad:
"Netzarim is the same as Negba and Tel Aviv; evacuating Netzarim will only encourage terrorism and increase the pressure upon us."
"This ad is not merely a 'spin,'" Wallerstein said, "but rather a question of values. I don't know what Sharon means or what he is planning, but when it comes to our values, we have to put things on the table."
Despite massive criticism from his Likud MKs during the party's weekly faction meeting yesterday, Sharon said that it is in Israel's interest to take unilateral steps if the negotiations with the PA "meet up with a dead end." Education Minister Limor Livnat asked if these gestures include the uprooting of Jewish towns; Sharon did not answer, saying only that it's obvious that in the end, we will not be in all the places we are now. He said that he is still committed to the Road Map, which calls for a PA state.
Palestinian Authority leader Ahmed Qurei (Abu Ala) was quick to issue a statement of approval for the plan to remove isolated Yesha communities.
The Yesha Council is taking the above quite seriously, fearing that Sharon is serious about plans to uproot Yesha towns. The Council published a large ad in today's newspapers, likening Netzarim in central Gaza - the most isolated Jewish community and the most-often mentioned for possible uprooting - to Negba and Tel Chai. "The Jewish people in the Land of Israel always looked to these places as historic symbols of our struggle to be here," Yesha Council leader Pinchas Wallerstein told Arutz-7 this morning. "We held our collective breath at the reports that Negba might fall during the War of Independence, and the same with the Galilee's Hanita and Tel Chai earlier, and in their merit, today we have the Negev and the Galilee. The same is true of Netzarim today."
The ad quotes the famous Israeli poet Natan Alterman as saying, "There is no nation that would retreat from the excavations of its history," and continues, "For over 100 years, the Jewish Community in the Land of Israel has been fighting for the excavations of its history. In each generation, there was a town that heroically withstood Arab terrorism. We, too, will not give in to terror. In Netzarim, too, Israel will emerge victorious."
A quote from Ariel Sharon of last year concludes the ad:
"Netzarim is the same as Negba and Tel Aviv; evacuating Netzarim will only encourage terrorism and increase the pressure upon us."
"This ad is not merely a 'spin,'" Wallerstein said, "but rather a question of values. I don't know what Sharon means or what he is planning, but when it comes to our values, we have to put things on the table."