Comments about Prime Minister Sharon's speech on Thursday night at the Herzliya Conference continue to be heard. The Prime Minister said in his speech that he would initiate a unilateral withdrawal from parts of Yesha (Judea, Samaria and Gaza) if negotiations with the PA remain mired.
Former Likud MK Michael Kleiner, who ran unsuccessfully for a Knesset seat on a Herut Party list in the last election, says that the right-wing parties should resign from the coalition with confidence. "If Peres and Labor take your place," Kleiner said in a statement, "the public will thus see that Sharon is operating on a left-wing platform, and this will help form a united nationalist opposition to his dangerous plan." Kleiner also noted that Sharon, in emphasizing his commitment to the Road Map, neglected to mention the 14 reservations that the Israeli Government voted to attach to the plan.
Prof. MK Aryeh Eldad (National Union) said this morning that he is leading efforts within his party to quit the government. Eldad explained to Arutz-7 today why Sharon's new plan is even worse than the Road Map:
"The Road Map includes uprooting yishuvim [communities] and giving away territory, but it at least has the supposed advantage of being based on an agreement. Now Sharon is proposing a unilateral agreement: We'll do our part, retreating, uprooting, fortifying ourselves, while the Palestinians are not obligated to peace, or fighting terrorism, or anything at all! ... Yes, Sharon calls it a way of improving security - the same way the army calls a panicky retreat a 'tactical deployment enhancement to the rear.' Even the most junior officers laugh at these new terminologies."
So what then motivates Sharon? "He has simply collapsed," Eldad answered. "He just broke in the face of the pressure from within, from his drop in the polls, from his lack of effective PR response to Beilin and those who jumped on his bandwagon, from being caught between the hammer of the Quartet's Road Map and the anvil of terrorism - all this is causing him to show cracks. The cracks are getting wider, and he feels constrained to produce something of his own, so he comes out with the old cliches - cliches that were first sounded by [extreme left-winger] Uri Avnery 30 years ago, then by Shimon Peres ten years ago, and now by Ariel Sharon... Even the left is no longer talking about peace, because they know that it won't come. So the only thing that's left is 'steps' and the like - but with no direction."
Former Likud MK Michael Kleiner, who ran unsuccessfully for a Knesset seat on a Herut Party list in the last election, says that the right-wing parties should resign from the coalition with confidence. "If Peres and Labor take your place," Kleiner said in a statement, "the public will thus see that Sharon is operating on a left-wing platform, and this will help form a united nationalist opposition to his dangerous plan." Kleiner also noted that Sharon, in emphasizing his commitment to the Road Map, neglected to mention the 14 reservations that the Israeli Government voted to attach to the plan.
Prof. MK Aryeh Eldad (National Union) said this morning that he is leading efforts within his party to quit the government. Eldad explained to Arutz-7 today why Sharon's new plan is even worse than the Road Map:
"The Road Map includes uprooting yishuvim [communities] and giving away territory, but it at least has the supposed advantage of being based on an agreement. Now Sharon is proposing a unilateral agreement: We'll do our part, retreating, uprooting, fortifying ourselves, while the Palestinians are not obligated to peace, or fighting terrorism, or anything at all! ... Yes, Sharon calls it a way of improving security - the same way the army calls a panicky retreat a 'tactical deployment enhancement to the rear.' Even the most junior officers laugh at these new terminologies."
So what then motivates Sharon? "He has simply collapsed," Eldad answered. "He just broke in the face of the pressure from within, from his drop in the polls, from his lack of effective PR response to Beilin and those who jumped on his bandwagon, from being caught between the hammer of the Quartet's Road Map and the anvil of terrorism - all this is causing him to show cracks. The cracks are getting wider, and he feels constrained to produce something of his own, so he comes out with the old cliches - cliches that were first sounded by [extreme left-winger] Uri Avnery 30 years ago, then by Shimon Peres ten years ago, and now by Ariel Sharon... Even the left is no longer talking about peace, because they know that it won't come. So the only thing that's left is 'steps' and the like - but with no direction."