The strategists will focus on convincing Likud members to oppose the plan, not the Prime Minister.
Among the participants in yesterday's meeting were Minister Natan Sharansky, Knesset Members Gilad Erdan, Naomi Blumenthal, Yuli Edelstein, Moshe Kachlon, Ayoub Kara, Ehud Yatom, and others. They decided to call their faction "Our Likud".
The anti-"disengagement" campaign, set to kick off in coming days, includes, among other tactics, appeals to political considerations. One slogan that may lead the campaign is: "You vote in favor? You get [Labor party leader Shimon] Peres." Another tactic in the campaign will be to employ quotes from and ideas expressed by Prime Minister Sharon himself in which he decries uprooting Jewish communities. After the Passover holiday, the ministers and Knesset members involved in the campaign will hold personal and group meetings and gatherings among Likud members to explain the position of "Our Likud".
Likud MK Ehud Yatom told Army Radio this morning that he and his supporters are behind the Prime Minister, reiterating his support for Mr. Sharon. However, he added, supporters of the nation's largest party elected Ariel Sharon to lead a Likud government and Yatom therefore remains actively opposed to efforts to include the Labor party in the ruling coalition government.
200,000 Likud members will be expected to decide on the issue of Mr. Sharon's "disengagement" plan in coming months, after Sharon decided to bring the issue before his party for a vote.
In other efforts against the uprooting of Jewish communities in Gaza, Americans in Israel and Republicans in Israel will be holding a demonstration tomorrow morning in front of the American consulate in Jerusalem. The theme of the demonstration is "President Bush and all other Americans! Do not surrender to terror!"
The sponsoring organizations say that they "urge President Bush, prior to his meeting with Israel's PM Sharon, not to reward Arab terror with unilateral concessions. Such a policy would surely prove detrimental to the interest of both Israel and the United States. In order to preserve the Judeo-Christian values of Western Civilization, both Israel and the United States must unite to fight Islamic terror wherever it is found."
Overseas, as well, anti-uprooting efforts are underway. This afternoon, New York time, on the boardwalk outside Coney Island Amusement Park in Brooklyn, activists will be seeking signatures on a petition calling on international leaders to "Let Our People Stay". As the petition states: "We the undersigned say NO to Sharon's Disengagement and Discrimination Plan. …Disengagement for those who engage in terrorism is a policy that is not only anti-Semitic, it has proven deadly. A continuation of a failed Olso is a motivation for more world terrorism…."
Among the participants in yesterday's meeting were Minister Natan Sharansky, Knesset Members Gilad Erdan, Naomi Blumenthal, Yuli Edelstein, Moshe Kachlon, Ayoub Kara, Ehud Yatom, and others. They decided to call their faction "Our Likud".
The anti-"disengagement" campaign, set to kick off in coming days, includes, among other tactics, appeals to political considerations. One slogan that may lead the campaign is: "You vote in favor? You get [Labor party leader Shimon] Peres." Another tactic in the campaign will be to employ quotes from and ideas expressed by Prime Minister Sharon himself in which he decries uprooting Jewish communities. After the Passover holiday, the ministers and Knesset members involved in the campaign will hold personal and group meetings and gatherings among Likud members to explain the position of "Our Likud".
Likud MK Ehud Yatom told Army Radio this morning that he and his supporters are behind the Prime Minister, reiterating his support for Mr. Sharon. However, he added, supporters of the nation's largest party elected Ariel Sharon to lead a Likud government and Yatom therefore remains actively opposed to efforts to include the Labor party in the ruling coalition government.
200,000 Likud members will be expected to decide on the issue of Mr. Sharon's "disengagement" plan in coming months, after Sharon decided to bring the issue before his party for a vote.
In other efforts against the uprooting of Jewish communities in Gaza, Americans in Israel and Republicans in Israel will be holding a demonstration tomorrow morning in front of the American consulate in Jerusalem. The theme of the demonstration is "President Bush and all other Americans! Do not surrender to terror!"
The sponsoring organizations say that they "urge President Bush, prior to his meeting with Israel's PM Sharon, not to reward Arab terror with unilateral concessions. Such a policy would surely prove detrimental to the interest of both Israel and the United States. In order to preserve the Judeo-Christian values of Western Civilization, both Israel and the United States must unite to fight Islamic terror wherever it is found."
Overseas, as well, anti-uprooting efforts are underway. This afternoon, New York time, on the boardwalk outside Coney Island Amusement Park in Brooklyn, activists will be seeking signatures on a petition calling on international leaders to "Let Our People Stay". As the petition states: "We the undersigned say NO to Sharon's Disengagement and Discrimination Plan. …Disengagement for those who engage in terrorism is a policy that is not only anti-Semitic, it has proven deadly. A continuation of a failed Olso is a motivation for more world terrorism…."