Yet another debate on the evacuation/expulsion plan is scheduled for the coming days. Former Likud Minister Benny Begin, a staunch opponent of the plan, has challenged Vice Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to a debate, and Olmert has said that he happily consents. The time and place has not yet been set, but it is likely to take place on Wednesday or Thursday night.
Pro-evacuation forces say they are happy to have the chance to debate Begin, as they will raise the fact that Begin's own father, the late Prime Minister Menachem Begin, was the first to give away land and Jewish communities when he signed and implemented the peace treaty with Egypt in 1982. It will be noted, too, that Ariel Sharon was Defense Minister at the time and oversaw the evacuation and destruction of Yamit and the Sinai communities.
Begin should have no problem responding, however, if he merely quotes Ariel Sharon himself. In an interview with Voice of Israel in 1994, on the 12th anniversary of the Yamit evacuation, Sharon - who strongly opposed the Oslo Agreement - explained why no comparison should be drawn between Oslo and the Sinai agreement. Sharon was asked why he objects to Oslo, given that "Your formulation at the time [1982] was, 'Peace in exchange for territory" - something we are hearing now as well [in the framework of the six-month-old Oslo agreement]."
Sharon responded,
"I think it is very hard to compare that which occurred in Sinai, or what we could have achieved then, with what we face now. Sinai was a land far from our population centers, and we were able to reach an agreement that an area 200 kilometers wide would remain free of Egyptian military forces forever. In addition, we signed an agreement with a sovereign country that controls its territory - and not with a terrorist organization that cannot and does not want to control terror organizations, nor even its own internal factions that continue to employ terrorism. In addition, Egypt had no other territorial demands [other than the areas we transferred to them], and this is different than the present situation."
Dr. Begin will thus be able to say, in Prime Minister Sharon's name, that there are at least four reasons why even those who justify the Sinai evacuation would have to oppose the disengagement plan Mr. Sharon is now promoting:
* Gaza is close to Israeli population centers.
* No agreement on demilitarization has been reached.
* No agreement has been signed with a sovereign country, or with any entity at all.
* The entity that will take control of the area still has major territorial demands upon Israel.
Pro-evacuation forces say they are happy to have the chance to debate Begin, as they will raise the fact that Begin's own father, the late Prime Minister Menachem Begin, was the first to give away land and Jewish communities when he signed and implemented the peace treaty with Egypt in 1982. It will be noted, too, that Ariel Sharon was Defense Minister at the time and oversaw the evacuation and destruction of Yamit and the Sinai communities.
Begin should have no problem responding, however, if he merely quotes Ariel Sharon himself. In an interview with Voice of Israel in 1994, on the 12th anniversary of the Yamit evacuation, Sharon - who strongly opposed the Oslo Agreement - explained why no comparison should be drawn between Oslo and the Sinai agreement. Sharon was asked why he objects to Oslo, given that "Your formulation at the time [1982] was, 'Peace in exchange for territory" - something we are hearing now as well [in the framework of the six-month-old Oslo agreement]."
Sharon responded,
"I think it is very hard to compare that which occurred in Sinai, or what we could have achieved then, with what we face now. Sinai was a land far from our population centers, and we were able to reach an agreement that an area 200 kilometers wide would remain free of Egyptian military forces forever. In addition, we signed an agreement with a sovereign country that controls its territory - and not with a terrorist organization that cannot and does not want to control terror organizations, nor even its own internal factions that continue to employ terrorism. In addition, Egypt had no other territorial demands [other than the areas we transferred to them], and this is different than the present situation."
Dr. Begin will thus be able to say, in Prime Minister Sharon's name, that there are at least four reasons why even those who justify the Sinai evacuation would have to oppose the disengagement plan Mr. Sharon is now promoting:
* Gaza is close to Israeli population centers.
* No agreement on demilitarization has been reached.
* No agreement has been signed with a sovereign country, or with any entity at all.
* The entity that will take control of the area still has major territorial demands upon Israel.