Calls are increasingly being heard, aided by some of Israel's media, for Prime Minister Sharon to hasten the withdrawal from Gaza, in light of the recent IDF losses there. Opposition leader MK Shimon Peres, for instance, demands that Ariel Sharon either decide to withdraw from Gaza, despite the Likud referendum, or call new elections.
A prominent newspaper article written by a founder of Four Mothers - the group that initiated the public campaign leading to the panicky withdrawal from Lebanon four years ago - calls outright for a withdrawal from Gaza, "even if it looks like weakness, in order to take our destiny into our own hands."
The father of one of yesterday's victims was similarly widely quoted today to the same effect: "I don't want my son to be a sacrifice in vain; and he won't be, if we now get out of Gaza. After all, no one really wants to stay in Gaza, except for the Likud members..."
Likud MK Chaim Katz, one of the leaders of the successful intra-Likud campaign against the unilateral withdrawal plan, therefore called upon Prime Minister Sharon today not to give in to these voices. Responding to claims that the tragedies of the past two days were the fault of the Likud voters, Katz told Arutz-7 today,
"There is absolutely no connection between these tragic events and the results of the referendum. The army would have continued operating, in any event, against the terrorist infrastructures in both Zeitoun and the Philadelphi route."
Katz placed the blame, instead, upon those who "tie the army's hands and force it to wage the war with tweezers, instead of with all its strength. We should fight like the Americans do. When they see someone firing at them from within a mosque, at that moment it ceases being a mosque, and becomes a military target instead. We have to take the same approach [regarding the weapons factories in residential buildings]."
A group called the Three Fathers has announced its formation. Comprising parents of victims of Arab/Palestinian terrorism, its leaders are Moshe Keinan, whose son Avihu was killed last September in a battle with terrorists in Al-Bureij, Gaza; Zechariah Komemi, who lost his son Raanan around the same time during an operation against a leading terrorist in Shechem; and Baruch Ben-Yosef, whose son Yehuda was killed when he was mistaken for a terrorist over a year ago. The organization demands that the authorities allow the army to fight the anti-terror war without restraint. Members demonstrated today outside the Supreme Court against its decision not to allow the army to raze structures used by terrorists to perpetrate attacks.
Contrary to the many calls to leave Gaza, Tourism Minister Benny Elon says that Israel must transfer the Arab refugees out of Gaza and dismantle the refugee camps. Elon says that this must be done in order to prevent further catastrophes such as those of the past two days. "Dismantling the terror infrastructures by repeated entries and exits to the refugee camps, involving losses of our soldiers, will not solve the problem," Elon said today. "Without transferring the Arabs, there will not be peace in this land."
A prominent newspaper article written by a founder of Four Mothers - the group that initiated the public campaign leading to the panicky withdrawal from Lebanon four years ago - calls outright for a withdrawal from Gaza, "even if it looks like weakness, in order to take our destiny into our own hands."
The father of one of yesterday's victims was similarly widely quoted today to the same effect: "I don't want my son to be a sacrifice in vain; and he won't be, if we now get out of Gaza. After all, no one really wants to stay in Gaza, except for the Likud members..."
Likud MK Chaim Katz, one of the leaders of the successful intra-Likud campaign against the unilateral withdrawal plan, therefore called upon Prime Minister Sharon today not to give in to these voices. Responding to claims that the tragedies of the past two days were the fault of the Likud voters, Katz told Arutz-7 today,
"There is absolutely no connection between these tragic events and the results of the referendum. The army would have continued operating, in any event, against the terrorist infrastructures in both Zeitoun and the Philadelphi route."
Katz placed the blame, instead, upon those who "tie the army's hands and force it to wage the war with tweezers, instead of with all its strength. We should fight like the Americans do. When they see someone firing at them from within a mosque, at that moment it ceases being a mosque, and becomes a military target instead. We have to take the same approach [regarding the weapons factories in residential buildings]."
A group called the Three Fathers has announced its formation. Comprising parents of victims of Arab/Palestinian terrorism, its leaders are Moshe Keinan, whose son Avihu was killed last September in a battle with terrorists in Al-Bureij, Gaza; Zechariah Komemi, who lost his son Raanan around the same time during an operation against a leading terrorist in Shechem; and Baruch Ben-Yosef, whose son Yehuda was killed when he was mistaken for a terrorist over a year ago. The organization demands that the authorities allow the army to fight the anti-terror war without restraint. Members demonstrated today outside the Supreme Court against its decision not to allow the army to raze structures used by terrorists to perpetrate attacks.
Contrary to the many calls to leave Gaza, Tourism Minister Benny Elon says that Israel must transfer the Arab refugees out of Gaza and dismantle the refugee camps. Elon says that this must be done in order to prevent further catastrophes such as those of the past two days. "Dismantling the terror infrastructures by repeated entries and exits to the refugee camps, involving losses of our soldiers, will not solve the problem," Elon said today. "Without transferring the Arabs, there will not be peace in this land."