Minister Natan Sharansky (Likud), another leading opponent of Sharon's plan, told Arutz-7 last night: "The Government of Israel is poised to make a historic and unprecedented decision: to dismantle and destroy flowering Jewish communities, not as the result of a comprehensive peace agreement, but rather out of despair and fear. This is possibly the first time this has happened in our history since the Sin of the Spies... So it doesn't matter if it's made a week later or a week earlier; it must not be made at all!..."
Sharansky said that because "there is no one to talk to on the other side, and because some of the ministers feel that the nation can't just keep on going like this from terror attack to terror attack, they therefore seek a 'wonder solution' with these very dangerous ramifications."
He said that it is "very strange, that after this referendum - a festival of democracy, many called it, in which the voters were allowed to make their own decision and weren't forced to follow their leader - and then the leader ignores the results! He [Sharon] says that he is responsible not just for one party, but for the entire nation - but if that's so, then he must first of all be responsible that the democratic character of the Jewish state be maintained. Instead, this is a blow both to the Jewish nature and the democratic character at once."
"It's important that we, those who object to this plan, talk all the time about the ideology - our history, the large picture, the running away from terrorism, etc. I tried today to do this, I even quoted the first Rashi [the legendary 11th-century Biblical commentator, whose explanation to the first verse in the Torah emphasizes the Divine bonds between the Land of Israel and the People of Israel] - I felt that this was important, for one thing, because since the departure of Elyakim Rubenstein [the former Attorney-General who generally participated in Cabinet meetings], we haven't had people reading from the [religious] sources, so I tried to do this..."
Sharansky said that because "there is no one to talk to on the other side, and because some of the ministers feel that the nation can't just keep on going like this from terror attack to terror attack, they therefore seek a 'wonder solution' with these very dangerous ramifications."
He said that it is "very strange, that after this referendum - a festival of democracy, many called it, in which the voters were allowed to make their own decision and weren't forced to follow their leader - and then the leader ignores the results! He [Sharon] says that he is responsible not just for one party, but for the entire nation - but if that's so, then he must first of all be responsible that the democratic character of the Jewish state be maintained. Instead, this is a blow both to the Jewish nature and the democratic character at once."
"It's important that we, those who object to this plan, talk all the time about the ideology - our history, the large picture, the running away from terrorism, etc. I tried today to do this, I even quoted the first Rashi [the legendary 11th-century Biblical commentator, whose explanation to the first verse in the Torah emphasizes the Divine bonds between the Land of Israel and the People of Israel] - I felt that this was important, for one thing, because since the departure of Elyakim Rubenstein [the former Attorney-General who generally participated in Cabinet meetings], we haven't had people reading from the [religious] sources, so I tried to do this..."