"It appears that nothing will prevent Arik Sharon from continuing and implementing further disengagements," Arens said. "Let's not fool ourselves as to his intentions. Sharon himself doesn't believe that agreements with the PA will work, and there's no doubt that he will once again consider unilateral measures."
Prof. Arens served as Defense Minister in four different Israeli governments and Foreign Minister in one. Disengagement prisoner Eli Herbst and MK Uri Ariel were also in attendance at the Beit El meeting.
Representatives of Shilo, Adam, Migron, Beit El, Psagot, Kokhav Yaakov, Rimonim, Ofrah, Tel Tzion, Psagot, Amonah, Eli, and Michash took part as well.
Arutz-7's Shimon Cohen reports that MK Uri Ariel (National Union), who served as Mayor of Beit El before entering the Knesset in 2001, told the concerned audience, "The current political reality is a danger - and there are those who have not yet internalized this. Not one community throughout Judea and Samaria has an insurance policy."
The proof, MK Ariel said, is the area of northern Gaza: "The three communities there - Dugit, Nisanit and Elei Sinai - were destroyed [in the disengagement] with no logic whatsoever. Even [former Shabak head] Ami Ayalon said he didn't understand why they were taken down. It was an area without Arabs, close to the Green Line, with a fence, and with state-owned lands. There was no logic to the uprooting there."
Prof. Arens said that the withdrawal from Gaza was a "Supreme Court-approved strike against civil rights... proving that whoever lives in Judea and Samaria has fewer rights than one who lives in Haifa and Tel Aviv." Sharon thus broke a taboo, Arens explained, "proving that he can do something that even the left-wing thought was impossible. It aroused the appetite of the Americans and the PA, and part of the Israeli public as well, for more uprootings."
The disengagement was "a Sharon initiative, and was not forced upon Israel by the Americans," said Arens, who served as Israel's Ambassador in the U.S. in 1982-3.
It wasn't thanks to Sharon that the expulsion went over without violence, Arens said, "as the media portrayed it, but rather due to the special nature and patriotism of the residents themselves."
MK Ariel said there is no point in waiting any longer to start the campaign for Yesha: "We must initiate, and not be dragged along by events. The chances of winning are much greater when we initiate. It won't help if we wait for the army to stand outside our gates with the expulsion orders... We must begin immediately with public relations - but unfortunately, we're not doing it. Even to sell bananas you need PR today. We have to understand that this requires investment of resources, and it must be done professionally."
"We must have those who make the decisions come here and see for themselves," Ariel said. "There are some 500 people who are influential and who make the decisions. They have to be brought here. It's not easy; there's not much time. We also have to bring thousands of other Jews from all over the country, as we did in the We're on the Map campaign. We need not work on the leftists, but first on those who are closer to us in ideology."
YeshaHomestead is a movement that promotes Jewish settlement and purchase of land as a possible solution. "Sharon forcibly expelled 10,000 Jews from Gaza and dumped them in hotels," the movement asserts, adding, "Next, they intend to 'inconvenience' only 20,000 Jews by forcibly evacuating them. Only by having another several hundred thousand Jews move to the areas slated for the next expulsion of the Jews can this roadmap be stopped. We need a roadblock."
Prof. Arens served as Defense Minister in four different Israeli governments and Foreign Minister in one. Disengagement prisoner Eli Herbst and MK Uri Ariel were also in attendance at the Beit El meeting.
Representatives of Shilo, Adam, Migron, Beit El, Psagot, Kokhav Yaakov, Rimonim, Ofrah, Tel Tzion, Psagot, Amonah, Eli, and Michash took part as well.
Arutz-7's Shimon Cohen reports that MK Uri Ariel (National Union), who served as Mayor of Beit El before entering the Knesset in 2001, told the concerned audience, "The current political reality is a danger - and there are those who have not yet internalized this. Not one community throughout Judea and Samaria has an insurance policy."
The proof, MK Ariel said, is the area of northern Gaza: "The three communities there - Dugit, Nisanit and Elei Sinai - were destroyed [in the disengagement] with no logic whatsoever. Even [former Shabak head] Ami Ayalon said he didn't understand why they were taken down. It was an area without Arabs, close to the Green Line, with a fence, and with state-owned lands. There was no logic to the uprooting there."
Prof. Arens said that the withdrawal from Gaza was a "Supreme Court-approved strike against civil rights... proving that whoever lives in Judea and Samaria has fewer rights than one who lives in Haifa and Tel Aviv." Sharon thus broke a taboo, Arens explained, "proving that he can do something that even the left-wing thought was impossible. It aroused the appetite of the Americans and the PA, and part of the Israeli public as well, for more uprootings."
The disengagement was "a Sharon initiative, and was not forced upon Israel by the Americans," said Arens, who served as Israel's Ambassador in the U.S. in 1982-3.
It wasn't thanks to Sharon that the expulsion went over without violence, Arens said, "as the media portrayed it, but rather due to the special nature and patriotism of the residents themselves."
MK Ariel said there is no point in waiting any longer to start the campaign for Yesha: "We must initiate, and not be dragged along by events. The chances of winning are much greater when we initiate. It won't help if we wait for the army to stand outside our gates with the expulsion orders... We must begin immediately with public relations - but unfortunately, we're not doing it. Even to sell bananas you need PR today. We have to understand that this requires investment of resources, and it must be done professionally."
"We must have those who make the decisions come here and see for themselves," Ariel said. "There are some 500 people who are influential and who make the decisions. They have to be brought here. It's not easy; there's not much time. We also have to bring thousands of other Jews from all over the country, as we did in the We're on the Map campaign. We need not work on the leftists, but first on those who are closer to us in ideology."
YeshaHomestead is a movement that promotes Jewish settlement and purchase of land as a possible solution. "Sharon forcibly expelled 10,000 Jews from Gaza and dumped them in hotels," the movement asserts, adding, "Next, they intend to 'inconvenience' only 20,000 Jews by forcibly evacuating them. Only by having another several hundred thousand Jews move to the areas slated for the next expulsion of the Jews can this roadmap be stopped. We need a roadblock."