Tuesday, April 27, 2004
No secret I'm a fan of the disengagement plan - history moving forward and Israel getting on with life without the ball and chain of Gaza around its ankle. Most of the anti-withdrawal stuff I read tends to come from an overly-hawkish seeming position to me - a position devoid of a discernable, changing future. However if there's one figure with the moral authority to make the case for "staying in," I'd have to say it would be Natan Sharansky. I'm still not sold, but Sharansky's article is worth taking a look at. (Via Naomi Ragen)
Maariv International: Disengagement from genuine peace
It will not be easy, as the American experience in Iraq has demonstrated. However, it is definitely possible, especially if the strongest power in the world considers it the only way that the free world can deal with terrorism. What a waste it is that, instead of supporting the United States’ lead, we are working in exactly the opposite direction. We will run away from the Gaza Strip and leave it in the terrorists’ control. You can be sure that they will not grow lettuce there.
As long as the government of the Gaza Strip does not work to move the refugees out of the camps and improve the life of their people; as long as the government there does not consider the industrial areas a means for growth, not a corridor for terror and murder; as long as the government of the Gaza Strip does not use the media and educational system for progress and enlightenment, not brainwashing and fostering hatred; as long at the Palestinian government doesn’t change, disengagement will not lead to any positive change...
Link is not good.
Mike
Disengagement from genuine peace
The disengagement will not solve Israel’s security problem or bring it into the world’s embrace. It will only encourage the terrorists. The solution is to help forces of change among the Palestinians attain leadership.
Natan Sharansky
http://www.maarivintl.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=article&xCache=%7Bts%20%272004%2D04%2D28%2010%3A03%3A45%27%7D&articleID=6419
Back to the swamp
They say that a wise man learns from others’ mistakes, a foolish one from his own. Israeli policy seems not even to be learning from its own mistakes, and that is folly cubed.
Dan Margalit
http://www.maarivintl.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=article&xCache=%7Bts%20%272004%2D04%2D28%2010%3A05%3A07%27%7D&articleID=6068
Likud vs. Likud
anticipation of the referendum, headquarters are springing up in every corner, each against the other. Silvan vs. Katz, Katz vs. Landau, “Likudniks against disengagement” vs. Likud Shelanu (“our Likud”), Mofaz vs. Olmert. However we can at least enjoy the show, especially the irony, if not outright hutzpah, in hearing Sharon’s people, who actively brought underworld figures like Alperon and Shlomi Oz into the party, complaining that the Yesha council is using US money to buy votes.
Nadav Eyal
http://www.maarivintl.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=article&xCache=%7Bts%20%272004%2D04%2D28%2010%3A05%3A07%27%7D&articleID=6070
Fixed! Thanks.
Hmmm. How, exactly, will these "new forces" envisioned by Sharansky emerge while the occupation and intifada continue, and how long will it take for them to come into being? And what will Israel do all that while as its diplomatic standing and economy go further into the tank?
Sharansky doesn't have a plan - he has a fantasy, and it's a recipe for paralysis at best and disaster at worst. "Strategic waiting" is the biggest chimera in Israeli political thinking - even bigger than "one more good push and we'll defeat terrorism militarily." The only terrorism-reduction strategy that has actually worked is separation - getting Israelis out from the middle of Palestinians and building strong fences to keep the two apart. I knew Sharansky was right-wing, but until today I hadn't thought him an idiot.
Dan Margalit is right.