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Dov Weissglas, considered to be PM Sharon's most trusted advisor
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| By Israel Insider staff and partners October 6, 2004 |
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In a stunning admission, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's senior adviser said that the purpose of the Israeli government's policy was to supend diplomatic moves to establish a Palestinian state. "The significance of the 'disengagement' plan is the freezing of the peace process," Dov Weissglas told Haaretz.
Weissglas, an initiator of the plan, explained that the deep freeze would prevent implementation of the "Road Map" backed by the Quartet of the United States, Russia, EU and UN: "when you freeze that process, you prevent the establishment of a Palestinian state, and you prevent a discussion on the refugees, the borders and Jerusalem. Effectively, this whole package called the Palestinian state, with all that it entails, has been removed indefinitely from our agenda. And all this with authority and permission. All with a presidential blessing and the ratification of both houses of Congress."
"The disengagement is actually formaldehyde," he said. "It supplies the amount of formaldehyde that is necessary so there will not be a political process with the Palestinians."
Asked by Haaretz's Ari Shavit why the disengagement plan had been hatched, Weisglass replied: "Because in the fall of 2003 we understood that everything was stuck. And although by the way the Americans read the situation, the blame fell on the Palestinians, not on us, Arik [Sharon] grasped that this state of affairs could not last, that they wouldn't leave us alone, wouldn't get off our case. Time was not on our side. There was international erosion, internal erosion. Domestically, in the meantime, everything was collapsing. The economy was stagnant, and the Geneva Initiative had gained broad support. And then we were hit with the letters of officers and letters of pilots and letters of commandos [refusing to serve in the territories]. These were not weird kids with green ponytails and a ring in their nose with a strong odor of grass. These were people like Spector's group [Yiftah Spector, a renowned Air Force pilot who signed the pilot's letter]. Really our finest young people."
Weisglass trumpets that the main achievement of the Gaza plan was the freezing of the peace process in a "legitimate manner."
"That is exactly what happened," he said. "You know, the term 'peace process' is a bundle of concepts and commitments. The peace process is the establishment of a Palestinian state with all the security risks that entails. The peace process is the evacuation of settlements, it's the return of refugees, it's the partition of Jerusalem. And all that has now been frozen.... [W]hat I effectively agreed to with the Americans was that part of the settlements would not be dealt with at all, and the rest will not be dealt with until the Palestinians turn into Finns. That is the significance of what we did."
Sharon, he said, could also argue "honestly" that the disengagement plan was "a serious move because of which, out of 240,000 settlers, 190,000 will not be moved from their place."
The full interview will appear in Haaretz on Friday.
Left in an uproar
The revelation created a firestorm of criticism on the Israeli left, which Sharon has previously been cultivating as a political partner.
Arab MK Ahmed Tibi (Hadash) sent a letter to U.S. Ambassador Dan Kurtzer in which he asked whether "the American administration is a partner to Sharon's political deceit, which Weisglass revealed with incriminating candor."
Tibi said that Weissglass' comments "bolster what we have said all along, that the [disengagement] plan is a 'Sharon bluff.'"
Labor Party chairman Shimon Peres said he was taken aback by the comment, which was inconsistent with his understandings in coalition talks with Sharon. "You cannot stop the world from turning," he told Army Radio. "We will not know tranquility and ... security until there is peace." He added: "He who seeks half peace will bring half war."
Yahad MK Yossi Beilin said Weisglass' "frightening comments ... reveal the fact that it is Sharon who is not a peace partner, and the peace camp must work for him to be overthrown," said Beilin.
Another Arab MK Mohammed Barakeh (Hadash) called the statements grave, proving that the Sharon government must be toppled as soon as possible, and affirming the importance of refusing to serve in the IDF and the relevance of the Geneva Initiative.
Arafat adviser and Palestinian Minister Saeb Erekat called on the United States to draw appropriate conclusions. "It's clear that Mr. Weissglas expressed the true intentions of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon," he told The Associated Press. "We hope that President Bush will answer the question now as how to make the Gaza disengagement plan part of the road map and not an alternative to it."
Israel's Ambassador to the US, Daniel Ayalon, tried to put a positive spin on Weissglas's statement, telling Army Radio that the disengagement plan is not meant to freeze all possibility of a peace process with the Palestinians, but is rather a response to the absence of a partner on the Palestinian side.
"This plan gives Israel some breathing space, to wait until there is a partner with whom it will be able to start negotiations. I think this is the core aims of the plan," he said.
However, Dr. Aaron Lerner of IMRA said that the price of a "pause for peace" would be very dear for Israel. After a brief respite and more concessions following a retreat, he said, "Israel then would find itself back in the 'peace process' being told that Israel had already been 'paid in full' for the retreat from Gaza and northern Samaria in the form of the temporary pause and being asked to make "sacrifices for peace."
Lerner added: "It should be kept in mind that two of the top retreat supporters in the Sharon administration - Deputy Minister Ehud Olmert and Minister Tzipi Livni both justify retreat with the painfuly simplistic explanation that Israel has to do 'something.' One can expect similar reasoning for additional withdrawals even during the 'pause' they want Israel to pay so dearly for."
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"Disengagement is formaldehyde ... so there will not be a political process with the Palestinians."
- Dov Weissglas, senior advisor to PM Ariel Sharon
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