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Dr. Aaron Lerner is co-founder of , Independent Media Review and Analysis, an Israel-based news organization which provides an extensive digest of media, polls and significant interviews and events relating to the Israeli-Arab conflict.
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By Dr. Aaron Lerner
April 1, 2005
The coalition that bulldozed through the disengagement plan has done much more than rape their respective systems (political, media and justice) in the most transparent application of the "ends justify the means" principle in the history of the Jewish State. They have created a situation in which the absence of any serious attempt by the Sharon team to prepare for a post-retreat era is met with complete indifference.
Until Prime Minister Ariel Sharon passed the critical Knesset votes this week disengagement supporters could at least justify their "jump now -- think later" approach on the grounds that thinking now could torpedo the plan by exposing its underlying weaknesses and faults.
But with the budget passed and Mr. Sharon assured that the Israeli voters won't be given the opportunity to express its will before he implements a radical version of the plan he ran against in the last elections, its time for the coalition to lift their blinders and start thinking before the nation slams into the pavement.
Consider, for example, the issue of keeping the Gaza Strip within Israel's security envelope.
The Sharon team maintains that the Bush letter commitment that "the United States understands that after Israel withdraws from Gaza and/or parts of the West Bank, and pending agreements on other arrangements, existing arrangements regarding control of airspace, territorial waters, and land passages of the West Bank and Gaza will continue." will suffice.
But Prime Minister Sharon himself has been bending over backwards trying to patch together what could be best termed "fig leaf arrangements" so that Israel may relinquish control of the envelope to unreliable third parties -- including Egypt. Thus, instead of campaigning against Egypt for its role in aiding and abetting the flow of weapons to the terrorists, Israeli Government officials praise Egypt for its "contribution" in an attempt to maintain the credibility of the plan to relinquish control of the strategic Philadelphi Corridor to Egypt.
Will the media start fulfilling its watchdog role?
Will the top echelons in the ruling parties begin asking questions about the post retreat era -- even at the risk of annoying Sharon?
Unfortunately, unless things change soon, we may very well slam into the pavement as the retreat juggernaut mindlessly rolls on.
Views expressed by the author do not
necessarily reflect those of israelinsider.
 
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