Dr. Aaron Lerner is co-founder of IMRA, 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. imra@netvision.net.il
Deadly cliches of retreat
By Dr. Aaron Lerner
July 8, 2005
With Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's disengagement plan slated for implementation only weeks away, retreat supporters continue to rely on cliches to justify possibly the most reckless move the Jewish State has undertaken since it was created over half a century ago.
Disengagement has been justified as an "experiment" and its detractors accused of "not offering a new alternative". But the Gaza Strip is not a test tube rack and the absence of a new alternative to retreat doesn't add to the credibility of the retreat option.
Retreat supporters arguing that it is an "experiment" assume reversibility at an acceptable cost. I shudder to think of the costs Israel would bear in a war if attrition followed by retaking of Gaza - and that's assuming that the array of international interests at play after Israel retreats would permit such a move.
But reversibility is only one issue. Retreat isn't comparable to a simple junior high school chemistry lab "experiment". Not only is the "success" of the experiment a matter of dispute, the policy recommendations that result from the outcome of the "experiment" can very well be predetermined.
Palestinians increase terror activity the retreat? Retreat proponents could blame Israel for not being forthcoming with additional concessions after the retreat, etc. The problem isn't retreating, they will argue, it's not retreating enough.
And what of the absence of a new "alternative"?
There are countless patients in the world with various non-fatal ailments with no cure in sight. In the absence of a new "alternative" should those patients embrace Dr. Kervorkian's "permanent cure" or keep searching?
Autonomy within Israel's envelope may not sound as novel as retreat, but with the dire consequences of retreat - creation of a fledgling terror state on the Mediterranean - becoming clearer with every passing day, it's the only viable option on the table.
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