By Rachel Neuwirth
July 15, 2005
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's Gaza disengagement scheme is being hailed by American President George Bush, and the major media as a step toward peace and security.
A closer examination will show, however, that it is an egregious violation of human rights, an illegal action, and a major setback in the war against terror which will harm not only Israel's security, but U.S. security as well.
In a civilized world, Sharon's "disengagement" proposal would probably be rejected by all responsible governments because it is so akin to ethnic cleansing, even if it is being done by Sharon against fellow Jews.
Muslims today can and do live anywhere in the world, with migrations into Europe and America. Over a million Arab Muslims live inside Israel as voting citizens, but eight thousand Jews on historic Jewish land in Gaza are to be expelled because the Gaza Arabs, in their bigotry, will never accept Jews living among them.
Instead of the nations demanding that this Arab bigotry end, they now support Sharon in his scheme to expel thousands of Jews only because they are Jews. Let us not pretend that Israel's government or the nations oppose de facto, if not genocidal, ethnic cleansing. It is the moral corruption of the West and of the Sharon government that accepts the old double standard, which also amounts to state-sponsored anti-Semitism, endorsing the judenrein Gaza.
But if the disengagement idea is so wrong, how could intelligent Israelis be making such a major blunder in supporting it? Part of the answer is that the Israeli public was not properly informed, top military and intelligence officials were not properly consulted or allowed to advise, and the public was denied the opportunity for a full and open debate followed by a referendum in which to express the collective will of the people.
Israelis are only now waking belatedly to the huge dangers in this scheme, and public support has declined from 70% to below 50% and is falling. In response, the Sharon government is invoking increasingly ruthless measures to prevent the growing opposition from exercising its democratic rights to express its views.
From the beginning, disengagement was an inside initiative by Sharon and his close associate Dov Weisglass, with none of the usual and necessary steps that are a standard part of any major decision that affects the security of the nation. If the disengagement was such a good idea, why did Sharon prevent a review by the heads of the defense and intelligence services?
Upon learning of the plan, General Moshe Ya'alon, head of Israel's Joint Chiefs of Staff, expressed strong opposition, as did other heads of Israeli security agencies. Ya'alon and others who objected were either replaced or pressured into agreement. When some cabinet ministers objected, they too were replaced. When some Knesset members hesitated to support Sharon's plan, Sharon unilaterally increased the budgets for their departments -- effectively bribing them with public funds -- and then received their support.
When some called for a national referendum to at least allow an open debate and a decision by the public, Sharon blocked the proposal.
Instead of Sharon meeting with the Gaza residents face-to-face and explaining his plans like a gentleman, and showing some compassion for those being uprooted, he did the opposite. He demonized these peaceful residents and issued grievous threats of punishment including jail for resistors and even taking away their young children. Three recent news reports provide examples of the undemocratic, brutal and likely illegal actions by Israeli police and Israeli courts.
The suppression of peaceful protest has become so pervasive that a special citizen's web site has been established to compile and document these ongoing human rights violations.
He selected expulsion troops based on their willingness to act with all necessary force against civilians, including children. These troops are to receive extra pay, are not required to wear identification tags, and are assured that the courts would be extremely lenient in case of their brutality.
Reporting on the expulsion would also be controlled by the Sharon government, to allow only what he wants to be seen to be shown.
Sharon also ordered the IDF to restrain its responses to the rain of terrorist missiles that have continued to fall on the Jewish residents in Gaza, thus exposing the people to high risk of injury and death -- presumably to terrorize them into submission.
Sharon's former adversaries among the Israeli Left have eagerly seized upon this opportunity and have been spreading stories demonizing "settler extremists" and urging the government to be prepared to use lethal force against the residents. Because much of the Israeli media is controlled by leftists, it is easy to fabricate and spread stories of "settler violence," which are then quickly picked up by the international media and, citing "Israeli sources", splashed around the world, where it can do the most public relations damage.
Anti-disengagement leaders, on the other hand, have always insisted that all demonstrations be peaceful. It is the Israeli Left that is trying to provoke violence -- and then play the role of innocent victim (standard operating procedure in leftist demonstrations around the world).
A unilateral withdrawal from Gaza would allow Hamas and other Islamists to greatly strengthen their terror base in that area. The evacuation would enable Arab terrorists to bring in weapons and terrorists by land, sea and air, which would no longer be fully controlled by Israel.
Mahmoud Abbas has shown himself unwilling and/or unable to oppose terrorism. On the contrary, he vowed to continue Yasser Arafat's programs and has even failed to stop ongoing incitement by the Palestinian Authority media, preaching the killing of Jews.
Egypt has refused to stem the flow of weapons into Gaza from their side of the border, too. The terrorists have publicly said they are involved now in preparation for another intifada, even more deadly than the current one. They also want to attack the retreating Israelis in Gaza, as they did when Ehud Barak withdrew Israeli forces from southern Lebanon.
The terrorists claimed it was their attacks that caused Israel to retreat and that future attacks will cause Israel to retreat even further. Hamas publicly rejects Israel's right to exist under any conditions. Sharon will receive absolutely nothing in return for his withdrawal, and the terrorists will be rewarded for their murder. Hence, they will be encouraged to continue and to escalate their genocidal activities. A recent report titled "Israel Betrayed?" summarizes many of the illogical and dangerous aspects of the proposed disengagement.
One nagging question is: how can Ariel Sharon, the great patriot and hawkish warrior, do this? How could he now go against everything he has advocated all his life? And how could he do this without any credible explanation and using tyrannical tactics?
Two Israeli authors, Raviv Drucker and Ofer Shelach, in their recent book, Boomerang, offer a possible explanation for Sharon's total reversal of established policy. According to the two writers, Sharon's basic impetus for adopting the radical left-wing plan "overwhelmingly rejected by voters in the January 2003 elections -- was his desire to avoid indictment by state prosecutor Edna Arbel for his role in corruption scandals, for which he and his sons Gilad and Omri were under police investigation. His Disengagement Plan was intended to save him by distracting attention from his scandal, and so far, it seems to have worked.
The Disengagement scheme would appeal to the political Left in Israel that supports almost any plan to transfer more land to the Arabs. The political Left also controls the Supreme Court, which would shield Sharon from legal action, while leftist Knesset members would then support the Disengagement -- all as a political payoff to Sharon.
The Israeli public was told that Disengagement would rid Israel of a defense burden in Gaza while gaining US support to retain Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria (the West Bank). Not only will the withdrawal from Gaza reward and strengthen terrorists, but the Bush Administration has flipped on the West Bank as well.
George Bush earlier implied that Israel could not be expected to expel over 200,000 Jewish residents in the West Bank, but he and Condoleezza Rice now demand that Israel promptly follow up Gaza with the evacuation of Jews in the West Bank. Nowhere is there any mention that Jews have equal rights with Arabs to live in peace anywhere in the region. Evicting all the residents of the West Bank would rip apart the fabric of Israeli society, while bankrupting the economy. Even the much smaller Gaza expulsion will still scar the society and be costly to Israel's economy.
Americans may be tired of hearing about the conflict and indifferent to the fate of some 8,000 Jews in far-away Gaza, but there is something that should cause us to take careful note. Representative Dan Burton has published an entry in the Congressional Record titled, "The Potential Impact of Israel's Disengagement on U.S. Interests". The impact on US security is shown to be entirely negative. Further, Americans in a recent poll strongly opposed the eviction of Israeli residents from Gaza, and also do not believe it will contribute to improved security and to peace. This response is noteworthy because it demonstrates that Americans can understand the illogic of this plan, despite the support of our major media plus the support of Sharon and Bush.
Pastor James Vineyard of Oklahoma is a voice of Christian conscience from America's heartland. He visited the Gaza Jewish community and wrote "An Open Letter to President Bush and Prime Minister Sharon", citing 12 reasons why he opposes the "deportation of Jews by Jews." He is planning to make a video of his message and distribute it to thousands of Christian churches in America.
Israel's terrorist enemies have already made it clear that they regard the planned Disengagement as a victory on the road to their total elimination of Israel. Bush is now signaling that if Hamas wins support in Gaza elections, he may reluctantly have to accept that as part of his support for Middle East democracy.
The Europeans are even further along toward recognition of Hamas, which remains committed to exterminating Israel. And without any consultation or advance notification to Israel, Bush has decided to include Israel's adversaries Egypt and Saudi Arabia in the so-called Quartet (US, EU, UN and Russia), which is going to establish a Palestinian state adjacent to Israel's heartland and without any assurance of it being peaceful. Bush seems to be joining Israel's enemies in his ongoing policy changes and in his assembling an anti-Israel lynch mob that will press for only one outcome: the progressive dismantling of Israel as a viable state.
At some point, Israeli's enemies, including Iran, will feel the time has arrived for their next attempt at exterminating Israel. Israelis know that that no one will come to their aid and they can rely only on themselves. At that point, Israel may feel desperate, abandoned and enraged over this total betrayal. Should the Israelis conclude that all hope is gone, and with nothing more to lose, they might unleash their formidable nuclear arsenal and in the process, incinerate the regional oil facilities, thus collapsing Western economies.
Perhaps, Western governments, including the Bush administration, confidently assume that Israel would never actually do the unthinkable. Let us hope that Israel is never pushed into a position where we will have to find out.
Views expressed by the author do not
necessarily reflect those of israelinsider.
 
|
|
|
|
Click on the blue headline to read a Talkback comment and respond to it. Click on the  icon to send a private email to the talkback writer. The icon appears only if the writer has decided to be contacted. If no popup window appears, please make sure your popup blocker allows israelinsider.com.
|
|
| |
|
