An Emasculated Giant Called Ariel Sharon
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It seems that Sharon has
done a 180 degree turn from what he believed in 1995.
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Sharon
Ariel
Sharon Then and Now
| Sharon - |
| photo/rferl |
LETTER FROM JERUSALEM
Thursday, January 01,
2004
byline-RUTH MATAR
Dear Friends,
I'm writing this article with a heavy heart, to tell you that the Sharon of
today is not the leader we voted for. His actions are virtually those of a
dictator, who has lost all Zionist convictions. Already in November of 2003,
Ariel Sharon made it clear that he, and he alone, will direct diplomatic
negotiations about the "unilateral steps" which he is planning with
regard to dismantling settlements. Now he says in a dictatorial way,
"Outposts will be dismantled, Period! ... The negotiations now and in the
future will be concentrated in the Prime Minister's Office. I will direct the
negotiations. This is the way it needs to be, and this is the way it will
be."
Some years back, on February 10, 1995, Ariel Sharon, then a Likud MK and a
former Defence Minister, wrote an Op-Ed article in the Jerusalem Post entitled:
AN EMASCULATED GIANT CALLED ISRAEL. The following are excerpts from this
article:
"Signs of our internal disintegration are increasing. And the Arabs are
aware of them too.
"This week, Nabil Shaath told the London Independent: 'Israel will be
forced to agree to the return of 100,000 of the 1948 refugees to Galilee.' Asked
if the Israelis would really agree to this, Shaath, a Minister in Yasser
Arafat's Government replied: 'It seems to me they will be forced to agree.'
"And Israel? It has no response. It remains mute.
"... The PLO is laughing up its sleeve, and the European foreign ministers
don't give a hoot.
"And Israel, with all the power and justice on its side, looks like an
emasculated giant.
"THERE WAS no surprise in what Nabil Shaath said. For some years now,
similar statements - mainly Egyptian - on how to destroy Israel in stages have
appeared in articles by leading figures in the Arab world, in senior academic
circles, among the intelligentsia. One of the minds active in this context -
indeed, the leader of this unofficial trend - is Osama el-Baz, President
Mubarak's adviser.
"What are these circles thinking, and what are the different stages of
their "program"?
"THE FIRST STAGE:
portraying Israel as 'rejecting peace,' while the Arab world, including the PLO,
desires it. This will deepen Israel's isolation and increase pressure on it.
This has already taken place.
"IN THE SECOND STAGE,
Israel will be forced to embark upon difficult and painstaking negotiations in a
process which, ultimately, will take it back to the 1967 lines. As a result,
Israel will again be weakened, losing its defensive capability. That too, is
happening.
"THE THIRD STAGE will
see the intifada moving from the '1967 model' to the '1947 model' and focusing
mainly on Galilee, where most Israeli Arabs live. After a long and wearying
struggle, Israel will also give up central Galilee and the northern and southern
'triangles' (from Megiddo, through Wadi Ara, to Kfar Kassem, an area in which
250,000 Palestinian citizens of Israel live, most of them supporters of the
Islamic Movement.)
"THE FOURTH AND FINAL STAGE:
After the retreat to borders approximating the 1947 Partition Plan, these Arab
circles think Israel's continued existence is strictly a question of time.
"Shaath's declaration fits in well with this plan; it will, indeed, hasten
its implementation.
"Does all this seem like a fantasy? When I spoke and wrote about this some
years ago, it appeared, even to me, to be no more than a nightmarish vision. But
it is all actually happening before our eyes -- chiefly thanks to the unstinting
help of our government."
Now, Ariel Sharon as Prime Minister is head of the current Israeli government.
He, himself, is giving the "unstinting help of the government" to make
his own nightmarish vision come true. In truth, Ariel Sharon, our erstwhile hero
is now himself "an emasculated giant".
Half a year after the February 10 article, on August 11, 1995, Ariel Sharon
wrote an Op-Ed article entitled "THE DANGERS OF
COOPERATION" for the Jewish Press, the Jewish American paper with
the largest circulation:
"The government's propaganda machine works full blast to break the spirit
of these people, to isolate and weaken the stirrings of national life still
present in the hearts of so many. The premier and foreign minister incite
against the settlers, accusing them of diverting the IDF and police from the
battle against terrorism, implying that they are a small minority tearing the
nation apart.
"But in fact it is the government which is diverting the IDF, police, and
other security services from seriously dealing with terrorism..."
And on September 29, 1995, Sharon, in an Op-Ed article in the Jerusalem Post
entitled SICK JOY OF RETREAT, wrote as follows:
"Governments come and go, and so do generations. It is our great privilege
to hold these sacred possessions in trust for future generations. We have no
right to transfer them to alien hands.
"For decades now, I have repeatedly declared that Israel is not just an
Israeli project but the responsibility of all the world's Jews. What happens to
Israel will affect the situation, even the destiny, of Jews everywhere. It is
not only their right but their duty to make their voices heard."
And this is what Prime Minister Sharon said only a couple of months ago about
the small community of Netzarim, probably the most exposed settlement in Israel,
but of tremendous strategic importance in preventing the transfer of weapons
between various Arab terrorist groups:
"Netzarim is the same as Negba and Tel Aviv. Evacuating Netzarim will only
encourage terrorism and increase the pressure upon us." (Negba is a secular
Kibbutz in the Negev, the same area where Prime Minister Sharon has his farm.
Negba has approximately the same number of people as Netzarim.) Nonetheless, the
Left continually agitates for the evacuation of Netzarim.
Again, the "new" Sharon has changes his
opinions completely. In a meeting with his Ministers on December 15, 2003, he
asks rhetorically, "Does anyone believe that also in the future there will
be Jews in Netzarim and Morag?"
What has happened to Ariel Sharon? Did Sharon mean what he said in his many
Op-Ed articles (I have only quoted from a few of them) before he became Prime
Minister? Or did he at the time express such ideas only for political
expediency?
Does Sharon now sing a completely different tune, because holding on to his new
coalition partners, the 15 member anti-religious Shinui party (with four
Ministers and two Deputy Ministers holding important portfolios) means placating
them by getting rid of the very settlements which he himself helped to
establish?
Did Sharon completely change his outlook, because he now believes that he has
more to gain by supporting a different agenda? Is his "warm"
relationship with President George W. Bush more important than his erstwhile
principles, even as far as establishing a Palestinian State on Jewish Land and
evacuating or transferring Jews from their homes?
The nightmarish vision which Sharon talks about in his
article "AN EMASCULATED GIANT CALLED ISRAEL" is now upon us. In
this article Sharon says that the plan to dismantle the State is no secret. And
prophetically, Ariel Sharon said "It will actually happen with the
unstinting help of our Government." Sharon, by agreeing to the "Road
Map", which means the establishment of another Arab State carved out of
what was originally Land Promised to the Jews by the League of Nations and the
Balfour Declaration has fulfilled his own prophecy.
(Britain violated its Mandate of the League of Nations and the Mandate of its
own Balfour declaration by carving out 70% of what was supposed to be the Jewish
Homeland and giving it to Abdullah, one of the Hashemite tribal rulers, thereby
"inventing" Jordan, which was at first called Transjordan. Note the
name Transjordan which means "across the Jordan." Even in their
generosity the British did not give Abdullah the Biblical Judea and Samaria.)
We hear much about the Jewish settlements in Judea, Samaria and the Gaza Strip,
the area liberated from Jordanian occupation in 1967. We hear much about how
destabilizing these Jewish settlements are. How provocative they are. But the
Arabs have built 261 settlements in the so-called "West Bank", whereas
the Jews have only built 144 settlements since 1967, in their own Biblical
Heartland.
Most of the Arabs living within the borders of Israel today have come from some
Arab country in some time in their life. Arafat himself was born in Egypt. Just
since the beginning of the Oslo Accords more than 400,000 Arabs have come from
Jordan, Egypt and indirectly from any other Arab country you can name.
What makes the 261 Arab settlements in the "West Bank" (Judea and
Samaria) legal, and 144 Jewish Settlements illegal and obstacles to peace? Who
felt empowered to nullify G-d's Promise in the Bible to the Jewish People?
Important Jewish religious leaders, amongst them two former Chief Rabbis of
Israel, have now ruled that according to Jewish Law it is forbidden to give away
Jewish Land. As Sharon said in his article of September 29, 1995:
"Governments come and go, and so do generations. It is our great privilege
to hold these sacred possessions in trust for future generations. WE HAVE NO
RIGHT TO TRANSFER THEM TO ALIEN HANDS."
We, the People of Israel, are not obligated to follow the lead of the
"new" Sharon.
We, the Jewish People, who have come home after a 2,000 year exile, pray that
Hashem will show us the way as to how we can prevent this attempt to stop the
Promised Redemption.
Prime Minister Sharon himself said "Governments
come and go: and so do generations. It is our great privilege to hold these
sacred possessions in trust for future generations. We have no right to transfer
them to alien hands." Ariel Sharon needs this reminder from people
all over the world who want to prevent his dismantling the Jewish State.
With Blessings and Love for Israel,
Ruth Matar
RUTH MATAR (WOMEN IN GREEN)
Sharon Defiant Sharon vows Gaza pullout
BBC- Dec 2/04 - Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has said he will complete his plan to disengage from Gaza next year, despite losing a key coalition partner.
"The disengagement plan will be implemented. Period," he said.
Mr Sharon fired ministers from the Shinui party, which voted against the government in the defeat of the annual budget in parliament on Wednesday.
As his Likud party has only 40 of the 120 Knesset seats, he must seek support from Labour or religious parties.
"There is no choice: either the Labour party and the religious parties join the government or we must have elections," he told a news conference in Tel Aviv.