February 3, 2004
MONTHS, NOT YEARS:
"Sharon preparing detailed list and timetable for Gaza evacuation" (Ellis Shuman, February 3, 2004, Israel Insider)
Sources close to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said he would present U.S. President George W. Bush with a detailed list and timetable for the planned removal of 17 Gaza Strip settlements, Army Radio reported. Deputy Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said the evacuation will commence this summer. 59% of the Israeli public supports the Gaza evacuation, a poll stated. Right-wing Knesset members vowed to bring Sharon down.According to the Army Radio report, Sharon wants to hear what the Bush administration will promise Israel in return for the settlements' removal, in order to help convince the Likud Party to support the plan.
Sharon said he asked National Security Council chairman Giora Eiland to complete the plan within a week in order to be ready for his visit to Washington later this month.
In response to Sharon's statements about the settlements' removal, White House spokesman Scott McClellan said it was "encouraging that Israel is considering bold steps to reduce tensions between Israelis and Palestinians."
Sharon told Haaretz correspondent Yoel Marcus yesterday that as part of his disengagement plan, he had called for plans to be drawn up for the "evacuation - sorry, a relocation - of 17 settlements with their 7,500 residents, from the Gaza Strip to Israeli territory."
We should give them a mutual defense pact, making any attack on Israel by its neighbors--including the new Palestine--effectively an attack on the U.S. Posted by Orrin Judd at February 3, 2004 8:02 AM
Now that would make for some interesting spin in the upcoming election. Can't wait to hear Charlie Rangel's take on it.
Posted by: jim hamlen at February 3, 2004 3:25 PMI don't pay too much attention to this matter, but it did occur to me yesterday that if Israel were to impose an independent state on the Palestinians, it could add a codicil that any attack from it would be an act of war, and make it clear it would be total war.
Adding the US to such a warning would be painting the lily, perhaps.
Posted by: Harry Eagar at February 3, 2004 5:52 PMMr. Eager;
I can't see such a codicil having any effect. What would Israel do? Re-occupy the West Bank or Gaze? That would be stupid, as the purpose of the fence is to escape from there. The other alternative would be massive retaliation, and Israel just won't do it. That leaves some proportional response, which will have no effect on the Palestinians except to generate some good PR footage (how many Palestinians would Israel have to kill before the leadership of Fatah or Hamas considered it a problem instead of an opportunity?).
Posted by: Annoying Old Guy at February 4, 2004 1:04 AMI was thinking in Old Testament terms, Guy. You're right, they would not do it, but they could. Drive out all the Arabs.
I did make an effort to study the history of Zionism many years ago. Very depressing in every way.
If it had been up to me, we'd have given the Jews Germany for a homeland and told the Germans to find another place.
Posted by: Harry Eagar at February 4, 2004 1:42 AM"...and told the Germans to find another place."
Like Hawaii?
Posted by: Barry Meislin at February 4, 2004 3:19 AMI suspect he meant Greenland.
Posted by: jim hamlen at February 4, 2004 10:15 PMI wouldn't wish the Germans on anybody. But if they'd been told to move without a destination, they wouldn't have had any grounds for complaining, would they?
If everywhere they knocked, there was no lebensraum in the end, so what?
Posted by: Harry Eagar at February 5, 2004 12:52 AMThey'd just have taken France or somplace and then taken back their own land from the Jews. It's best not to give Germans a purpose in life.
Posted by: oj at February 5, 2004 8:48 AM