← Autodidact Archive · Original Dissent · Gregz
Thread ID: 13450 | Posts: 4 | Started: 2004-04-29
2004-04-29 22:15 | User Profile
By Matt Spetalnick
JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Scrambling to avert an embarrassing defeat, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has warned his divided Likud it will undermine him and wreck the party if it rejects his Gaza pullout plan.
Sharon raised the political stakes, depicting Sunday's Likud poll on his "disengagement" plan as a vote of confidence in his leadership of the right-wing party, as opinion surveys for the first time showed him losing the crucial ballot.
He predicted victory, but also warned hardline party members, many of whom oppose the proposed Gaza withdrawal, that a defeat could topple the Likud-led government.
"You cannot be for me but against the plan I am spearheading. Whoever believes in me must vote for the disengagement plan," he told Israel's Army Radio on Thursday.
"Otherwise it will be a victory for (Palestinian President Yasser) Arafat and (the militant group) Hamas and will ultimately bring about Likud's downfall," he added.
Trying to counter intense lobbying against the plan by Jewish settlers, the right-wing premier also warned of possible damage to Israel's vital ties to the United States, which endorsed his plan for a unilateral Gaza pullout.
"I don't want to think what, heaven forbid, would happen...to the economy, the markets," he told Israel Radio in remarks directed at 193,000 "Likudniks" who will vote on whether to uproot all Gaza settlements and four of 120 in the West Bank.
Justice Minister Yosef Lapid told Channel Two television his centrist Shinui party would reconsider its participation in the government if Sharon's plan was cancelled, chances for peace were shattered and ties with Washington deteriorated.
Sharon says a Gaza pullout will improve Israel's security after three and a half years of fighting with Palestinians.
But many in the traditionally pro-settler Likud oppose ceding any land captured in the 1967 Middle East war and have branded the proposed pullout a "reward for terror".
Palestinians say Sharon's strategy is to cement Israel's hold on large swathes of West Bank land they want for a state.
PULLOUT OPPOSITION GROWS
Sharon dodged questions of whether he would resign if the Gaza plan failed to pass, but Israel Radio suggested he might use such a threat as a "doomsday weapon" to sway Sunday's vote.
Defeat in his own party would be a major blow. But he has already signalled he will present the plan to his cabinet and parliament -- where his chances of success are higher -- even if he loses. Polls show a solid majority of Israelis in favour of parting with Gaza's hard-to-defend settlements.
Sharon's camp had seen victory as a foregone conclusion after U.S. President George W. Bush endorsed the plan, giving unprecedented assurances Israel could retain some large West Bank settlements and bar the return of palestinian refugees.
But an Israel Radio poll on Thursday showed 51 percent of the Likud against a pullout and 39 percent in favour, Sharon's worst showing since introducing the initiative. Two newspaper surveys also had opponents ahead but by a narrower margin.
Rabbi Yitzhak Kadouri, a revered religious leader with clout among Likud members, lined up against the plan late Thursday, calling it a "privilege" to vote against the pullout, Channel Two television reported.
"We're going to win," Gaza settler spokesman Eran Sternberg said. "Sharon is just trying to frighten Likud members."
2004-04-29 23:25 | User Profile
Likud is not a right-wing party because their leader Sharon is a left-wing Atheist who wants to surrender Gaza to the Satanic Muslim Hamas terrorist mass murder organization.
2004-05-01 01:46 | User Profile
Moderate Centrist
The US has contributed $97 billion in aid to Israel. Four times more than the US has spent supporting development projects in Africa. This and the hundreds of billions extorted from Europe by the Jewish criminal oligarchy have been invested in developing and defending Israel.
Israel is not a variable state in it's self but a political instrument and one day we may well see just how well this instrument plays under the thumb of a Arab master.
Likud are a secular, quasi-nationalist party. Sharon is said to be a moderate yet he retains support from Likud as without him they would have trouble holding on to power and the current coalition government could untwine. Sharon's enemy is time and not the shadowy political obstacles presented to him by domestic opposition.
Whilst the Israelis masses blame America and Europe for restraining there governments policy of displacing Arabs. Israel's security apparatus is now over stretched and clearly can not police the current situation as efficiently as it would like. Sharon simply can not afford to lose the support and confidence of either the IDF or America. But on some level he already has lost both.
Sharon understands that in order to maintain a effective security presence that he must attempt to consolidate and concentrate this forces. However any strategic withdrawal by Israel from Israel's presently occupied territories. May well and probably quite rightly so, be viewed as a concessionary policy politically.
Sharon is said to be a good political and military leader but in reality he is neither. Sharon's greatest weakness is that he works to closely to given designs. This is why he is force to constantly correct his own mistakes and take so many calculated risks.
Gregz
"The unapparent connection is more powerful than the apparent one." - Hippolytus
2004-05-01 02:28 | User Profile
[QUOTE=Moderate Centrist]Likud is not a right-wing party because their leader Sharon is a left-wing Atheist who wants to surrender Gaza to the Satanic Muslim Hamas terrorist mass murder organization.[/QUOTE]
Moderate? as you know it was the Zionist Jews who formed the Hamas terrorist group in order to have them fight President Arafat.
Only thing was that Hamas was able to see who the real enemy was and did something about it,,,,,,,, you and your people created your own nightmare like you have been doing for over 2,000 years.
You and your people have been persecuted and killed for over 2,000 not for being Jews but for the way that you act as Jews,,,,,,,,
"When the truth comes into the light, the lies will hide in the dark",,, Ponce