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Between disengagement and annexation: retrieval from the waist

2020-08-07T08:58:38.510Z


Yossi BeilinI must admit that one of the greatest successes of the right is the overthrow of the unilateral withdrawal from Gaza on the "left." In a zoom meeting with a group of young people, one of them asked me how the left does not understand that every area from which you have led retreats, is being turned by the "Arabs" into a springboard to harm us. Protesting against the disengagement in Kfar Darom /...


I must admit that one of the greatest successes of the right is the overthrow of the unilateral withdrawal from Gaza on the "left." In a zoom meeting with a group of young people, one of them asked me how the left does not understand that every area from which you have led retreats, is being turned by the "Arabs" into a springboard to harm us.

Protesting against the disengagement in Kfar Darom // Photo: Yossi Zamir / GPO 

What area do you mean, exactly? I asked, and he replied, without hesitation, "From Gaza, of course." "And to which left does exactly who the then Prime Minister, Ariel Sharon, belong?" I asked in amazement. "Come on, of course. A party of leftists with Peres, Livni and Olmert. "

I was reminded of a sketch by Rebecca Michaeli about the boy Udi who is confused between the holidays, and I tried to arrange for the polite and enthusiastic young man the story. Sharon, I told him, was perceived by many as the "father of the settlements," even if he did not invent them. Even when he was foreign minister in the Netanyahu government, in 1998, on his return from signing the "Wai Agreement," he called on settlers to settle on every hill. In 2003, when he won the election and offered the then chairman of Labor, Amram Mitzna, to join him, he did not agree to his request to withdraw from the Netzarim settlement, in the heart of the Gaza Strip, stating that "Netzarim is lawful in Tel Aviv." Sideways from the whole strip.

Sharon did not make the decision and did not carry out the plan as Kadima chairman, but as the Likud leader. No agreement was reached with his characteristic stubbornness, ignoring the results of the Likud members' referendum, which he himself initiated.

People are still trying to figure out what he went through, and why he made such a surprising decision. After all, this is not an election promise, like the one that Rabin (an agreement with the Palestinians within six to nine months) carried with them or Barak (a withdrawal from Lebanon within a year of forming a government). Opponents, right and left, were convinced that he had done so to divert attention from the criminal investigations against him ("the depth of the retreat as the depth of the investigation"). Dubi Weisglass was interviewed at the time, attributing the withdrawal to interviews conducted by former GSS leaders condemning the political stalemate, while Sharon himself, in an interview with the New York Times, explained that he decided to do so in order to Won surprising public support in 2003, will not be adopted, and will not harm Israel.

The idea of ​​the withdrawal from Gaza was not born on the left and was not adopted by him. Quite a few in the peace camp saw this as a violation of the Oslo Accords. We tried to persuade Sharon to withdraw as part of a settlement with Palestinian President-elect shortly before, Mahmoud Abbas, but Sharon insisted on not doing so. He knew that even if the left had no enthusiasm for the move as proposed, there was no chance that those seeking an end to the occupation would join the people of Greater Israel and vote against the withdrawal from Gaza. We, in March, gave him, from the outside, the majority in the Knesset that he needed, but we warned him that without a peace process it would be a great achievement for Hamas and would encourage violence.

The withdrawal from Gaza and its results do not prove that "the Arabs cannot be trusted," or that there is no partner. It proves that this idea, created by the Likud, was made from the waist up, without any serious planning in advance, out of a simplistic view of the difference between the pragmatic Palestinian camp and the fanatic one. In these respects, he cannot help but mention the intention of another unilateral move, the annexation of a third of the West Bank "by July 1." It's annexation, and it's a withdrawal, but the irresponsibility is similar.

For more opinions by Yossi Beilin

Source: israelhayom

All news articles on 2020-08-07

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