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Sharon Tells NY: Most of Yesha Up For Grabs
Arutz 7 ^ | May 24, '05 | staff

Posted on 05/23/2005 9:53:18 PM PDT by Nachum

Prime Minister Ariel Sharon told American Jewish leaders that Maaleh Adumim, Gush Etzion and Ariel will stay in the hands of Israel forever but the rest of Yesha is negotiable.

After guards evicted hecklers who interrupted his speech to 1,500 fund-raisers, Sharon said that the status of other areas of Judea and Samaria are subject to the "final phase of the permanent agreement negotiations and talks."

Most media reports on his speech ignored Sharon's implication that leaves in doubt the future of communities of about 1,000 families, such as Beit El, Ginot Shomron, and Kedumim. Sharon added that disarming terrorists is a condition for the talks on a land-for-peace accord."

"It should be completely quiet [with] an end of terror, dismantling of terrorist organizations, collecting their weapons, stopping the smuggling…that will enable us to enter the road map," the Prime Minister stated.

Sharon won strong backing from American Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who spoke Monday to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), which Sharon is to address Tuesday.

She criticized Palestinian Authority (PA) chairman Abu Mazen (Mahmoud Abbas) for not destroying the terrorist infrastructure. Abu Mazen, successor to Yasser Arafat, is to meet with President George W. Bush on Thursday.

Rice also insisted that the PA accept western democracy, "a goal that is unassailable and incontrovertible." The PA has promised to stage democratic legislative elections July 17, but its election committee announced Monday that they must be postponed because it cannot complete administrative work in time. Hamas terrorists have charged that PA officials are afraid to hold elections as planned because of the growing strength of Hamas.

Rice has stated she welcomes Hamas' accepting the idea of democratic elections because they will encourage the terrorist organization to use politics and not violence for its objectives. Both Hamas and Abu Mazen's Fatah party have a common goal of making Jerusalem the capital of a new Arab state along with an Israeli withdrawal from all of Yesha, including the three areas which Sharon said he will not surrender.


TOPICS: Foreign Affairs; Front Page News; Israel; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: for; grabs; most; ny; of; sharon; tells; up; yesha
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To: Yehuda

Mr. Paranoia speaks.


41 posted on 05/25/2005 5:54:16 AM PDT by liberallarry
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Comment #42 Removed by Moderator

To: Nachum
The PA has promised to stage democratic legislative elections July 17, but its election committee announced Monday that they must be postponed because it cannot complete administrative work in time. Hamas terrorists have charged that PA officials are afraid to hold elections as planned because of the growing strength of Hamas.

The Soviet Union had 'elections'. Saddam had 'elections'. He was such a succesful politician, in fact, he got 100% of the vote!

The fact is, the PA is a dictatorship. One that was once a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Father of Modern Terrorism, Yasser Arafat, and which is now run exclusively by his minion for fifty years, Abu Mazen.

Sharon and Bush and Rice and Co. should be ashamed negotiating with these people and their Hamas foot soldiers.

Nowhere else in the world is it acceptable to negotiate with terrorists.

43 posted on 05/25/2005 7:41:47 AM PDT by EternalVigilance ("We, the people, are the...masters of...the courts..." -Abraham Lincoln)
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To: Yehuda
So, SFB, exactly what is the benefit to Israel and America of the gaza withdrawal?

America gets to say it is successfully promoting legitimate Muslim and Arab interests. Hopefully, this will buy enough time in the short term for us to conclude most of our military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan without having to fight elsewhere at the same time. The Left, of course, sees this as this first step in the peace process. The Right - the realists - don't. Or rather they consider that outcome to be only a remote possibility.

Israel is trading Gaza and the northern West Bank for Jerusalem and the settlement blocks around it. The Arabs certainly don't like that...but that's what they're going to get. That and the Wall. The rest of the world will agree to the trade...which is crucial. The fighting will then be over the remainder of the West Bank. In the short term it will become a Palestinian state...but, as I've said, it will not be viable and there's a good chance the Israelis will get it back, evicting the Arabs in the process.

44 posted on 05/25/2005 9:10:18 AM PDT by liberallarry
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To: Yehuda
The Gaza withdrawal is a strategy, not a picture of the future. It can be criticized just as your strategy can be...or any strategy can be. It can be wrong...just as any human plan for the future can be. I like it because it seems better than the alternatives.

As to the specifics:

Nobody's leaving Al Queda in control anywhere. Hamas will try to control Gaza but it will fail. Have you looked at Gaza? It's a giant slum without resources of any kind, filled with furious, bitter, emotional outcasts breeding like vermin. Israel is dumping it on Egypt...which has neither the resources or the will to deal with it. But they do have the political freedom to slaughter the Palestinians. Nobody will complain just as nobody complained when the Jordanians did it.

We'll be in Iraq for more than a year or two but the Iraqi government may have stabilized somewhat by then, our bases will be fully operational, and we'll be ready to deal with either Iran or Saudi Arabia.

The Arabs will call the Gaza withdrawal a victory. That's one of the reasons why I think the strategy will work.

The agreement isn't written down. But governments are loath to try to undo facts on the ground. Israel is not going to be forced to move 200,000 settlers, the Wall will soon be in place and it is to include the major settlement blocks, the American government - and Bush in particular - has several times indicated that it would approve of the situation, nobody is going to be able to stop Israel from completing the encirclement of Jerusalem with settlements.

The Arabs will escalate their attacks. I'm counting on it. That's part of the genius of the strategy. But their position is not improved. Gaza will prove to be ungovernable and possessing it will be a curse rather than a blessing. The Wall has already proved it's worth. And lessening the burden of policing is a blessing.

There is no place called Eurabia. It's not worth replying to someone who thinks there is.

Ditto to someone who thinks he knows about the real homeland of the Arabs while saying nothing about the real homeland of European Jews...and even more so about some moron who calls Sharon and Barak traitors while claiming to know "Israelis in the know".

46 posted on 05/25/2005 10:30:22 AM PDT by liberallarry
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