BUMP
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1463304/posts
Is Deporting Jews Acceptable When Israel Does It?
The Ornery American ^ | August 5, 2005 | Lisa Liel
Posted on 08/14/2005 3:34:04 PM MDT by zahal724
If all goes according to Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's plans, the Gaza Strip will be emptied of Jews by this time next month. It is tempting to say "cleansed of Jews", but the term has such negative connotations that I hesitate to use it.
The shocking thing has been the absolute silence from human rights advocates. After all, what PM Sharon plans is the mass eviction of a significant population from their homes -- homes in which they have been living peacefully and lawfully for years; homes in which they have built businesses and raised families. Homes, in short, where they have built a life.
The victims of this eviction will be transported to other places, which, they are told, will be safer for them. And arguably, they are without democratic recourse.
In the State of Israel, which is so often touted as "the only democracy in the Middle East", PM Sharon won the last elections by a landslide. It was a one-issue race, and the issue was giving Gaza to the Palestinians. This election was the only chance the Israeli electorate has had to express its will concerning this plan, and the overwhelming majority of the citizenry said: "No".
Not only does the Prime Minister have no mandate for such an unprecedented move against his own people, but he has a solid mandate *against* it. And when his own party, the Likud, demanded a referendum, Sharon, confident in polls which predicted a large margin of victory for him, agreed. More than this; he agreed to accept the results of the referendum as binding.
When the Likud referendum went overwhelmingly against Sharon's plans, he reneged on his public agreement to accept the results. After effectively disenfranchising the Israeli public as a whole, he had also disenfranchised his own party.
(EXCERPT)