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In the article in the Jerusalem Post below, Yossi Beilin adds his voice to
that of Uri Avnery that Sharon's disengagement plan is deception. He says that
if Sharon were serious, he would evacuate by end of 2004 and not wait an extra
year. He implies that Sharon's real agenda is to use the false promise of
withdrawal to weaken the peace camp and draw Labor in to supporting his
government.
While Sharon talks about withdrawal and disengagement, he is, of
course, all the time rapidly building walls, grabbing land, demolishing
houses, destroying trees, and killing Palestinians in the West Bank and
Gaza. Beilin is absolutely correct to call Sharon's disengagement plan
deception. Like Barak's "generous offer," the disengagement plan appears to be a
bid to win support from peace forces in Israel while Sharon proceeds in
action to destroy, to use violence, and to provoke violence. Like Barak's
killings of hundreds of Palestinians during the first months of the Intifada,
before there were any suicide bombings, any violence Sharon's intense violence
provokes Sharon can use as pretext for his next round of repression.
Beilin rightly calls on the peace movement to reject supporting Sharon and
to seek to overturn his government.
But Beilin is himself opposed to any withdrawal of Israeli soldiers and
settlers that does not gain deep concessions from Palestinians. So Beilin, like
Sharon, is locked into lengthy delay. What choice do Israelis have in turning
from Sharon to Beilin when both will keep the occupation going? The peace
movement needs new leadership that will say yes to withdrawal from Gaza, as
Sharon's plan legitimizes, and that goes a little further and says lets
withdraw from both Gaza and the West Bank now. No more delay. Life before
land. Not one more Israeli or Palestinian killed. Bring all the soldiers and
settlers home within Israel's pre-1967 borders now.
Jimmy
Beilin calls for new elections, invites Labor to join effort Yahad leader Yossi Beilin called on his party on Sunday to support new elections, warning them not to "fall prey" to the "deception" that Prime Minister Ariel Sharon plans to evacuate the Gaza Strip. Beilin called on the Labor Party to join Yahad in working to end Sharon's government. Speaking in Tel Aviv at the Yahad Party's first convention since its inception last year, Beilin said that if Sharon were serious, he would evacuate the Gaza Strip by end of 2004, rather than waiting a year and a half. How many committees does it take, Beilin asked rhetorically, to move 8,500 people? Beilin accused Sharon of putting forward a virtual plan with a three-part agenda: It allows US President George W. Bush to chalk up a victory for Middle East on the eve of the November election, and enables the National Religious Party to remain in the government while enticing Labor to join the coalition. He said that his party, with six MKs, intends to support any initiative that will "end the occupation" that is brought to the Knesset. "But with that [our support] begins and ends," Beilin said. "We have no trust in Sharon or his intentions," said Beilin, explaining that his party will do its best to unseat this government. He also refuted claims that bringing down the government would harm the
disengagement process. Just because Likud has met the Left at an intersection, Beilin said, doesn't mean the two camps are on the same path. He also took aim at Shinui, attacking the centrist party for joining neither
the Left nor the Right, so that it ended up standing for what Beilin said
amounts to no economic or diplomatic platform. He said that, when he saw pictures of an old woman searching through the
rubble of her destroyed home, he thought of his grandmother. Yahad's platform is clear, said Beilin. It supports a social welfare state, returning to the 1967 border with Syria, and the Geneva Accords as a model of how to achieve peace. He received a standing ovation from the crowd. Earlier in the day in Tel Aviv, Minister-without-Portfolio Uzi Landau (Likud) met with Likud branch heads to work on preventing a national unity coalition with Labor, to thwart the disengagement process, and to call for a party convention.
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