Just another short sighted Israeli political hack/crook
Reader comment on item: Admitting Israel's Unilateral Withdrawals a Mistake

Submitted by Ken Besig (Israel), May 28, 2008 at 14:16

The truth is that virtually no Israeli politician has more than a 24 hour view of events and all Israeli politicians are willing to sacrifice the security of Israeli citizens on the altar of their own putrid self interest. This is why the hurried and harried Lebanon withdrawal was carried out, even though everyone knew that it would exponentially increase the danger to Israel.

That is why, even though a vast majority of Israelis knew and stated as much, that after the Olso Accords, and without a doubt, the Sharon disengagement, that the Gaza Strip would become a terrorist base. Everybody but these political hacks and their friends in the Left wing Israeli press knew that the withdrawal from Gaza and the Shomron would be a catastrophe for Israel.

But then again, as I mentioned above, neither the ill advised and dangerous unilateral Israeli withdrawal from Lebanon nor the equally ill advised and dangerous unilateral Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip were carried out for either security or diplomatic reasons, they were carried out for purely political reasons by the two Israeli Prime Ministers involved, Ehud Barak and Ariel Sharon.

Ehud Barak was under increasing pressure from the ongoing Police investigations into his illegal campaign financing and by the Israeli Left wing journalists because of his failure to effectively confront and negotiate with the Palestinians. His order to withdraw the IDF from the Lebanon buffer zone just bought him a few months respite while bringing mortal danger to Israel and our citizens.

Ariel Sharon was also facing criminal indictment for the misuse of funds and illegal campaign financing when he cooked up the unilateral Gaza and Shomron withdrawal schemes. Indeed, the entire Israeli Left wing journalist community openly agreed to grant him what they called "etrog" status. This meant that like the Succot etrog, the citrus fruit which along with the lulav, is shaken during the Hallel prayer, and which has it's own special case for carrying, that Sharon must be protected from any event which might prevent the disengagement from Gaza and the Shomron.

And this is exactly what they did, the Israeli journalists promoted the disengagement non stop, ignored or ridiculed those who argued against it, and only showed a sympathetic picture of Sharon's arguments, self serving though they were. I suppose that Sharon got the last laugh after all, he had his stroke and was medically removed from office, and his son Omri went to jail for his father's crimes. Of course he left the Israeli public behind to suffer from his terrible miscalculation and to try to deal with the aftermath.

Dr. Pipes, I would like to agree with you that Mr. Olmert has learned from and understood his predecessors mistakes, but I do not. I believe that Mr. Olmert, who will soon be faced with indictment for financial misbehavior and breach of trust, will try exactly the same sort of ill advised, dangerous and irresponsible campaign to save his term of office. The few places left for him to withdraw from are the Golan Heights, the rest of the Shomron, Judea, and of course, Jerusalem.

I hope I am wrong, but for my part, I am willing to bet Olmert will try to divide Jerusalem with the Palestinians as a way of avoiding indictment and as way to save his office.

Regarding ben Eliezer, he has been wrong so often about almost everything that in order to know what to do politically, diplomatically, or in terms of security, one should listen to what he says and do the opposite. By the way, this is the fellow who wants to release the worst, most hard line, and most dangerous of Palestinian murderers, Marwan Barghouti, because ben Eliezer believes he can negotiate a settlement with him. God save us!

Shimon Peres is just one big walking error and many Israelis believe that Peres' bad political, diplomatic, and security judgement have taken more Israeli lives than either the Arab enemy or even road accidents.

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