Sharon Betrays Israel's Founders

[Dover]

Sharon Betrays Israel's Founders (a good article)

IHT - By Henry Siegman

Many observers of the Middle East believe "something good is stirring," as an editorial in The Economist put it on July 31. Prime Minister Ariel Sharon of Israel seems to have emerged as the champion of a new pragmatism that challenges the rightist dogmatism of the Likud and the settlers as he seeks to disengage from Gaza. And a newly assertive Palestinian young guard is challenging not only a corrupt entourage around Yasser Arafat but also the leader of the Palestinian national movement himself.

Unfortunately, such optimism is based on a complete misreading of both Israeli and Palestinian realities. Sharon is not about to agree to the most minimal conditions for viable Palestinian statehood. His unshakable resolve to avoid dealing with the Palestinians - even to prevent chaos in the wake of the promised withdrawal from Gaza - and to widen Jewish settlement activity throughout the West Bank gives the lie to such wishful thinking.

..snip..

It is one of the ironies of history that the Jewish people, who were disproportionately involved in struggles for universal human rights and civil liberties - and thought of the Jewish national return to Palestine in terms consistent with those values - should now be supporting policies of a rightist Israeli government that is in danger of changing the Jewish state into a racist enterprise. For if Sharon - with the support of Israelis, world Jewry and the United States - leverages his promised withdrawal from Gaza into an Israeli presence in the West Bank that is impossible to dislodge, a racist enterprise is surely what his policies will produce.

..snip..

It had been an article of faith with the overwhelming majority of Israelis for a long time that their most vital security interests required them to remain in southern Lebanon. They believe the same thing about their presence on the Golan Heights. But since Israel withdrew from southern Lebanon, security along Israel's northern border has improved dramatically, and we now know that Moshe Ya'alon, the Israel Defense Force's chief of staff - like his predecessors - does not believe that the Golan Heights are important for Israel's security.

Sadly, Israel remains there - and in the West Bank - because for its political leaders, and for many Israelis, real estate has become more important than justice, or peace, or the founding principles of Zionism...cont'd

http://www.iht.com/articles/534718.html

[Classical_Liberal]

1. Wow from a former head of AJC no less!

. I wonder how long it takes before Foxman blows his stack!