One of my shul's rabbi's favorite topics to speak about for the last few months each Shabbos morning has been about Sharon's proposed unilateral pull-out from Gaza and Gush Katif. As a firm religious zionist, he is very against the idea and cannot comprehend how anyone could even consider such an ignoble idea. He isn't too fond of liberal Jews either.
My views of the matter are this: I don't see every scrap of land settled by Jews in the area as sacred. Much of the land in the area has strong historical and cultural value as it is the area of ancient independent Jewish rule, but Gaza isn't really part of that. The land of Gaza was always a neighboring land, and sometimes under control of the Israelites, but it's hardly a Jewish land. So any argument of it being part of the traditional Jewish homeland is not convincing.
Another point of view says that any land conquered by Jews (especially in a defensive war) should never be given away. In a perfect world that might be fair but it fails to account for the political and demographic realities of today and things aren't always fair. As I see it, there are 1.3 million Palestinians living in Gaza and less than 8000 Israeli settlers. Those few thousand settlers are under constant attack and the state of Israel has to swallow huge expenses to keep them protected. And for what? Just to say that Jews are living in Gaza?
And Israel can't just let these settlers stay in Gaza but remove the IDF forces. These settlers are Israeli citizens and as such the state must go back and help them if they're ever in trouble. There is no doubt that in Gaza they will be in trouble. The only way for the state of Israel to remove itself from that inevitability is to remove the citizens themselves from the area.
Seeing the situation as a cost/benefit analysis, I think, clearly shows that settlement in Gaza is a huge cost for not much benefit. The ideologues who have settled there enrages the local Palestinians and endangers Israel more than it would otherwise.
Other arguments against the pull-out is that the settlement is for Israel's security. I don't think that's credible. Gush Katif is a security nightmare. A carefully monitored border on Israel proper would be much easier to manage and removing Jews from Gaza is removing juicy targets.
Another argument is that Israel is in a state of war with the Palestinians and if we want peace, it's stupid and wrong to let the Palestinians win by just giving them land. This may have something to it but I feel that although that's a valid concern I don't think peace will be gained or lost by Gaza alone. I think that in the long term, settlement there is too costly to perhaps use the area as a future bargaining tool for peace talks.
So I'm not very happy about the plan, I don't like to see Jews being ripped from their homes or to see Palestinians whooping in victory after Israel will pull out, but from a logical point of view it does seem like a good course of action. Doing so will even make Israel look good on the international media stage as they are giving the Palestinians more autonomy in the process. And maybe, just maybe, it will even lead to a sooner state of peace in the region.
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http://www.barrychamish.com
FLOWERS FOR ARMAGEDDON by Barry Chamish
Jerusalem Post, April 28/05
PERES, US DISCUSS GAZA FLOWER TRIANGLE
Israel and the Netherlands are discussing a cooperative arrangement whereby
the Dutch would help Palestinians use the greenhouses left behind in Gush Katif to grow
flowers that Israel would help market in Europe.
Vice Prime Minister Shimon Peres raised the idea Wednesday in a meeting with US Secretary
For Near East Affairs, David Welch. Another idea that was raised was that the Aspen Institute would
buy the greenhouses and transfer them to the Palestinians.
Welch made his second visit to Israel in a week. Last week, he was here with Deputy
National Security Advisor Elliott Abrams to push the Palestinians to coordinate the disengagement
plan with Israel.
Peres is scheduled to meet Saturday night with James Wolfensohn on the outgoing World
Bank President's first visit here since being named the Quartet's special envoy charged with assisting
Israeli-Palestinian disengagement coordination and Palestinian economic rehabilitation earlier this
month.
Peres updated Welch regarding contacts with European leaders about aid to the Palestinians...
both he and Welch discussed the slow implementation of these financial commitments. The two also discussed the lack of a forthcoming financial contribution from the Arab world.
So much criminality in so few words. Here is what the report meant:
First, there is not a word reminding the readers that the Knesset Finance Committee is currently investigating the Shimon Peres Center For Peace for conflict of interest, tax evasion and embezzlement. As I have reported for the past three years, Peres gets huge kickbacks for "rehabilitating" the Palestinian economy. The Knesset is now investigating the 3.1% ownership of Paltel, the PA's phone company by the Peres Center Peace Fund. The lion's share of the company is owned by the Bin Laden family of Saudi Arabia. To thwart the investigation, Peres shut down the Peace Fund and likely, destroyed its records.
Continuing in his Mafia tradition, Peres is putting his end of the scam before the interests of the nation he despises. The Israeli people have been tricked all along the way to accept the Gush Katif surrender, just so the crooks could divvy up the ransom.
And who are the crooks? Once again we turn to the membership list of the Council On Foreign Relations of Manhattan http://www.apfn.net/CFR.htm
And who do we find on the list? Why, everyone mentioned in the news item: Elliott Abrams, C. David Welch, James D. Wolfensohn, and The Aspen Institute is a CFR affiliate. But the Post "writer" isn't informed enough to make the observation and would dismiss it as coincidence that every American responsible for the Gush Katif sellout is a member of one 4000 member think tank. No conspiracies for the Post.
Now if those fighting the pullout would stop wasting their time organizing demonstrations far from those selling them out, and surrounded Abrams, Welch or Wolfensohn with 100,000 very angry protesters, they might actually get somewhere. If any visiting CFR member arrives and his stay was made most uncomfortable, the crooks might get the message that the Jews are on to them and will make their lives insecure for as long as they live. But they needn't worry; the Jews are too dumb to figure it out.
We now reach the heart of the scam. Who will sell the hothouses to the "palestinians?" The owners and builders of them living in Gush Katif for the past generation? Of course not. The CFR's Aspen Institute will take them over, sell them to the World Bank and it will resell them to the PA.
That's why Wolfensohn was in town and that is why the CFR's Stanley Fischer was sworn in as the head of Israel's Central Bank two days later.
That is the scam, and Peres and his CFR cronies will all get their slices of the theft. Their only disappointment is that more money to steal in the name of palestinian economic rehabilitation isn't pouring in to them.
The Gush Katif residents have no choice. They must adopt a scorched earth policy if they are to have any chance of preserving their homes. The moment the pullout begins, the hothouses have to be burned to ashes. All of them. Then, if the removal forces gain the upper hand, every house has to be burned beyond use. Nothing must be left for Peres and his CFR crooks to sell to anyone.
These preparations must be made immediately!
To illustrate how little the Israeli media, even the voice of the settlers, understands, compare my correct reading with the following:
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/news.php3?id=80985
In his meeting with US Undersecretary for Middle East Affairs Walsh, Deputy Prime Minister Peres updated him on Israeli talks with Palestinian Authority officials, as well as with Arab and European leaders. Peres described his efforts to obtain financial assistance for the PA, and noted the slow pace of fulfillment of European and other commitments made to the PA. During the discussion, Peres and Welch also talked about the lack of response in the Arab world to requests on behalf of the PA.
In addition, Peres called on the US private sector to increase investments in PA-controlled territories.
Mr. Peres noted the need to maintain the current tax structure between the PA and Israel, and informed Welch of the plans for the transfer of Gush Katif hothouses to Arab ownership in the context of the Disengagement Plan. According to Minister Peres' office, the deputy prime minister described to the American official negotiations currently underway with Holland to allow Israeli marketing of PA-grown flowers.
Today's Tel Aviv meeting is a preview for Minister Peres of a planned meeting with the economic coordinator for the "Quartet" - sponsors of the Road Map peace plan - outgoing World Bank president James Wolfensohn, Saturday night. Peres will discuss with Mr. Wolfensohn projects to rehabilitate the PA economy.
The following report is much better.
http://web.israelinsider.com/Articles/Briefs/5350.htm
Peres suggests turning Gaza settlement into Club Med resort By: Israel Insider staff and partners
Published: April 19, 2005
Deputy Prime Minister Shimon Peres sought to plot out the economic fortunes of the Middle East after Israel pulls out of the Gaza Strip this summer, proposing Monday regional economic cooperation that could include a tourist resort in Palestinian areas for terrorists who need rest and recuperation after their hard labors. "We could convert a settlement into a Club Med," he said.
There are unconfirmed reports that this could be a collaborative effort with the casino planned for Gush Katif by Ariel Sharon's adviser, Dov Weissglas. "Our fighters need rest and recuperation after their hard labors," one Palestinian official said." If they can relax in the sauna and do aerobics, perhaps they'll be less inclined to carry out martyrdom operations."
"We must not wait for the political solution but create economic and social hope" in the region, Peres said at the end of a 45-minute meeting with French President Jacques Chirac in Paris. "We must help all the countries construct an economic democracy," Peres said, referring to Gaza, Jordan and Israel. "We must coordinate on the economic front," he added.
Gush Katif residents should know that the Peres/CFR mafia are coordinating their efforts with France/Vatican. Everyone will get a piece of the resort/casino about to be built on their land.
By the end of the day, don't be surprised if the Peres gang put a roof over the whole Gaza Strip, install air-conditioning and call the place The Gaza Plaza. One stop shopping for all.
end
Strong hints of an impending shutdown. After my Pesach selling journeys last week, I found the lights on my car lit. The message was, We Know Where You Are. My printer Israel Cohen was lured into Jerusalem's Old City with a promise by Israel Police to escort him and his family on a tour of the Temple Mount. He was arrested the moment he walked through Jaffa Gate. Be aware that I may be a victim of a crackdown soon.
Meanwhile, the selling spree was a major success. Join the many Israelis who bought extra books to awaken their friends, neighbors, families and co-workers.
My DVD was requested but not enough yet to manufacture an Israeli PAL edition. I still need more interest to put out a local edition of my recent California lecture, The Dirty War Against The Settlers.
For those with NTSC or multi-systems, Peter and Christie Michas will send it to you straight from the US in days. The cost is $20 for two hours of truth. Write pmichas@mac.com or christiem@messengers-of-messiah.org
As usual, you can order my English books; Shabtai Tzvi, Labor Zionism And The Holocaust; Save Israel!; Who Murdered Yitzhak Rabin; Israel Betrayed; The Last Days of Israel; from chamish@netvision.net.il
I
Anon (Barry?),
Your conspiracy theories are absurd. No ruler would try this politically dangerous move for the sake of getting a few bucks (split how many ways among the thousands of conspiracists you've presumed?) from the measly amount of land on which the Israeli inhabitants of Gaza sit.
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