One of the saddest aspects of the Sharon regime is having people going all the over the world in the name of our Foreign Office such as Deputy Foreign Minister Michael Melchior and his boss, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Shimon Peres.

Does the Foreign Ministry of Israel, which is currently in the hands of the Labor Party, represent the views of the People of Israel at the present time? In no way, form or fashion! After all, the Labor Party suffered an overwhelming defeat in the February 2001, election when Ariel Sharon was voted Prime Minister by a landslide.

So how come that Shimon Peres and his sidekick Melchior control such an important ministry, which is so powerful in influencing the perception of Israel abroad and generally shaping public opinion with regard to Israel’ s policies?

That is why our topic tonight is as follows:

IS PRIME MINISTER SHARON WISE TO PERMIT HIS FOREIGN MINISTRY TO PROMOTE POLICIES THAT THE ISRAELI ELECTORATE REJECTED IN THE LAST ELECTION?

Unfortunately, Mr. Sharon felt that it was essential to form a unity government, and that it was necessary for him to share powers with the defeated Labor Party. In addition, he gave the Labor Party the most strategic power base, such as Shimon Peres for Minister of Foreign Affairs and Ben Eliezer for Defense Minister. Many political analysts feel that Sharon did so to prevent the stalwarts of the Labor Party from going abroad and criticizing any coalition formed without them.

The very people who brought us the Oslo Accords are now using their governmental positions to perpetuate these disastrous Accords. We read in the newspapers about soldiers who have been indicted for selling guns to the Arabs. However, Shimon Peres, one of the very architects of Oslo, gave the Arabs guns for free. He still has not been indicted.

Sharon was elected by a great majority of Israelis who felt that he was the one who could bring security to Israel. Has Ariel Sharon fulfilled his most important campaign promise to the Israeli People, to provide real security, if elected? Unfortunately, he has been a dismal failure in this regard. Mr. Sharon is in an impossible situation. He is walking a self-made tightrope without a net. On one hand, he continually tries to appease the Labor Party to prevent them from leaving the coalition, even though they use their positions to further their own agenda. On the other hand, he is constantly pressured by the United States to show “restraint” in retaliating against Arab terror attacks.  Most importantly, the Israeli People are starting to feel that the situation has become intolerable under Sharon’s unity government, and that there is no solution in sight.

Here are some shocking figures: During the first seven years after the signing of the Oslo Accords, that is between September 1993 and September 2000, 303 Israelis were murdered. In the two years since September 2000 to the present time, 609 Israelis have been murdered. That means that in only two years the Arabs committed double the amount of murders as they committed during the first seven years. This tremendous increase of Arab terrorism in the last two years has had a great impact on Israeli society. A public opinion poll conducted by the Jaffee Center for Strategic Studies was published a week ago.

Here are some of the findings:

·       Israelis were worried to an unprecedented degree, both about their personal security and about the state of Israel’s national security, with 92% of respondents expressing fear that they or a member of their family would fall victim to a terrorist attack.

·       Because of the situation, Israelis showed a shift to less conciliatory positions on almost all issues. A total of 27% expressed support for suspending the peace process, even if this leads to war.

·       Only 37% support the principle of land for peace.

·       45% believe the Israeli-Arab dispute can and should be resolved militarily as any other nation would.

·       57% oppose the renewal of talks with PA Chairman Yasser Arafat and back his expulsion.

·       A shocking 46% support the idea of a “transfer” of Palestinians.

In analyzing this public opinion survey, it seems that the voice of the majority in Israel has precious little influence on the present Israeli government. Did the majority of Israeli voters make a mistake in thinking that Ariel Sharon would save them from the nightmare of Oslo? Could the People of Israel have envisioned that Sharon would turn over the major part of governmental powers to the very people who they voted against so decisively?

Could the Israeli voters have envisioned that Shimon Peres would have free rein to roam around the world as Israel’s Foreign Minister to malign Israel and selling his Oslo pipe dream? The Shimon Peres who never once in his political career has won a popular election?

Could the Israeli voters have envisioned that Ariel Sharon would allow the Deputy Foreign Minister, Michael Melchior, who is also a frequent flyer, to go around the world selling the “land for peace” idea? This idea, of course, is the very cornerstone of the Oslo agreement. It doesn’t bother

Melchior one bit that only 37% of the Israeli People believe that this idea has any merit whatsoever. (By the way, “Rabbi” Melchior, has also never won an election, but is used by the Labor Party as a religious fig leaf.)

Our guests tonight are Diane Benjamin, who is a resident of Dallas, Texas, and David Bedein, who is the Bureau Chief of Israel Resource News Agency in Jerusalem. These interviews can be accessed at: http://www.israelnationalnews.com/metafiles/asx/wig.asx

To sum up our discussion, I would like to quote Herbert Zweibon, who is Chairman of Americans For a Safe Israel:

“It is a scandal that the Labor government should participate in the governing coalition. It is unconscionable that the Foreign Minister of Israel is Shimon Peres, the architect of Oslo, who even in the Sharon government has played by no rules but his own whims, routinely ignoring cabinet decisions. On June 27th, days after President Bush’s speech demanding a post-Arafat Palestinian Authority, Peres declared he was still prepared to do business with Arafat. There should be a thorough investigation--the kind Enron and Worldcom will be undergoing--of the secret (possibly illegal) negotiations and underhanded methods through which Oslo was rammed through cabinet and Knesset. In short, the Labor Party, and Peres most especially, should be held accountable for the carnage that has been inflicted on the people of Israel.

For Sharon, the unity government has become an end in itself. But apart from the fact that this government has no real unity of purpose, its Labor ministers “doing their own thing” with impunity, a unity government, at this time in Israel’s history, makes a farce of the all-important principle of accountability. The message is that a party, through a mixture of folly and lethal arrogance, can bring the country to the brink of destruction, the public can repudiate that party decisively at the polls--and nothing happens. The scoundrels continue to run the country as if nothing untoward had happened.”

We pray that Ariel Sharon will realize his mistake in going against the will of the Israeli People by forming a so-called unity government with the very people who have brought the nation of Israel to the brink of destruction. We pray that the old Ariel Sharon, who we thought to be a real Lion of Judah, will fulfill the hopes that we had in him when we chose him as Prime Minister in the February 2001 elections.  

Women For Israel's Tomorrow  (Women in Green) http://www.womeningreen.org
POB 7352, Jerusalem 91072, Israel
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