Posted on 10/02/2003 3:52:17 PM PDT by anotherview
19:42 Oct 02, '03 / 6 Tishrei 5764
Minister Natan Sharansky (Likud) explained to Arutz-7 this morning why he voted nay on the planned partition route yesterday: "Two years ago, I supported a fence as a tool to help the military fight terrorism, and the intention was to ensure that it would not become something like a border along the Green Line of 1967. But what happened yesterday was that we voted that it would be a political thing - an intrinsic part of the negotiations with the U.S. For instance, in Ariel we decided only to build the eastern part, and to leave the rest for negotiations with the U.S. As I said yesterday in the Cabinet, only a mega-terrorist attack will convince the Americans that we need a real partition. Why do we have to turn this into a political issue?"
"But it includes Elkanah and Karnei Shomron, etc.?" asked Arutz-7's Emanuel Shilo.
Sharansky: "Yes, of course that's good. But the decision to build it in stages, and to thus inform the Americans that we are not yet completing the controversial section around Ariel... In addition, in the Beit Aryeh region - a very strategic area, close to Ben Gurion International Airport - the fence is still too close; a missile could take out our air traffic..."
Sharansky also said that the fact that the government made no decision on the Jordan Valley disturbs him and "implies that we are willing to give up on this critical area." He acknowledge that the American financial pressure is a very central point regarding the partition fence: "I said a while ago that we should have said no to the Americans then - but now it's already hard to go back on what they think we have already agreed to."
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