Free Republic

"I fear that the government is refraining from sending IDF troops into Gaza to stop the Kassam rockets because it doesn't want to admit its mistake in withdrawing from Gaza in the first place." So said Prof. Moshe Arens today, speaking with Arutz-7's Uzi Baruch. Prof. Arens served as Defense Minister in four different Israeli governments and Foreign Minister in one. Arens said that a military ground operation is necessary because the "IDF's artillery barrage on northern Gaza is totally futile, as the terrorists fire the rockets from densely populated areas while Israel shells empty areas." "The security establishment must...

Jan. 24, 2005 19:36 PM supports giving Israelis right to absentee vote By GIL HOFFMAN Prime Minister Ariel Sharon supports passing a bill to allow Israelis living abroad the right to vote in Israeli elections. Sharon told the Likud faction on Monday that he supported such a bill in the past when it was raised by Moshe Arens and that the matter must be investigated. The faction decided to appoint a high level committee to look into the issue, composed of Justice and Immigrant Absorption Minister Tzipi Livni, coalition chairman Gideon Sa'ar and Knesset Law Committee Chairman Michael Eitan. The...

All the polls show that a large majority of the Israeli public supports the prime minister's plan for getting out of Gaza and uprooting the settlements there. Most of the public doesn't seem to care what you call it - separation, unilateral withdrawal, you name it; let's just get out of there, kit and caboodle. And no wonder. What are we doing there in the first place? Why didn't Begin insist that Sadat take the Gaza Strip when he turned the Sinai over to the Egyptians so that we could have ridden ourselves of this headache? A few hundred Israeli...