Free Republic

Three hundred rabbis called on Likud Party members on Thursday to vote against Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's disengagement plan in the referendum to be held Sunday. The rabbis, identified with far-right political movements, are members of a group called "Pikuah Nefesh," Hebrew for "saving lives," the highest precept in Judaism. The group believes that giving up any of the West Bank or Gaza violates religious precepts and endangers lives. "All withdrawals from Jewish land close to a border and its transfer to non-Jews will encourage the enemy to try and attack us from there in order to get more lands,"...

The Gush Katif Local Council has made Sunday, the day of the Likud referendum, an official day off. Thousands of families are planning to close their homes for 12 hours and head with their children to the polling stations. Preference will be given to the central and northern regions. The south is already "theirs," or at least that is how the residents of Neve Dekalim feel. Entire families are planning to camp out near the polling stations. The objective is no secret: unmediated contact with the voter, moments before his vote is cast; one last look in the voter's eye...

Poll results on support for Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's retreat plan in surveys carried out last night of Likud members: Dahaf - Yediot Ahronot: For 39% Against 47% Teleseker- Maariv: For 42% Against 45% Maagar Mochot-Israel Radio: For 43% Against 47% The following is IMRA's translation of results from two telephone polls carried out by "Brain Base" ["Maagar Mochot"] under the direction of Prof. Y. Katz for Israel Radio's "Another Matter" program on 28 April with the results of their 21 April 2004 also presented for purposes of comparison Part 1 - Representative sample of 538 adult Israelis (including Israeli...

Another aspect of the alleged Prime Minister's Office deception concerns Sharon's assurances regarding five settlement blocs that will allegedly remain Israeli. Correspondent Haggai Huberman notes that U.S. President George Bush never said a word about them in his letter of two weeks ago to Sharon. He rather wrote that it "is unrealistic to expect" a full return to the 1949 armistice borders "in light of new realities on the ground, including already existing major Israeli population centers." Bush actually made sure to state that he is not endorsing any particular solution: "It is realistic to expect that any final status...

Prime Minister Sharon has so far stood fast against his advisors who recommend that he threaten outright to resign if he loses. Asked by his interviewers last night if he would resign in such a case, Mr. Sharon said, more than once, "I don't even want to think about such a possibility." However, he emphasized that if his plan is rejected, it would lead to a toppling of the government and the weakening of the Likud Party. At an emergency meeting of Sharon advisors late this morning, it was decided to sharpen the tone even more strongly against those who...

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan will press for greater international involvement in Israel's planned withdrawal from Gaza at next week's meeting of the Middle East quartet in New York, Annan said on Wednesday. The quartet of the United States, European Union, Russia and United Nations will be trying at the May 4 gathering to keep alive its road map to Middle East peace after an apparent major shift in U.S. policy and Israel's assassination of two leaders of the Hamas militant group. Some Arab and European leaders have expressed fear that the road map may be dead...

Residents of southern Israel, prepare for the coming of the Katyushas. The fate that has, until now bee a plague limited to the northern Galilee, will soon be yours. On Sunday, if Prime Minister Sharon’s efforts are successful, we will begin the countdown for their launch, which will begin when the last settlers are expelled from Gush Katif. In the calm after the last heart-rending struggles, prepare for bombardment. Until the evacuation, the evacuees will continue to be the rockets’ main target. As I write these lines, 4,059 mortar shells and rockets of various kinds have already hit them. Most...

Proponents of Ariel Sharon's "unilateral disengagement plan" have claimed that the Bush-Sharon summit resulted in extraordinary benefits for Israel in such critical matters as the Palestinian "right of return," Israel's security needs, and Israel's right to retain settlement blocs in Judea and Samaria in any final settlement. Yet a careful reading of the Bush letter and a comparison between the Bush and Sharon letters lead one to query whether the Israeli public is not buying bogus merchandise. The first question to ask is: How binding is the Bush letter on future administrations or even on the Bush administration itself? It...

<p>Click here to view a short video about Gush Katif, Gaza, one of the places that Jews will be removed from (in addition to Northern Judea and Samaria) if Sharon's Gaza Plan goes forth.</p> <p>It is a Windows Media Player stream. It may be helpful to download the stream to your hard drive, using this program (free), so it isn't choppy.</p>

(IsraelNN.com) Knesset Speaker Reuven Rivlin (Likud) told Galei Tzahal (Army Radio) this morning that if the prime minister in his capacity as party leader invokes party discipline in the upcoming referendum on the unilateral Gaza disengagement plan, he will resign. “I will not cast a vote against the Land of Israel”, the veteran Likud MK stated. Rivlin came under fire from colleagues who support the prime minister’s plan after his Memorial Day and Independence Day remarks were directed at Sharon and his plan, using harsh words in his description of someone who would knowingly act to uproot Jewish communities in...

Tensions are high in the Likud with only four days to go until its 193,000 members go to the polls to help decide the future of Gush Katif and the State of Israel. It is assumed that those who object to the plan are more motivated and thus more likely to vote. The higher the voter turnout there is, therefore, the more the Sharon camp has room for optimism. Efforts in both camps, though still concentrating on person-to-person visits - Prime Minister Sharon is engaged in phone calls this morning - are now turning to the logistics of "getting out...

For a nation that rightly prides itself on its humane treatment of its enemies, Israel needs to start taking a long, hard look at how it treats its own citizens. This coming Sunday, the fate of some 8,000 Jews will hang in the balance, when members of the Likud cast their ballots on Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's proposal to withdraw from Gaza and northern Samaria. It is a vote laden with significance, in political as well as diplomatic and strategic terms, one whose outcome will have far-reaching repercussions, both locally and on the international scene. But amid all the debate...

Ahead of a meeting next week between the US and Jordanian leaders, US President George W. Bush is preparing a letter to Jordan's King Abdullah II, in which he states that the final positions on West Bank settlements and Palestinian right-of-return are subject to negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians, reported IBA news Wednesday. Advertisement Administration officials in Washington said the letter would also reiterate the US's continuing endorsement for the road map peace plan. The King reportedly cancelled a previous meeting with Bush due to the president's letter of principles to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. Israel's ambassador to the...

Jordan's King Abdullah told visiting Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia Wednesday that Israel's planned pullout from the Gaza Strip should be part of a "total Israeli withdrawal" from all Palestinian areas, said a statement from the royal court. "Israel's plan, envisaging a unilateral pullout from the Gaza Strip should be part of a total Israeli withdrawal in accordance with the provisions of the road map," the king was quoted as telling Qureia. The king added that any solution to the Palestinian issue should be decided by the parties concerned. Abdullah briefed the Palestinian leader on "Jordan's efforts aimed at reinvigorating...

The State Department said on Monday that the United States would assist the Palestinians as they assume control of the Gaza Strip after an Israeli withdrawal, but rejected a claim from a former senior US envoy that responsibility for what happens in Gaza will fall to Washington. On Sunday, former US ambassador to Israel Martin Indyk wrote in the Washington Post that neither the collapsed PA nor Egypt would be equipped to take charge of Palestinian affairs in Gaza once Israel pulls out. "Instead, de facto responsibility for what happens in Gaza once Israel withdraws will fall to the United...

Hamas official al-Zahar: Hamas will cooperate with Arafat, PA in enforcing law, order in Gaza after Israeli retreat (Army Radio)

The threat of evacuation that is hovering over the heads of the Gush Katif inhabitants in the Gaza Strip has led them to make use of any means they think might help avert the evil decree. Pogroms against the Jews dating back to the days of Amalek, a comparison between the situations of the Gush residents and the condition of the Jews of Spain before the expulsion and even a reminder about the Holocaust of the Jews of Europe have been enlisted in order to prove that a tragic historical continuity links them to the fate of the Jewish people....

Translation from Hebrew to English by me The US Secretary of State, Colin Powell, called Saturday night the Palestinian Prime Minister, Abu Ala, and asked him to look at the disengagement plan as a good way of getting territories. Powell told Abu Ala that this program is being done in the context of the roadmap, and it gives an opportunity for moving the peace. Powell asked Abu Ala to join in negotiation on this matter - so that the Palestinian Authority, not Hamas, will be the one that gets the territories Israel will be leaving in Gaza and northern Samaria...

The past 10 days have been good for Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. He was able to take a pat on the back from George W. Bush and turn it into public declarations of support for his plan to turn Gaza and much of Samaria into safe havens for terrorists from his heirs apparent in the Likud – Ministers Netanyahu, Shalom and Livnat. Additionally, Sharon this week has successfully silenced debate of his plan to uproot 25 communities in Gaza and Samaria and to turn the territory over to Israel's enemies. He maneuvered his way out of debating Minister without Portfolio...

Prime Minister Ariel Sharon caused an uproar in a summer recess session of the Knesset on Thursday when he termed his stated intention to act according to the results of the May 2 Likud referendum as a "moral" commitment, not a "legal" one. "The commitment we took upon ourselves, the members of Likud and myself, to act according to the results of the referendum, is a public and moral duty, not a legal or binding duty," Sharon said. Amid a decline in Likud support for his disengagement plan, Sharon seemed to indicate by the tone of his speech that he...