This past week, the head of the government decided to crack the general consensus about the fighting in the North and to connect it to the convergence program. Since this issue was raised on to the public agenda, and at an unfortunate time, there is a duty to provide him with feedback about this mistake.
I was among those who supported the unilateral evacuation of Lebanon. It quickly became clear that it was a mistake. The vacuum that we left was quickly filled by Hezbollah, the Islamist terrorist organization supported and financed by Iran. Hezbollah claimed that they defeated the “Zionist Entity” and that resistance and the language of force, proved to be effective ways to exhaust Israel. In the world of images, Hezbollah won the battle of communications and propaganda. It widened its activities of societal support and intensified its hold on the Shiite community in Southern Lebanon and on the Lebanese societal consciousness.
The Israeli government’s policy of restraint in the face of Hezbollah provocation
as perceived as weakness by this organization. The myth grew, as did greater Iranian financial involvement and Hezbollah’s military strength. Little by little, under the guise of the deceptive “partial quiet” on the northern border, the strategic endangerment of the citizens of northern Israel grew. This strategic endangerment caused the war today. The IDF is fighting now to rout this danger, while the Northern residents are hiding in shelters.
The Sharon-Peres government repeated the failed unilateral withdrawal of the North when it carried out the program of unilateral disengagement from Gaza without an agreement, accompanied by the expelling of thousands of Jews from their homes and the razing of settlements and synagogues. Deportation and ruin were always the ideals of Israel’s enemies and the Islamic extremists.
And the results were not delayed in coming. What happened in Lebanon also happened in Gaza. The reign of the moderate forces, with which we completed the agreement that brought about the establishment of the Palestinian Authority .was defeated. And the vacuum was filled by that organization Hamas, which captured power in democratic elections.
The Palestinian authority was turned over to a terrorist state with Kasam and rocket propelled grenades in firing range of Sderot, Netivotm, Kfar Saba, Hod HaSharon and Raanan, with Grad missiles in firing range of Ashkelon and even also Ashdod. The fact that Hamas was carried to power endures on the wings of much societal support depicts the failure of the disengagement and the enemy’s view of our unilateral withdrawal from Gaza without an agreement.
Unilateral convergence compares to a fierce gust of wind in the sails of terror. However, the government of Olmert-Peres-Peretz is threatening to continue on in this failed path. Are the results of the experiments in Gaza and Lebanon not enough for us? Is there one person who supports its idea of continuing on the path of the unilateral experiment?
Are your ears closed to the warnings of the King of Jordon, that convergence in Judea and Samaria without an agreement creates a threat to his reign? And what will happen if his regime collapses? Who will fill the vacuum there? Isn’t clear that once more the seeds of Islamic Revolution will be sown by Iran to shape a new order there?
As one who is counted in the Peace Camp, I face my friends and say “We should not sanctify the withdrawal from the territories however it occurs, at any time and under any conditions.” The convergence sabotages the prospects of peace and creates and creates obstacles and impossible conditions to its progress.
We supporters of peace, we are correct to pay the heavy price on the path to the realization of the vision of peace. However, it is on us to learn from the experience, to learn from the reality of what happened after the evacuations and understand the implications of a unilateral withdrawal without an agreement. We need to look directly and say to the head of the government and his ministers and also to the Arab World, “Indeed, the way of peace is preferable to the way of war, but not with unilateral withdrawals. Territory only for peace.”
Translated by Judith Gelman with assistance from Haya Laufer
