Haaretz (Sunday): Netanyahu announces his resignation from gov't

[Jack Rabbit]

From Haaretz (Tel Aviv)
Dated Sunday August 7

Netanyahu announces his resignation from gov't
By Yossi Verter, Haaretz Correspondent and Haaretz Service

In a dramatic step following cabinet ratification of the first phase of the disengagement plan, Finance Minister Benjamin Netanyahu Sunday announced his resignation from the government, citing his opposition to the pullout.

"We have reached the moment of truth today," Netanyahu wrote in a letter he placed on the cabinet table before abruptly leaving the ministers' weekly session. "There is a way to achieve peace and security, but a unilateral withdrawal under fire and with nothing in return is certainly not the way."

Netanyahu has often criticized the disengagement, but had resisted right-wing calls that he resign from the government to force a crisis over the issue.

Bolstered by the votes of the Labor Party, the cabinet gave the green light to evacuation of the first group of settlements in the Gaza Strip, in line with a prior decision requiring formal ratification of each phase of the disengagement plan.

Read more.

Hopefully, that will the last seen of Bibi in any position of responsibility.

[still_one]

1. he has done this before

it is part of his theatrics

hopefully this time there will be a pull out, and what happened to Rabin won't happen to Sharon

[bemildred]

2. Don't let the door hit your butt on the way out, Bibi.

Unfortunately Jack, I think all this means is that he thinks it's time to make his move, or to attempt to disrupt the withdrawal further. Not that having him out of the government is not a thing to be applauded.

[Jack Rabbit]

3. I have no doubt he'll get into some mischief now

And he'll fall flat on face. Schadenfreude, anybody?

Withdrawal -- not only from Gaza from eventually from the West Bank as well -- cannot be achieved without risks to Israel, but it is something that must be achieved. There can be no Jewish democracy on land where Arabs are a majority. Israel must withdraw to something resembling the 1967 borders in order to maintain that part of the Zionist dream. The alternatives in which Israel hangs on the territories permanently are:

• either to expel Arabs from the territories; or
• to deny Arabs full rights as citizens and turn Israel from a democracy into something more closely resembling South Africa under Apartheid.

Neither one is very attractive. Either one would be one of the major crimes of modern times.

Most Israeli Jews are aware of the risks and are willing to take them. Netanyahu will have little popular support for any move he makes to frustrate withdrawal.

[H5N1]

4. letter from a Jewish woman I know, just back from Palestine

"I miss the olive trees, the fig trees, the
almond trees of Palestine. Even as they continue
to be uprooted and destroyed and stolen,
especially as they continue to be uprooted and
destroyed and stolen.

It seems Jewish fundamentalism has reached
new levels. Not only has the state - through
settlers - stolen the land, but now the settlers act
violently, and threaten more violence, in an
attempt to maintain control over that stolen land.
They claim a connection to the land even as they
destroy it. Now that I'm back in the US, I can't
report to you about life as I experience or witness
it in the West Bank, a life that is being totally
ignored as any media in the area focuses
exclusively on the Gaza disengagement plan.
But I can relay news I've read in the past days.
Today a settler who is active in the Kach
movement (a Jewish terrorist group that is
outlawed even in Israel, although the government
continues to fund their settlements in the West
Bank) opened fire on a busload of Palestinian
citizens of Israel in the Druze village of Shfaram
(inside Israel). He killed four, including the bus
driver, before being killed himself. I read the story
on the Ha'aretz website, as well as dozens of
comments calling for the Jewish terrorist's home
to be demolished, or for curfew to be instated in
his settlement of Tapuach, or any number of other
collective punishment measures. These
suggestions, of course, are made tongue-in-
cheek. In actuality he will simply be considered a
crazy person, like Baruch Goldstein was - an
outsider, not representative of Jews or Israelis.

Yesterday an article reported that a significant
number of teenage boys from Gaza settlements
have threatened to drown themselves in the sea
as a mass suicide if the disengagement plan
goes forward. An act wrought with symbolism, of
course, and maybe a lesson for Jews: It's not the
Palestinians who are going to throw us into the
sea; we're doing it ourselves."


She says Israel is in fact increasing the size of
the illegal settlements.
"What Sharon gives with one hand he takes times ten with the right."

[TomClash]

5. A great letter

that captures both the hubris and the pathos.

[lonestarnot]

6. The reports are so conflicted one doesn't know what the fuck to believe

that comes out of there!

[Jack Rabbit]

7. BBC (Monday): Gaza plan on track, says Sharon

From the BBC Online
Dated Monday August 8

Gaza plan on track, says Sharon

Israel's prime minister is determined to remove settlers from Gaza despite the resignation of senior cabinet member Binyamin Netanyahu, say aides.

The finance minister quit on Sunday in protest at the planned withdrawal which is due to begin next week.

"This resignation will have no impact ... and there will be no delay," a senior official told AFP news agency.

Mr Netanyahu is expected to challenge PM Ariel Sharon for leadership of the Likud party before the next election.

Read more.

[number6]

8. great letter

sez it all

on edit replying to post #4 ;)