Sharon ,settlement builder and evacuator
צילום: לע"מ
Sharon at a crossroads
Prime Minister Sharon talks about the battle over disengagement and what the plan means for his settlement legacy
This is the holiday interview that has very little to celebrate. Ariel Sharon, 77, four years as prime minister, has reached a crossroads. Disengagement, whose exact date is still not final, passed a series of political obstacles, but now must pass the critical test on the ground.
Terrorism has been extinguished but every sign speaks of its return. Sharon is supported by the American government and is accepted more than ever by Europe and the Arab world. He has a government. He has polls. He doesn’t have a party. A cloud of doubt hangs over his political future.
We met Wednesday with the prime minister.
Barnea and Schiffer: Will the removal of settlements be carried out?
Sharon: “The disengagement plan will be carried out in full. Maybe there are those who think that it will not be carried out. They are wrong.”
Even the date has been questioned.
“For now, we’re going with the date we set. There was a suggestion that it not be done during the three weeks. I will look into the matter with the defense and internal security ministers.”
You didn’t know ahead of time that before Tisha B’Av there are three weeks of mourning for the destruction of the Temple?
“We knew. It wasn't a mystery.It was brought up twice in prime ministerial meetings in June 2004 and February 2005 ... My desire to reconsider the date is to lessen the blow the settlers will suffer.”
Avi Drexler, a land specialist whom you admire, says that nothing has been done to move the Gush Katif settlers in an orderly fashion. Isn’t that a colossal failure?
“I remember Drexler from his days as head of the Israel lands Authority. I admire him greatly, but his statement has no basis in fact. The Disengagement Authority headed by Yonatan Bashi has done a great amount of work …
“I couldn’t deal with the issue until I overcame the referendum, which would have lead to violence, and until I passed the budget. Just after these votes, did the settlers realize that we would go with the disengagement plan. Then, suddenly, they were ready to talk...
“They want to move to Nitzanim. I am ready to go with that. I took steps to ensure that they won’t meet any rabbit, fawn or field mouse. Our natural treasures will not be hurt.”
Your friend, Agriculture Minister Yisrael Katz, suggest pushing off disengagement until after November. Your friend Danny Naveh also wants to delay it.
“Even today there are people who want to hurt the disengagement plan, but it’s impossible to accept every amateurish suggestion.
“There are countries that moved millions without even thinking about it. I’m looking at the day after tomorrow. The State of Israel would need to struggle and that requires broad unity.
“For a generation, the settlers lead the way, and now they are being attacked. The Left tells them that the whole settlement project was for nothing, that they are responsible for all those killed by terrorists, for the economic situation.
"When I speak with them, I say, we had a dream. Part of it we accomplished, part of it we didn’t. I ask them that without the settlement which began in the Park Hotel in Hebron with the blessing of Yigal Alon, would we have the Cave of the Patriarchs today?...
“I you ask me if I regret working on behalf of settlements for so many years, I would say, ‘No.’”
