NY politician: Don't fund West Bank withdrawal

A New York politician visiting Israel on a solidarity mission announced he is forming a national coalition to petition the United States government against supporting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's plan to withdraw from the West Bank.

Olmert is due in Washington next week for talks with President Bush. According to reports, Olmert officials eventually want to ask the US to help defray the costs of the withdrawal plan, priced at over USD 11 billion.

"It is absurd that the American taxpayers should fund a plan that will ethnically cleanse an area of Jews by expelling tens of thousands of Jews from their homes," stated Assemblyman Dov Hikind, D-Brooklyn.

"And why should US citizens whose government is in the midst of fighting a war on terror pay to help establish what will clearly become a center for global jihad after Israel evacuates?" Hikind said.

The lawmaker arrived in Israel yesterday for a whirlwind tour of many of the West Bank Jewish communities slated for evacuation under Olmert's convergence plan, which seeks to change Israel's borders by withdrawing from most of the territory.

The West Bank runs alongside Jerusalem, Tel Aviv and Israel's international airport. Olmert officials also recently announced they are drawing up a plan to evacuate parts of Jerusalem.

Hikind said he is working with Christian and Jewish organization to establish a coalition to sponsor public information campaigns about what he called the dangers of an Israeli withdrawal from the West Bank, and to lead solidarity missions to communities Olmert seeks to evacuate.

The politician also said he will personally petition US senators and congressmen to drop their support for Olmert's plan.

"There are a lot of members of Congress who are pro-Israel and who blindly support the Israeli administration believing it is in America's and Israel's best interests. I think they would be very receptive to learning Olmert's withdrawal plan is immoral and strategically disastrous," said Hikind.

"Hamas explicitly declared a victory for terror after 9,000 Jews in Gaza were driven from their homes. Gaza is now a terror base for local and global jihad groups, al-Qaeda has moved in and rockets are fired from Gaza almost daily. The last thing America needs now is another major terror zone in Judea and Samaria. And Israelis would get Palestinian and global terrorists situated just outside their major population centers with rockets aimed at them," he added.

Financing for Olmert's withdrawal plan is considered crucial for its implementation. The US previously pledged to help fund Israel's disengagement from the Gaza Strip, which was carried out at a cost of about USD 2 billion, but little aid actually arrived.

Analysts contend the West Bank withdrawal could get stalled by the Knesset if Olmert doesn't secure enough international funding to cover a significant portion of the expenses.

Hikind called the Jewish communities of the West Bank "the home center of Zionism. These are some of the most dedicated people to the land and State of Israel living in biblical Jewish communities. It is a crime to uproot them."

Hikind this past summer led several Christian and Jewish delegations to the Gaza Strip to protest Israel's withdrawal from the area, which was carried out this past August.

Reprinted with permission of WorldNetDaily