Sharansky Trying to Stall Gaza Pullout Indefinitely
Last week Israeli Cabinet Minister Natan Sharansky left the government because he believed the coming pullout from the Gaza Strip should be linked to human rights reforms within the Palestinian Authority. His gripe with Sharon's plans to abandon Jewish settlements appears to have nothing to do with free roaming Palestinian terrorists, nor does he want to use the prospect of a pullout from the territory as a leveraging tool to continue to demand a halt to any and all terrorist activities in the territories, no matter how far removed the from the official Paletstinian leadership those attacks may be.
Sharansky's demands would seem to be consistent with is personal experience, his dedication to human rights: he spent a decade in a Soviet prison for his activities as a Jewish, pro-Israel activist. That makes it easy to believe that he is purely looking out for the rights of the common Palestinian.
But Sharansky is a much more complicated character. His zionism is pro-settlement, he believes that the land of Israel includes all of the occupied territories and any retreat from those territories is a betrayal of heavenly mandate. He has consistently sided with Israel's right wing in demanding the growth of the settlements, not their dismantling. So, when the human rights activist claims that he is looking after the the rights of the Palestinian on the street, he's really using their plight as a way to stall the withdrawl. And, because there is no way to neatly quantify an improvement in Palestinian human rights, making Sharansky's demands conveniently open ended, such a postponement could be indefinite.
By his way of thinking, the Palestinians would clean up their act, and then at some hypothetical date the pullout plans could be taken off the shelf, and the whole pullout process restarted. But, considering the difficulties involved in getting Sharon's plan into motion, that day would likely be very far off. Sharansky is betting on that.
Sharansky's demands would seem to be consistent with is personal experience, his dedication to human rights: he spent a decade in a Soviet prison for his activities as a Jewish, pro-Israel activist. That makes it easy to believe that he is purely looking out for the rights of the common Palestinian.
But Sharansky is a much more complicated character. His zionism is pro-settlement, he believes that the land of Israel includes all of the occupied territories and any retreat from those territories is a betrayal of heavenly mandate. He has consistently sided with Israel's right wing in demanding the growth of the settlements, not their dismantling. So, when the human rights activist claims that he is looking after the the rights of the Palestinian on the street, he's really using their plight as a way to stall the withdrawl. And, because there is no way to neatly quantify an improvement in Palestinian human rights, making Sharansky's demands conveniently open ended, such a postponement could be indefinite.
By his way of thinking, the Palestinians would clean up their act, and then at some hypothetical date the pullout plans could be taken off the shelf, and the whole pullout process restarted. But, considering the difficulties involved in getting Sharon's plan into motion, that day would likely be very far off. Sharansky is betting on that.
posted by CatZoo at 6:25 PM
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