Arutz-7 News: Wednesday, June 9, 2004

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Date: Wed, 09 Jun 2004 16:37:00 +0200
To: arutz-7@israelnationalnews.com, dailyreport@israelnationalnews.com
Subject: Arutz-7 News: Wednesday, June 9, 2004
From: Arutz-7 Editor <feedback@israelnationalnews.com>

Arutz Sheva News Service
<http://www.IsraelNationalNews.com>
Wednesday, June 9, 2004 / Sivan 20, 5764
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TODAY'S HEADLINES:
1. NRP IN DISARRAY
2. DISENGAGEMENT BEGINS: EREZ TO BE CLOSED

1. NRP IN DISARRAY
Yesterday's decision by NRP leader Housing Minister Effie Eitam to resign from the government has left most of his party behind - so far. It has also led to calls for either his resignation or his ousting from the party leadership.

Eitam, together with Deputy Minister Rabbi Yitzchak Levy, resigned from the government yesterday, in light of the Cabinet's decision-in-principle to withdraw from Gaza and the northern Shomron. Three of the other MKs - Minister Zevulun Orlev, Sha'ul Yahalom, and Gila Finkelstein - wish to remain, for now, in the government.

The party's 6th MK, Nissan Slomiansky, has not yet made a final decision. Slomiansky denied reports that he has been offered the position of Deputy Education Minister, the post that Tzvi Hendel of the National Union party vacated earlier this week. He said that he would not assume any new positions during the upcoming period. "Although my inclination is to do everything I can to protest this withdrawal plan," he said today, "I am trying to find a compromise that will enable the party to come out of this crisis united."

The situation in the NRP is now one of great tension and resentment between the sides. It will be recalled that Eitam spent 30 years in the IDF, retiring as a high-ranking officer, and assumed the party leadership just over two years ago. As such, many still regard him as an outsider. "Many party leaders in Israel are treated similarly," Eitam said today. "Look what happened to Amram Mitzna [of Labor], and Aryeh Deri [of Shas], and even Arik Sharon... Before I came to the NRP, the polls predicted only 2-3 Knesset seats - but in the end, we received 6 seats, a small increase over what we had had before."

Orlev and his allies, however, say that the Cabinet did not yet make an operative decision to withdraw from Gaza and dismantle communities, and that many things could happen until this actually occurs. They also say that Eitam and Levy should have waited until the party's Central Committee convenes and makes a final decision on the matter. "Morally, Eitam should resign as party leader," Orlev said, "because a party can't speak in two voices."

Asked about Orlev's "let's wait and see" approach, Eitam said, "The thought that we should remain in a government we don't agree with because someone else [Labor - ed. note] might replace us is the type of thought that can destroy an ideological movement..." He compared it to the following scenario:"Let's say there is a group of cooks in a kitchen preparing a meal for hundreds of people. Suddenly the boss comes in and orders them to prepare a poisonous meal - but says that they need not serve it yet, just merely cook it, and then we'll see what happens. Should the cooks then start cooking the poisonous meal? After all, they can say to themselves, 'Well, many things can happen: maybe the boss will die, or he'll change his mind, or someone else will come and cook it even faster...' Obviously not. This is the situation that the NRP is facing right now. As it is, concrete steps are already being taken, such as the decision to close the Erez industrial zone in Gaza [see below]... "There are times when a person must follow his conscience - that is the essence of leadership."

Eitam added that the Sharon government must and can be toppled. He noted especially its undemocratic moves of the last few days regarding the firing of National Union party ministers Lieberman and Elon, the intention to establish a Hamas-terrorist state in Gaza, and Sharon's stated intention to make Gaza "clean of Jews by the end of 2005." Eitam said that when that intention is translated into "another language, it sounds so terrible that I don't even want to think about it."

Eitam and Levy received a letter yesterday from Rabbi Mordechai Eliyahu - who, together with Rabbi Avraham Shapira, is regarded by some as the party's spiritual advisor - instructing them to resign. Both sides claim to have the support of the "religious-Zionist public."

The tentative understanding reached yesterday is that by Monday, the date of the next no-confidence motion, the two sides will try to reach an agreement on how to vote. Rabbi Levy estimates that it's only a matter of time - and probably even by Monday - that the other party MKs will join him and Eitam in opposing the Sharon government. It could be, however, that this period will be extended for three months, after which the party leaders will convene to make a final decision. "In the final analysis," Eitam said today, "all of us oppose this terrible plan to withdraw from Gaza and uproot 8,500 Jews from their homes."

Yahalom said that Eitam and Levy had, by resigning, "stabbed the settlement movement in the back, as now we won't be able to fight for its interests in the government." Levy said that remaining in the government would allow Sharon to continue preparing for the withdrawal/expulsion, and then to "throw us out the minute we threaten to vote against it in the Cabinet."

2. DISENGAGEMENT BEGINS: EREZ TO BE CLOSED
Trade Minister Ehud Olmert made one of the first practical disengagement decisions yesterday when he ordered the closing of the Erez Industrial Zone. Erez, in northern Gaza, was founded 34 years ago to provide employment for workers from both Gaza and the Negev. Today there are 170 factories and plants, including 60 under Gazan Arab ownership, in which 4,500 Arabs and 570 Israelis are employed. This year alone, the sorry security situation has caused the area to be closed for some 70 working days.

Olmert yesterday ordered the relocation of the 110 Jewish-owned factories to other areas throughout southern Israel. "Now that the government has decided in principle on the disengagement plan," Olmert said, "I have decided to relocate the factories. In any event, it is perfectly clear that there is no prospect of Israeli presence in Gaza, and some businesses there are failing anyway..." The owners and workers in the failing businesses are happy with the decision, but others are not - including those who live in the PA, where thousands may lose their jobs. For this reason, Yossi Beilin of the extreme left-wing Yachad party says he objects to Olmert's initiative to close Erez.

Industrialists Association President Oded Tira said that the relocated businesses will not be able to survive without massive government subsidies and special legislation that will enable the payment of lower salaries. Arab workers from the PA currently receive wages significantly lower than those in the rest of Israel.

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Date: Thu, 10 Jun 2004 16:24:44 +0200
To: arutz-7@israelnationalnews.com, dailyreport@israelnationalnews.com
Subject: Arutz-7 News: Thursday, June 10, 2004
From: Arutz-7 Editor <feedback@israelnationalnews.com>

Arutz Sheva News Service
<http://www.IsraelNationalNews.com>
Thursday, June 10, 2004 / Sivan 21, 5764
------------------------------------------------

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TODAY'S HEADLINES:
1. TIMETABLE SET FOR EXPULSION OF JEWS FROM GAZA
2. NRP'S ORLEV STILL HOLDING FAST
3. EX-LABOR MK AGAINST NATIONAL UNITY GOVERNMENT

1. TIMETABLE SET FOR EXPULSION OF JEWS FROM GAZA

A timetable for the uprooting of Jews from Gaza shows that the process will begin not in nine months' time, as this week's Cabinet decision indicated, but rather in two months.

According to the document, prepared by the National Security Council, the first Jews will be able to leave Gaza voluntarily as early as August of this year. They will be promised as-yet unspecified compensation at a future date.

Within the next several weeks, government adjusters will begin arriving in Gush Katif to assess property and values.

The next stage will begin in November of this year, with those who choose to leave between then and July 2005 receiving financial compensation on the spot.

The third phase - the actual expulsion - will be more difficult. On August 15, 2005, according to the National Security Council document, the IDF will declare the entire Gush Katif area a "closed military zone." During this period, only residents, suppliers and media will be allowed to enter. This situation will continue until Sept. 1, when the security forces are scheduled to begin the forced expulsion of the Jews from Gaza.

The timetable specifies Friday, Sept. 30 as the day on which Israel will cease all presence in Gaza.

The plan is based, of course, on the assumption that the withdrawal plan will be given final Cabinet approval several months from now, as called for in this week's government vote.

The uprooting of the 25 Jewish towns in Gaza and northern Shomron is supposed to be approved in four separate stages, beginning in February or March 2005; the timetable does not address this point. Neither is it clear how the timetable is to be implemented in the northern Shomron.

The document was presented to the relevant government ministries yesterday. Though Prime Minister Sharon's Bureau responded to the news of the timetable by saying, "The Prime Minister has not yet approved the schedule," it is clear that the process will begin much faster than implied by this past Sunday's Cabinet decision.

In response, Gaza Coast Regional Council spokesman Eran Sternberg said, "The lawyers and adjusters would be advised to immediately stop their work, which is the result of a dictatorial and illegal decision. If they come here, let them not expect to be greeted with roses. Too many people paid the ultimate price for the merit of living here, and they will not simply watch them [the property assessors] passively."

National Union MK Aryeh Eldad said today, "Sharon, Prime Minister of a minority government, is not stopping at red - not even at the red line that he himself agreed on with his Cabinet. He is mocking Netanyahu, Shalom, Livnat and Orlev, and is spitting in the face of his voters. If the ministers and Knesset don't stop him, he will run over us all."

2. NRP'S ORLEV STILL HOLDING FAST

The timetable puts Welfare Minister Zevulun Orlev of the NRP on the defensive, as it was he who is leading the opposition to his party leader Effie Eitam's decision to resign from the government. Orlev and his party allies MKs Sha'ul Yahalom and Gila Finkelstein have said that there is no need to quit, because no concrete steps for the withdrawal from Gaza have yet been taken. "Many things can happen" between now and next year, Orlev and allies say.

Orlev said this morning that he is "considering the issue on its merits" and that "what is significant is only the timing of the actual evacuation."

Later in the day, Orlev responded in greater detail: "I spoke with Justice Minister Tommy Lapid, who said that all payment of compensation or advances on compensation must be done in a judicial framework. Therefore, all the reports disseminated today have no legal grounds. There are apparently those who wish to create an atmosphere as if everything is lost and that the evacuation is already a fact - which is not true and has no basis in the Cabinet decision."

A spokesman for MK Yahalom was also not fazed by the timetable: "As long as the Labor Party is still out of the government, this plan can still be stopped," he said today. "No concrete steps towards the withdrawal have yet been taken." MK Finkelstein said, "It is not democratic and not legal to discuss compensation for the residents before a Cabinet vote on the actual dismantling. How can we set a date for the evacuation before we receive clear answers about the repression of terrorism?"

Benny Kashriel, Mayor of Maaleh Adumim and a former Yesha Council leader, said today that the NRP should remain in the government, and that this would be a guarantee for the preservation of Judea and Samaria.

On the other hand, MK Nissan Slomiansky, who has attempted to mediate the dispute in the NRP, was very upset by the news of the timetable. "If this news is true, the NRP will be out of the government within two weeks," he said this afternoon.

The NRP leadership is split over the issue of whether to leave the government, and the party is facing a possible split. A no-confidence motion is scheduled in the Knesset for this coming Monday, and it is not yet clear how each of the MKs of the NRP will vote.

Eli Gabbai, a former and possibly future MK of the National Religious Party, did not wish to share with Arutz-7 his personal opinion as to whether the party should remain in the government, but did express criticism of the way in which party leader Effie Eitam behaved: "The rules set by the NRP are that if a minister wishes to quit the government and coalition, he can only do so if the Central Committee votes and agrees. I respect his decision of conscience, but he's not his own man... The same is true with asking the rabbis: If rabbis are consulted, they must be listened to - but he shouldn't have gone on his own to ask, but rather there must be a set mechanism that determines what and how the rabbis are asked."

3. EX-LABOR MK AGAINST NATIONAL UNITY GOVERNMENT
Ex-Labor Party MK Effie Hoshaya said that if Attorney-General Menachem Mazuz clears Ariel Sharon of the criminal charges pending against him regarding the Greek Island affair, "it's inevitable that Labor will enter the coalition a few days afterwards. Both parties need each other..." Mazuz's decision is expected next week; there have been contrasting intimations over what his decision will be.

Hoshaya said that he personally is not in favor of his party joining the government, however: "Labor can support the disengagement from outside, but its economic policies are not those of the current government. Labor is a social-democratic party that is supposed to represent the workers, while Sharon is implementing a Thatcherian economy of privatization, reforms and a free economy... In terms of the diplomatic issues, it has always been - with the exception of Yitzchak Shamir - that every Likud Prime Minister implements the policies of the Labor government. Labor never gave back territories; only the Likud did. When Sharon was first elected [in 2001], I was in the Knesset and we were in the coalition - and Sharon did nothing. But now that Labor is not in the government, he's actually made a decision to withdraw. So we don't have to bother him..."

Several leading Labor MKs - such as Avraham Burg, Eitan Cabel, Yuli Tamir and, to some extent, party leader Amram Mitzna - are against joining the government, but party leader Shimon Peres and others are in favor: "Peres is a world-class diplomat, but I don't understand him in this instance. He has always been in favor of dialogue and a 'new Middle East,' and here he joins up with a unilateral, aggressive act on Israel's part to leave Gaza without the agreement of the other side."

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