Israeli MK Calls on Sharon to Resign, Find An Old-Age Home
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Sharon
should take Peres with him, walk hand in hand, find an
appropriate old age home and remove themselves as fast as
possible
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TEL
AVIV, August 5 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - MK Avigdor
Lieberman, co-leader of the ultra-nationalist National Union-Yisrael
Beiteinu bloc, called Monday, August 5, on Prime Minister Ariel Sharon
to resign, advising him to take Foreign Minister Shimon Peres with him
to a “suitable old-age home,” the Israeli newspaper, Ha’aret,
reported.
“He
has utterly failed. Before the elections, the man promised peace and
security. There is no peace, there is no security,” Lieberman, who
served Sharon as national infrastructure minister before resigning in
protest at what the rightist party called inaction in taking sanctions
against Palestinian Presient Yasser Arafat, told Israeli Army Radio in
a blast at the prime minister.
“There
is no path, no diplomatic goals. The man is fighting for the closest
public opinion poll to appear in the newspaper,” he added.
“Therefore,
from my standpoint, the man should take Peres with him, walk hand in
hand, find an appropriate old age home and remove themselves as fast
as possible.”
Lieberman also voiced his oft-stated position that Arafat should be
deported from the territories.
Meanwhile,
after the failure of his massive reoccupation of the West Bank to stem
the tide of Palestinian attacks and their deadly toll, Sharon is under
pressure to explain where his new policy of expulsion and house
demolitions is taking Israel, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported.
“Sharon
Owes Us an Answer” said the daily newspaper Ma’ariv Monday, a day
after a bout of Palestinian resistance attacks left 10 Israelis and
two workers from the Philippines dead.
“Ariel
Sharon, the man who made empty promises in his election campaign to
restore security to our homes, our streets, our places of
entertainment and to the buses we take ... does not address the public
to explain himself,” editor-in-chief Amnon Dankner wrote.
Israel
slapped a ban on car drivers in five West Bank cities, in a new bid to
tighten its grip on the Palestinians. This came as attacks, which
resistance groups said are in revenge for the killing of Hamas chief
Salah Shehada and 17 civilians, including 12 children in Gaza, showed
no signs of abating on Monday, after four more deaths.
The
Israeli army also recently stepped up its demolition of houses
belonging to “suspected militants” and ordered their relatives
expelled to the Gaza Strip, after cracks appeared in its containment
of the West Bank, which it has reoccupied since June 19, AFP said.
On
Monday, Israeli Defense Minister Binyamin Ben Eliezer was doing his
best to convince the public the costly operation was effective,
telling military radio: “Nobody goes in or out” of the West Bank.
“Surprises
in the anti-terror war should be expected. Israel is examining all
possible measures likely to curb the violence,” he added, as the
press turned up the heat on the government for failing to stop the
violence, AFP said.
Israeli
radio said work on the defensive fence that began in June and is
planned to one day stretch 350 kilometers (220 miles) along the
“green line” had only resulted in 40 meters (yards) being built.
“What
government would suffice with partial military operations that are
effective only very temporarily and look on while its citizens are
killed and injured and the rest are frightened, holed up and live
under a permanent cloud of fear and terror?”, Dankner fumed.
“A
government that treats the lives of the country’s citizens the way
the Sharon government has, owes a persuasive explanation to the
public,” he insisted, as the Israeli death toll since the beginning
of the intifada 22 months ago neared the 600 mark. The Palestinian
death toll, on the other hand, is more than 1500 people during the
same period.
“Nearly
two years of hatred and insanity have turned us into people who are
becoming ever more jaded in the face of death and suffering,” the
top-selling Yediot Aharonot daily reflected Monday.
“Will
we wait for a mega-terror attack, or perhaps for Saddam Hussein’s
biological warfare to restore to us our sensitivity?”
The
left-leaning Ha’aretz was less introspective and lashed out at
Sharon’s administration for its apparent inability to take coherent
action against Palestinian bombers.
“Everyone
is acting as if suicide bombings only started a few weeks ago. Even
though the suicide bomber has been with us for years, Israeli
officials are busy with their tiresome discussion about which special
measures are needed in this war,” military analyst Zeev Schiff said.
An
editorialist writing in Yediot described Sharon’s denial that
Palestinian attacks pre-dated the Israeli occupation of the West Bank
and Gaza Strip, and were therefore not linked to the occupation, as
“lying to his people.
“Worse
still, he is lying to himself”, the daily said.
Meanwhile,
Israeli occupation forces destroyed early Monday a mosque and a number
of homes in the West Bank city of Nablus. The forces also carried out
incursions in Rafah and stopped the residents of five West Bank cities
from moving around in cars.
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