Don't do it, Shimon

[Englander]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/israel/comment/0,10551,1375863,00.html

Labour won't bring peace by backing Ariel Sharon

Gerald Kaufman
Friday December 17, 2004
The Guardian

It is a gruesome spectacle watching an old friend preparing to commit suicide. Yet the Israeli Labour party's decision to take part in talks to join prime minister Ariel Sharon's extreme rightwing coalition could be the end of the party as a force in Israeli politics.

Sharon needs Labour, after the withdrawal of the Shinui party from his government. The last thing needed by Labour, with only 19 members in the 120-member parliament, is Sharon. Yet, so desperate is the party for a taste of office that it is ready to sacrifice its identity, policies and what remains of its ideals.

..... Labour's presence is needed in government because, without it, Sharon's disengagement plan would founder. But it is not a peace plan. It involves withdrawing illegal settlements from the Gaza strip, together with departure from three settlements in the north of the West Bank. But Israeli occupation of almost all the West Bank would continue indefinitely.

Peres claimed his party's presence in a Sharon government could lead to further withdrawals. Pull the other one, Shimon. Sharon has long shown an ability to manipulate, as when he conned Begin into invading Lebanon. A gullible octogenarian should be easy meat for him. Entering Sharon's coalition would be a sad ending for Labour. A party whose originators founded a state against enormous odds and realised that Israel would never know peace without a genuine Palestinian state is planning to enter a government that has created record unemployment and poverty and has turned a respected democracy into an international pariah.

· Gerald Kaufman is Labour MP for Manchester Gorton.

[QueerJustice]

1. Thank G-D Shimon is...

Smarter than Gerald Kaufman ...and peace is more important....He will do it... ;)