Monday, February 04, 2008

Uzi Dayan: Israel Must Destroy Another 32 Towns

Scott Shiloh
(IsraelNN.com)

Dayan, whose strategic views are well respected among leading figures of Israel’s establishment, said at a press conference held in Tel Aviv on Tuesday, that the towns of Yitzhar, Itamar, Har Bracha, Eli, Kfar Tapuah, Shavei Shomron, Emanuel, Otniel, and Tekoa, among others, must be destroyed.

An estimated 20,000 Jews would become refugees under Dayan’s proposal.

Dayan said he was in favor of setting up a temporary border with the Palestinian Authority that would incorporate 28 Arab towns into the State of Israel.
If Israel fails to reach an agreement with the Palestinians, Israel would make a one-sided withdrawal to that temporary boundary that would likely become the de-facto border. Dayan said he doubted whether Israel could reach a permanent settlement with the Palestinians.

He said that Arabs who fled Israel in the 1948 War of Independence should be given the right to return to formerly Jewish areas of Judea and Samaria, as well as to Gaza and other territories controlled by the Palestinian Authority. Today, millions of Arabs claim the status of refugees from that war.

Giving the reason for his plan, Dayan said that “the disengagement from Gaza has brought about the collapse of two fundamental concepts of Israeli politics, the end of retaining the entire land of Israel, and the end of the idea of territories for peace. Both concepts could not stand up to the test of reality.”

Dayan said that some blocs of communities in Judea and Samaria, such as Ma’ale Adumim, Ariel, Kiryat Arba, and Bet El, would be retained by Israel under his plan.

Dayan said Israel would be “stronger” without Gaza and without Shechem. Withdrawing from those places strengthens “Israel’s national essence, eliminates ruling another nation, and provides an opening for co-existence.”

Dayan estimates the expulsion and destruction of an additional 32 towns would cost Israeli taxpayers NIS 16 billion.

As head of the National Security Council in 2002, Dayan recommended to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to make a one-sided withdrawal from Gaza and build a security barrier along the pre-1967 cease-fire lines as a means of thwarting Arab terrorism.

Dayan explained that Sharon was unwilling to consider his proposals at that time. Dayan claims that the demographic issue eventually brought Sharon to adopt his ideas.
Comment: Is this supposed to improve the present situation? What are we campaigning for - to substitute one destruc-tive plan for another? Have we not seen enough trauma - individual and national - with the expulsions from Gush Katif and the 4 northern Samarian communities? Many are still 'unsettled'.

It appears that no one can do us the harm that we do ourselves. We know that the conflict with the Muslims is not about territory - a Palestinian state or anything like it. Their goal is to take us out - little by little - until they can blow us away from the tiny entity that will be left.

Chana

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