jerusalem | Ariel “The Bulldozer” Sharon can’t rest yet. Fresh battles await the prime minister — even as he pushed through the biggest political hurdle of his career this week with the passage of Israel’s 2005 budget.
Topping the list of Sharon’s worries is the continued rebellion within his Likud Party. The day after the pivotal budget vote, Finance Minister Benjamin Netanyahu expressed strong public opposition to the Gaza disengagement plan and re-established himself as Sharon’s prime political rival.
“A pattern has been created of Israeli unilateral withdrawal, including the evacuation of settlements, without any tangible return from the other side,” Netanyahu said, sounding at times more like an opposition leader than a senior member of the government.
Netanyahu could emerge as the leader of those in Likud who oppose disengagement, and the deep wounds within the party over the settlement plan could lead to an irreparable fissure.
Discontent within Likud almost scuttled the entire Sharon government. If the budget bill hadn’t been ratified by the end of March, the current administration would have fallen and new elections would have been necessary putting off the disengagement indefinitely.
The victory for Sharon marked a new phase in the struggle against withdrawal, as Gaza settlers and their supporters vowed more active resistance.
Settler activists have established an agency whose purpose is to smuggle families “willing to stay through the end” into the Gaza Strip, according to The Jerusalem Post.
“We are working on absorbing 600 families into Gush Katif in the next few months and are already working on refurbishing 480 unused trailers, apartments and spare rooms,” said the activist, a member of a splinter group called the Jewish Army and a resident of Gush Katif’s largest settlement, Neveh Dekalim.
In preparation for what some analysts are already calling Gush Katif’s “Alamo,” the activists already have begun stockpiling emergency supplies, including food and water.
The Israeli public reacted with alarm the day after the budget battle as the graves of two of Israel’s pioneering figures, David Ben-Gurion and Theodor Herzl were desecrated with graffiti. “Hitler” and “Yossi Beilin” were among the words found near the graves.
In a related incident, police in central Israel discovered graffiti scrawled over a wall of a school reading:”‘Sharon: Rabin and Hitler are waiting for you in hell”.
The Justice Ministry is hiring dozens of lawyers to deal with various aspects of the disengagement process, including a new unit of prosecutors who will deal only with incitement allegations, an official told The Jerusalem Post.
Many settlers vowed to fight — not through force of arms, but by passive resistance. Jarred by the loss of the referendum option and perhaps feeling the ebb of its popular support, the settlers’ Yesha Council convened Tuesday, March 29, to rethink its strategy.
“It’s a serious dilemma — ensuring that the struggle is directed at the political leadership rather than the police or military,” Yesha official Pinchas Wallerstein told Army Radio. “But we cannot give up.”