Livni: 'No regrets' for expelling Jews from Gaza
Leading her party on a tour of Jewish refugee camps in southern Israel on Sunday, opposition leader Tzipi Livni said she had 'no regrets' regarding the expulsion of Israel's Jews from Gaza. Asked if the Disengagement was a mistake, she answered: “Absolutely not. The State of Israel needs to decide, and we are not yet past this decision process... Even among those who say that this was a mistake, there is no one who says that we should now return to settle Gaza and return full Israeli control of Gaza.” She added that in her opinion, the Jews living in Gaza would have eventually been evicted anyways, even if the Disengagement had not taken place.I suspect a lot of people in Sderot and Ashkelon and all along the 'Gaza envelope' would disagree with her assessment. Unfortunately, undoing the 2005 Gaza expulsion is impossible right now unless Israel is willing to go in and wipe out Hamas (and even then it's not clear that Gaza can once again be made safe for Jewish habitation).
“It is the duty of Israeli governments, no matter what the [political makeup], to enable each of these families, to the extent possible, to bring matters back to the way they were in a different place," she added. "It is very complicated; it is not simple.”
But leaving Gaza, expelling all its Jews and destroying the vibrant communities there was a terrible mistake. Allowing Gaza to become a Hamas caliphate and a launching pad for rocket attacks on Israel (which may have been preventable had Israel at least maintained control of the Philadelphi corridor) was an even worse mistake.
Unless and until Livni can understand and acknowledge that, she will never again hold any office in Israel outside her own party.
Good riddance!
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 8:38 AM
5 Comments:
It seems like every time I hear about her, she gets worse and worse. Israel really dogded a bullet in the last election.
This thoroughly obtuse and stupid woman made her way on the coattails of her father and her hanger-on associations with whoever was blind enough to drag her along - Likud, Kadima - whatever. It appears that Olmert was really intent on crippling the nation by making her Foreign Minister. The damage she wreaked was enormous.
One other thing that shows how incredibly dense and idiotic she is: On the expose by the great Phillipe Karsenty of the terrible al-Dura hoax (where al-Dura was not killed) that cost so many Israeli and Jewish lives, she remarked, "Sometimes children get killed."
Arrrrrggggghhhhh!!!!!!
More knitting to do, Madame Defarge.
Agreed. She just hasn't grasped the world has changed radically in the last four years. Her party promoted the Gaza Disengagement on the ground that if Israel gave up territory, the world would understand Israel's right to defend itself. Instead, it got the blood libel called Goldstone. Livni's inability to apologize for a moral shortcoming and strategic disaster reveals her party is unfit to lead the Jewish State through a perilous time. With a mindset opposed to making amends to Gaza's Jews, the last thing that ought to happen is for her to ever become Israel's Prime Minister.
What could go wrong indeed
Defending or criticizing the expulsion should take a back seat to helping the refugees. From what I have heard, they have an extraordinary rate of unemployment, homelessness, suffer from PTSD and depression, and are financially ruined. Those that received buy-outs use the money for their temporary housing and still owe the banks for the mortgages on their destroyed Gaza homes. This is inexcusable and debate about the merits of the expulsion simply avoids addressing the humanitarian disaster created by it.
I can only assume the current Likud led gov't is not resolving this issue in order to instead use the refugees as a cudgel against its predecessors in power. Sound familiar?????
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