Lieberman: Olmert plan strengthens Hamas
By Mazal Mualem Haaretz 21 March 2006
www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/696507.html

Yisrael Beiteinu Chairman Avigdor Lieberman yesterday launched his first
attack on Acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's plan for a further unilateral
withdrawal in the West Bank.

"The more Kadima talks, with excessive confidence, about Olmert's diplomatic
program, the less likely it becomes that we will be in the next government
headed by Olmert," Lieberman said in an interview with Haaretz, adding that
the plan already has caused Israel damage vis-a-vis Hamas, the international
community and Israeli Arab extremists.

Many political pundits have cited Lieberman as a likely member of Olmert's
coalition after the elections. However, Lieberman told Haaretz that he would
not sit in any government that included Olmert's withdrawal plan in its
guidelines.

"Olmert's plan not only strengthens Hamas in the Palestinian Authority. It
also proves to Sheikh Ra'ad Salah [head of the Islamic Movement Northern
Branch] and extremist elements among Israeli Arabs that not only pressure
from outside, but also pressure from within will in the end guarantee them
effective autonomy in the first stage, a state of all its citizens in the
next, and ultimately, the end of the State of Israel," he said.

"Unilateral concessions do not achieve security; they bolster terror," he
continued. "Fleeing the territories is an end in itself."

Recent polls have shown Yisrael Beiteinu gaining strength, making it a
potentially important player after the elections. Lieberman sees the attacks
against him by both Labor and Likud as confirmation of his importance, and
believes that he may even have the power to determine the shape of the next
coalition.

However, Likud's recent campaign to label him a "leftist" who plans to form
a government with Kadima, Labor and Meretz - which was prompted both by
Lieberman's attack last week on Likud Chai rman Benjamin Netanyahu, whom he
termed a serial panicker, and by his public refusal to be part of a
"blocking majority" that would prevent a Kadima-led government - could
potentially cost Lieberman some support on the right. This prompted him to
issue his denunciation of Olmert's withdrawal plan yesterday.

In the interview, Lieberman noted that three reasons were given for the
disengagement from Gaza: It would improve Israel's security, strengthen
moderate elements in the PA, and enable Israel to strengthen its hold on
West Bank settlements. But in practice, he said, all three arguments have
proven false: "Since we fled Gush Katif, not a day has passed without
Qassams and mortars falling not only on Sderot, but also throughout the
western Negev"; Hamas won the PA elections; and instead of saving West Bank
settlements, "we're talking about evacuating 90 percent of the territory."

"It's clear that a flight from Judea and Samaria would perpetuate Hamas rule
for the next century, and prove to the Palestinians that they can achieve
diplomatic gains through pressure and terror," he added.

The plan also has caused damage internationally, he said, because "the
entire world now takes this [the withdrawal] as a given. Arik [Sharon] was
far more taciturn, and rightly so. He succeeded thanks to his silence. A
prime minister must accomplish things via actions, not words. You can talk
in the opposition."

Lieberman also scorned Olmert's plan for "convergence" behind the separation
fence, citing examples such as the Maginot Line, the Bar-Lev Line and the
Berlin Wall to support his contention that no wall in history has ever
succeeded. "Even if we returned to the 1967 borders, to the last inch, no
one believes that we would be able to live here in security, that the terror
would end," he added.

Lieberman argued that Israel must ignore the PA and reach an agreement
instead with Egypt, Jordan and the Quartet on Israel's final borders.
Without such an agreement in hand, he said, there is no point to any further
withdrawal.

He also told Haaretz that if he did join a Kadima government, he would
demand the public security portfolio.

Likud and Labor sources charged in response to the interview that Lieberman
and Olmert already have agreed to form a coalition, and that since Olmert's
plan will probably not be implemented during his first year in office in any
case, Lieberman's opposition to it is no obstacle.