Tell the truth, Barak! By ARIEL SHARON
Shawn Phillips
Tell the truth, Barak!
By ARIEL SHARON
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Genuine leaders must tell the people the truth, especially in complex and
difficult situations. Barak does the opposite. At best, he tells
half-truths.
Once, when we were few and weak in military and economic terms, we
acted like an independent country. Now that we are many and Israel is
strong, we have almost become a client state. Our leaders receive call-up
papers, telling them to report to an army base in the US where they will
have two months to reach an agreement.
Time is short for Clinton and Assad. One needs an international
achievement by the summer; the other needs money to buy modern arms as
soon as possible.
So our leaders pack their little suitcases and set off as instructed.
But Israel has no reason to hurry. We need lots of time to examine Syria's
true intentions.
The Barak government wants a diplomatic solution, knowing it has no
solution to the country's economic and social problems. Perhaps it hoped
that by selling off the Golan it would get the money to solve its economic
problems.
But even if Congress approves a security aid package it won't grant
funds for evacuating settlements from the Golan and for redeployments.
These expenses will fall on us.
For the cost of the civilian evacuation alone it would be possible to
lay the foundations for railways and perfect public transport all over the
country.
It would be possible to create more than 120,000 jobs and solve the
unemployment problem, or set up a free education system, including a long
school day and free universities for all.
It would be possible to set up thousands of startups and again have
over 5 percent annual growth, to create a genuine economic and social
revolution and move Israel fully into the information age.
The prime minister hasn't told the nation any of this. He says he
will insist on our vital interests and that the agreement strengthens us.
But that is not true.
BY giving up all the Golan and supporting the arming of Syria, Barak is
increasing the danger of war. Yet when he was chief of General Staff he
opposed withdrawal from the Golan even in time of peace. American generals
who came to assess the military importance of the Golan agreed. The late
Yitzhak Rabin said the same, and so, of course, did I.
It's wrong to claim that a peace treaty is the answer to a security
problem, because the Syrians' intentions may change and a withdrawal from
the Golan and the arming of the Syrians are irreversible acts.
I was the OC Northern Command and I remember how difficult it was to
stand up to the Syrians when they were on the Heights and we were down
below.
Barak hasn't demanded the removal of the Syrians from Lebanon. Nor
has he insisted on renewed and efficient supervision of Iraq, which is
apparently once more producing weapons of mass destruction.
Instead, his aides marvel about the "smart weapons" we may receive.
They're important, but not sufficient to decide battles.
In Iraq the Americans and their allies didn't succeed in destroying
even one mobile Scud launcher. In Kosovo the Serbs used simple
diversionary tactics, and the Americans managed to destroy only 4 percent
of the Serbian tanks.
Barak says he won't destroy the achievements of Shamir, Peres, Rabin,
and Netanyahu. But there is a decisive difference between them and him.
They all shrank from withdrawing from the Golan. And they were more
experienced than he is. Only Barak wants desperately to do it, and he's
not telling his government.
It's clear he has made commitments to Clinton without discussing them
here. This undemocratic behavior is intolerable.
Mubarak knows it; Arafat has reported it. But the cabinet doesn't
discuss it, the government hasn't decided it, and the opposition hasn't
been informed.
Also, Barak is going to expel 18,000 Jews from their homes. This will
be a mortal blow to Zionism and the settlement movement.
Barak claims he spots "certain chinks in Syria's inflexibility." But
the truth is that Syria has noticed gaping holes, to the point of
collapse, in Israel's defenses. This, I'm sorry to say, is Barak's true
achievement.
The writer is head of the Likud.
(c) 2000 The Jerusalem Post
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END OF FRIDAY OPINION FILE