Ask me what a Blotnik is. This Blog is my Public Blog. Sometimes in Hebrew. I have found that Books and the Internet have something in common, Life is to Short to read all the books you would like to read, (not those that you do not want). Also 24 Hours a day is not Enough for all you would like to do on the Internet!
Sunday, June 06, 2004
Last update - 21:02 06/06/2004
Cabinet approves PM's revised pullout plan by 14-7 majority
By Aluf Benn, Mazal Mualem and Nadav Shragai, Haaretz Correspondents
After overcoming several setbacks, the cabinet approved Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's revised disengagement plan by a 14-7 majority on Sunday evening.
Sharon said Sunday evening that the cabinet's approval of the plan shows that Israel is "taking its future in its own hands."
"Disengagement (from the Palestinians) is getting under way," he told a participants of a birthright trip in Jerusalem shortly after the vote.
"The government decided today that by the end of 2005 Israel will leave (all 21 Jewish settlements in) Gaza and four settlements (in the West Bank). The state of Israel made a decisive step for its future," he said.
"Most of the people of Israel understand the tremendous significance of the plan ... It is a decision that is good for Israel's political standing, economy and the demography of the Jewish people in the land of Israel.
"Israel doesn't intend to wait any longer for the Palestinians. They understand that if they don't work to liquidate terror they will continue to lose important assets..." Sharon added.
Netanyahu, Livnat, Shalom stall cabinet vote
The vote was halted earlier Sunday when Finance Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom, and Education Minister Limor Livnat demanded that the letters of understanding exchanged between Sharon and U.S. President George W. Bush be excluded from the government decision. The demand was made because the letters that Sharon and Bush exchanged clearly state that settlements would ultimately be evacuated.
Earlier Sunday, the Prime Minister's Office said that Likud ministers had reached a compromise deal on the revised disengagement plan.
Sources close to Netanyahu, Livnat and Shalom said the compromise formula the government was to vote on would not include a decision to dismantle settlements, in principle or in practice.
Voting in favor of the disengagement plan were Sharon, Netanyahu, Livnat, Shalom, Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz, Deputy Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, Immigrant Absorption Minister Tzipi Livni, Minister in the Finance Ministry Meir Sheetrit, and Minister without portfolio Gideon Ezra, Justice Minister Yosef Lapid, Interior Minister Avraham Poraz, National Infrastructures Minister Yosef Paritzky, Environment Minister Yehudit Naot, Science Minister Modi Zandberg.
Minister without portfolio Uzi Landau, Health Minister Danny Naveh, Public Security Minister Tzachi Hanegbi, Agriculture Minister Yisrael Katz, Diaspora Affairs Minister Natan Sharansky, Housing and Construction Minister Effi Eitam, and Welfare Minister Zevulun Orlev voted against the plan.
National Religious Party Chairman Effi Eitam said that the plan's approval would lead to the expulsion of thousands of Jews from the Gaza Strip and the creation of a Hamas state on platter of Jewish blood.
NRP Minister Zevulun Orlev said that there was a basis for NRP to remain in coalition, as there is no mention of settlement evacuations in plan.
The cabinet began discussing Sharon's disengagement plan Sunday afternoon, despite a High Court proposal to defer the talks to Tuesday.
The court proposal stemmed from several petitions which questioned the legality of Sharon's dismissal of far right-wing ministers from the National Union party, Avigdor Lieberman and Binyamin Elon on Friday.
Their National Union colleague Deputy Education Minister Zvi Hendel also submitted his resignation on Sunday.
Shinui Minister of National Infrastructure Yosef Paritzky said Sunday that as part of the compromise the prime minister would make a public announcement in which he would declare that a government decision on the date of the evacuation of settlements would be reached by March 2005.
Elon arrived at the meeting Sunday and announced that he intended to participate in the vote.
Sharon decided on Thursday night to fire Elon and Lieberman to improve prospects of cabinet approval of his plan to evacuate settlements on the Gaza Strip and northern West Bank. Friday morning, he signed laconic pink slips - each dismissal notice had just one sentence. Israeli law requires that 48 hours pass before a dismissal notice for a minister becomes official. Trying to keep his portfolio so he might cast a vote against the disengagement plan in the cabinet tally Sunday, Elon refused to disclose his whereabouts Friday to Sharon's aides.
The High Court of Justice on Sunday heard a petition submitted against the dismissals of Elon and Lieberman.
Attorney-General Menachem Mazuz advised Sharon's associates that he would be able to defend the validity of Elon's dismissal in any High Court challenge the deposed minister might make, and so Sharon called off the pursuit after Elon.
Mazuz based his decision on the fact that Elon had announced in the media that he was aware of the effort made by Sharon's office to locate him so the dismissal letter could be delivered. The procedure followed by Sharon's office in Elon's dismissal complied with the relevant clauses in the 1992 Basic Law on the government, Mazuz concluded.
Gush Katif residents protest against pullout plan
Gush Katif settlers demonstrated opposite the Prime Minster's Office on Sunday, and called on Likud ministers to vote against the pullout plan. Likud Central Committee member also protested in the area, and announced that they were signing a petition calling on the Likud convention to gather in order to dismiss Sharon as prime minister and as party chairman.
Some 3,000 demonstrators attended a rally opposite the prime minister's Jerusalem residence Saturday night in support of the disengagement plan. The demonstration was organized under the slogan "Get out of Gaza, start talking."
Saturday, June 05, 2004
Friday, June 04, 2004
Wednesday, June 02, 2004
Tuesday, June 01, 2004
The following are interviewed in the film Shoah: An Oral History of the Holocaust by Claude Lanzmann (1985).
Armndo Aaron — President of the Jewish community of Corfu. "On Friday morning, June 9, 1944, members of the Corfu Jewish community came, very frightened, and reported to the Germans. This square was full of Gestapo men and police, and we went forward. There were even traitors, the Recanati brothers, Athens Jews. After the war they were sentenced to life imprisonment. But they’re already free. We were ordered to go forward. . . . 1650 people. . . . Christians stopped there. . . at the street corner. . . and on the balconies. . .to see the show. [We were] very, very scared when we saw. . . There were young people, sick people, little children, the old, the crazy, and so on. When we saw they’d even brought the insane, even the sick from the hospital, we were frightened for the survival of the whole community. We were to appear at the fort to be taken to work in. . . Poland.
The Germans had put up a proclamation on all the walls in Corfu. It said all Jews had to report. And now that we were all rounded up, life would be better without us in Greece. It was signed by the police chiefs, by officials and by the mayors. . . [Antisemitism] exited, sure, but it wasn’t strong in the years just before that. They didn’t think like that against the Jews. [Now] our relations with the Christians are very good. . . .
[After the Jews left] they took all our possessions, all the gold we had with us. They took the keys to our houses and stole everything. By law it was to go to the Greek government. But the state got only a small part of it. The rest was stolen, usurped. . . by everyone, and by the Germans. Of the 1700 people deported, around 122 were saved. Ninety-five percent of the them died. . . We were arrested here on June 9, and we finally arrived June 29. Most were burned on the night of the twenty-ninth. We stayed here in the fort for around five days. No one dared escape and leave his father, mother, brothers. Our solidarity was on religious and family grounds. . . [We were taken on] a boat made of barrels and planks. It was towed by a small boat with Germans in it. On our boat there were one, two or three guards, not many Germans, but we were terrified. You can understand, terror is the best of guards. . . "
Armndo Aaron — President of the Jewish community of Corfu. "On Friday morning, June 9, 1944, members of the Corfu Jewish community came, very frightened, and reported to the Germans. This square was full of Gestapo men and police, and we went forward. There were even traitors, the Recanati brothers, Athens Jews. After the war they were sentenced to life imprisonment. But they’re already free. We were ordered to go forward. . . . 1650 people. . . . Christians stopped there. . . at the street corner. . . and on the balconies. . .to see the show. [We were] very, very scared when we saw. . . There were young people, sick people, little children, the old, the crazy, and so on. When we saw they’d even brought the insane, even the sick from the hospital, we were frightened for the survival of the whole community. We were to appear at the fort to be taken to work in. . . Poland.
The Germans had put up a proclamation on all the walls in Corfu. It said all Jews had to report. And now that we were all rounded up, life would be better without us in Greece. It was signed by the police chiefs, by officials and by the mayors. . . [Antisemitism] exited, sure, but it wasn’t strong in the years just before that. They didn’t think like that against the Jews. [Now] our relations with the Christians are very good. . . .
[After the Jews left] they took all our possessions, all the gold we had with us. They took the keys to our houses and stole everything. By law it was to go to the Greek government. But the state got only a small part of it. The rest was stolen, usurped. . . by everyone, and by the Germans. Of the 1700 people deported, around 122 were saved. Ninety-five percent of the them died. . . We were arrested here on June 9, and we finally arrived June 29. Most were burned on the night of the twenty-ninth. We stayed here in the fort for around five days. No one dared escape and leave his father, mother, brothers. Our solidarity was on religious and family grounds. . . [We were taken on] a boat made of barrels and planks. It was towed by a small boat with Germans in it. On our boat there were one, two or three guards, not many Germans, but we were terrified. You can understand, terror is the best of guards. . . "
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