Disengagement Brought on Lebanon and Gaza Attacks

[Shlomo]

Ya think??
Disengagement Brought on Lebanon and Gaza Attacks
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/news.php3?id=113103

Embattled Kadima MK Tzachi HaNegbi has vocally switched sides yet again, blasting the Disengagement Plan and blaming it for the failures in Lebanon ahead of his upcoming trial later this month.

“I estimate that the Disengagement was a mistake,” HaNegbi told Israel Radio Thursday. "The Disengagement was perceived as weakness, and that weakness brought about attacks in Gaza and the North…It did not contribute to security or to peace. It did not prove itself in very many regards...though it did give us much maneuverability with regard to the global sphere.”

HaNegbi’s statements come a day after senior IDF general Yiftah Ron-Tal called the Gaza withdrawal "suicide" and blamed it for the IDF’s lack of readiness in Lebanon. Ron-Tal was dismissed from the IDF for his statements.

HaNegbi, currently chairman of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, said that Kadima’s MKs all agreed that Prime Minister Ehud Olmert’s so-called Convergence Plan, which called for the destruction of Jewish towns not included within the route of the Partition Wall, was “no longer on the agenda.”

HaNegbi, the son of right-wing icon Geula Cohen, a member of the pre-state Lehi underground and founder of the Tehiya party, left the Likud Party to join then-Prime Minister Ariel Sharon in his new Kadima faction. Despite being a vocal opponent of the withdrawal from the Sinai peninsula in the 80s, HaNegbi was a passive supporter of Sharon’s Disengagement Plan, which entailed the forced eviction of 10,000 Jewish residents from Gaza and northern Samaria.

While HaNegbi told Israel Radio that in hindsight, he believes the Sinai withdrawal was in fact a good move, he believes the Disengagement was not “worth the effort.”

“Opening his eyes does nothing to compensate the victims of the Disengagement whose homes were destroyed,” responded Lior Kalfa of the Committee of Former Gush Katif Residents. “You demolished, you must rehabilitate. It is not enough for all those who are now coming to their senses to speak of regret, but they must act in a solid manner to ensure that the State of Israel take responsibility once and for all for the rehabilitation and compensation of those expelled.”

The Peace Now organization criticized HaNegbi, saying he had always been an adherent of the Greater Israel ideology and is representative of Kadima’s goals of “deepening control over the territories.”

This is hardly the first time that HaNegbi has changed sides during the debate surrounding the Disengagement. He was originally counted among the Likud “rebels,” who opposed Ariel Sharon following Sharon's rejection of the Likud referendum results, which rejected his plan. In November 2005, following Ariel Sharon's secession, Hanegbi was appointed interim chairman of the Likud party. On December 6, 2005, the police decided to suggest his indictment to the attorney general's office. On the following day, Hanegbi announced he was leaving the Likud and joining Kadima.

Charges against Hanegbi include fraud, election bribery, perjury and 69 political appointments made while serving as Minister of Environment. His trial is set to take place at the Jerusalem Magistrates Court on October 17.