In recent years, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon expelled Jews from their homes in Gaza and N. Shomron, followed by decisions by the High Court of Justice which led to the expulsion of the residents of Beit El’s Ulpana neighborhood and Migron in the current administration of Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu.

Now, Defense Minister Ehud Barak shares his vision that is premised on a peace agreement between Israel and the PA (Palestinian Authority).

Barak told Yisrael HaYom that dozens of “isolated” yishuvim would be uprooted, but he views the fact that 80-90% of the residents of Yehuda and Shomron will remain where there are as a significant achievement. Regarding those unwilling to leave, they may remain under PA (Palestinian Authority) autonomous rule for as far as Barak is concerned.

In actuality however, while this may sound attractive to some, it translates to the removal of most of the yishuvim throughout Yehuda and Shomron since Barak envisions settlement blocs, including Maale Adumim, Ariel and Gush Etzion. While these areas do contain most of the residents of Yehuda and Shomron, it means Barak envisions uprooting most yishuvim, resulting in Jewish ghettos surrounding by PA areas. Experience since the signing of the Oslo Agreement on September 13, 1993 has shown how well that works, with a Jew prohibited from stepping foot into an area “A”, an autonomous area under total PA rule. Nevertheless, Barak is announcing his plan, a plan that appears to be based on the failures of his predecessors.

Barak’s master plan also calls for a continued IDF presence on strategic hilltops in Shomron towards ensuring PA terrorists don’t attack incoming and outgoing flights in Ben-Gurion International Airport, attesting to the integrity of Israel’s peace partner. The plan also calls for a long term IDF presence in the Jordan Valley.

The master plan calls for a unilateral disengagement from Yehuda and Shomron, preferably following an agreement with the PA, but if the latter fails, Barak insists we must leave Yehuda and Shomron anyway after 45 years. “We are not a new nation anymore, today 64” and we cannot act emotionally, but we must act responsibility he explained.

“Yom Kippur is a time to face the facts” continuing to explain leaving Yehuda and Shomron will place Israel is an advantageous position with the international community. Barak explains that most the country lives inside the Green Line and there is room for the others, going as far as to explain that entire communities wishing to take advantage of the situation may be ‘copied’ inside ‘Israel proper’.

Seeking to promote his leftist agenda, the minister fails to address the failures of the 2005 disengagement from Gaza, as well as the fact that the international community will not commend Israel for the communities that have been abandoned, but it will focus on the remaining “occupied areas”, including Maale Adumim, Gush Etzion, Ariel, Ramat Eshkol, N’vei Yaakov, Pisgat Ze’ev, Talpiot, Gilo, the Golan Heights and the Jordan Valley, and this is without beginning to address the issue of the Old City of Yerushalayim, the Kosel and Har HaBayis.

(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)