Uncategorized

Posted January 24, 2007

The hope that Kadima will implode has become just a tad more solid now. For the situation has begun to move beyond the stage of rumor or speculation.

MK Yisrael Katz (Likud) has drafted a petition opposing any future withdrawals from the Golan Heights that has been signed by 61 members of Knesset. Among them are 12 members of Kadima (of the 29 in the party). As this ties the hands of the gov’t, it is seen as an act of rebellion by the Kadima members who have taken a stand that may not be the one chosen by the gov’t. Those who signed from Kadima all came originally from Likud. There are reports that Katz is now talking about reserving slots in Likud for those who had defected from the party and now might be returning.

Yesterday Ma’ariv carried a report about Kadima members conspiring to bring Olmert down. It is hoped that the preliminary findings of the Winograd Committee regarding how the war was managed, due next month, might move things along considerably.

~~~~~~~~~~

Jimmy Carter, whom I would like to see retired indefinitely to his peanut farm, has generated an enormous amount of negative publicity in response to his distortions of the facts in his new book. The problem, of course, is that there are those who assume he knows what he is talking about. But he most assuredly does not.

Andrea Levin, Executive Director of CAMERA, has examined these distortions in some detail, on the CAMERA website and in an article in the Post.

You might want to take a look at her critique for further details, but there is one point that it is particularly important to make. Carter claims that the ’49 armistice lines were final borders, and that UN Resolution 242 demanded that Israel return to those lines after the ’67 war. A great many people are under the impression that this is the fact. But a great many people, including Carter, have got it very wrong.

This is directly relevant to my focus yesterday on a Palestinian state, and the mistaken notion that everything beyond the Green Line "belongs" to the Palestinians. Levin provides an important citation to refute this. She quotes one Lord Caradon of Britain, who helped draft 242 and then introduced it. He said: "It would have been wrong to demand that Israel return to its positions of June 4, 1967 [that is, before the Six Day War], because those positions were undesirable and artificial. After all, they were just the places where the soldiers of each side happened to be on the day the fighting stopped [in 1949]. "

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?apage=1&cid=1167467747675&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

~~~~~~~~~~

I will not belabor the situation, but will simply report here that in his press conference today, President Katzav angrily protested his innocence and charged that the media and the political echelon has lead a "brain washing campaign" against his good name. His emotional outburst was not well received and the calls for his resignation continue to be voiced. He says he will retire only if he is indicted, but this seems a technicality only, as the announcement has already been made that he will be indicted.

It will be very very good for this nation, when this is over.

 ~~~~~~~~~~

This posting can be found at: https://41k.82b.myftpupload.com/current-postings/2007/1/24/posted-january-24-2007.html