Opposition Leader Peres calls for early poll after Sharon Likud defeat

[IA_Seth]

JERUSALEM (AFP) - Israel's Labour opposition chief Shimon Peres called for early elections following a stinging rebuff delivered to the prime minister by his own Likud party over his Gaza strip pullout plan.


"We cannot accept the country's fate being in the hands of a few hundred people opposed to the will of the majority of the country which favours withdrawal from the Gaza Strip (news - web sites)," Peres told journalists.

<snip>

Hear Hear to that! Anyone But Sharon is about as necessary as Anyone But Bush.



http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/afp/20040819/ts_afp/israel_politics_vote

[ck4829]

1. I wonder if Israel has 'faulty' voting practices like here in the US

If the Israeli Right keep winning, that would explain a lot.

[REVOLT823]

2. I hope Israel can restore

some sanity in their leadership and begin moving towards the peace process again.

[Minstrel Boy]

3. Seems so long ago, doesn't it?

And yet it wasn't really. It was just a different world.

There was much hope, and much cause for it. And then Rabin was killed.

And who was it who killed him? There are some answers, perhaps, here:

http://www.parascope.com/articles/0397/rabin_in.htm
http://edition.cnn.com/WORLD/9711/07/israel.rabin.row
http://www.konformist.com/rabin.htm

The speech he gave the night of his death reminds me of JFK's landmark address at American University a few months before his own murder. They were warriors who'd become intent on making peace. No wonder they had to die. They were upsetting everything.

From Rabin's speech, moments before his assassination:

"I was a military man for 27 years. I fought so long as there was no chance for peace. I believe that there is now a chance for peace, a great chance. We must take advantage of it for the sake of those standing here, and for those who are not here - and they are many.

"I have always believed that the majority of the people want peace and are ready to take risks for peace. In coming here today, you demonstrate, together with many others who did not come, that the people truly desire peace and oppose violence. Violence erodes the basis of Israeli democracy. It must be condemned and isolated. This is not the way of the State of Israel. In a democracy there can be differences, but the final decision will be taken in democratic elections, as the 1992 elections which gave us the mandate to do what we are doing, and to continue on this course.

"I want to say that I am proud of the fact that representatives of the countries with whom we are living in peace are present with us here, and will continue to be here: Egypt, Jordan, and Morocco, which opened the road to peace for us. I want to thank the President of Egypt, the King of Jordan, and the King of Morocco, represented here today, for their partnership with us in our march towards peace. But, more than anything, in the more than three years of this Government's existence, the Israeli people has proven that it is possible to make peace, that peace opens the door to a better economy and society; that peace is not just a prayer. Peace is first of all in our prayers, but it is also the aspiration of the Jewish people, a genuine aspiration for peace.

"There are enemies of peace who are trying to hurt us, in order to torpedo the peace process. I want to say bluntly, that we have found a partner for peace among the Palestinians as well: the PLO, which was an enemy, and has ceased to engage in terrorism. Without partners for peace, there can be no peace. We will demand that they do their part for peace, just as we will do our part for peace, in order to solve the most complicated, prolonged, and emotionally charged aspect of the Israeli-Arab conflict: the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.

"This is a course which is fraught with difficulties and pain. For Israel, there is no path that is without pain. But the path of peace is preferable to the path of war. I say this to you as one who was a military man, someone who is today Minister of Defense and sees the pain of the families of the IDF soldiers. For them, for our children, in my case for our grandchildren, I want this government to exhaust every opening, every possibility, to promote and achieve a comprehensive peace. Even with Syria, it will be possible to make peace."
http://www.wujs.org.il/activist/programmes/sources/rabin_sources/speeches/rabinspeech4.shtml

[shadu]

4. That is quite an excellent speech

You are correct.
That seems like a long long time ago.

[Zhade]

5. Sharon should be sentenced for war crimes.

Getting his thug ass out of power would be a good start! The Likud party is a cancer on Israel.

[Zhade]

6. Kick against Likudnik fascism.

:dem: