Avraham Burg: "Sharon Has No Plan... Crippled Democracy"

2005-08-05

End of an Era

Avraham Burg

Haaretz

www.haaretz.com/hasen/ spages/608980.html

So routine has the term "disengagement plan" become that it is blurring our understanding of what is involved. So the truth must be told: the government of Israel does not have a true plan; and worse the government has nothing with which to cover the huge pit that is now taking shape in the Israeli psyche. This is not a genuine plan, because it was a momentary caprice of the prime minister. The "non-plan" acted as a magnet for Israeli political opportunism at its finest: by the elders of the Labor Party, who are driven by the power of a personal biological clock and do not live according to slower political time; individuals who thirst for power; and a few other innocents who simply don't understand what it's all about.

The process by which the plan was approved smashed to smithereens what little remained of Israel's political culture and doomed us to many more years of disabled, crippled democracy, conducted in the shadow of the anarchy of this period. The prime minister gave the boot to every political convention and simply led everyone down the garden path. Just as there is no capital market without a stock exchange and no family without partners, so there is no democracy or politics without parties. The disrespect shown by the prime minister and his associates for resolutions passed by his own party - their contempt and utter disregard - destroyed the basic concept of political life....

[IMRA: The article continues by endorsing the retreat with the hope that it will lead to many more Israeli withdrawals.]

Avraham Burg is a former speaker of the Knesset.

Source: IMRA – Independent Media Review and Analysis