The Original Sin or How Frankenstein's (Arik's) Monster was   

       Re-created                               (Sept., 2001)

                                          By Moshe Burt

How I detest rehashes. For 53 years we've done nothing but repeat and re-express adnausium our fundamental Divine right to a Medinat Yisroel.   For 34 years we've repeated our fundamental, Divinely-given right to Eretz Yisroel including Yesha.  I find it demeaning to Jewish self-esteem and perhaps it's a Chillul Hashem to keep justifying our rightful ownership of Eretz Yisroel before the deaf-ear of "the nations."  It's fact, Eretz Yisroel and our Right to it are axiomatic, Period!!!

But there are times when words of repetition need to be screamed at every level, over and over again.  For those of short memory, dim or who are selectively amnesic, one such subject begs repetition.   That is "The Original Sin" of Prime Minister Arik Sharon.  No, this doesn't refer to Yamit or any previous segment of Sharon's political career.    The sin spoken of here is not even the re-creation of Shimon Peres, the architect of Oslo, the man who gave Arafat the guns and whose right hand is in dire need of fumigation.  This previously discredited "Harold Stassen" of Israeli politics who couldn't even win a majority of Knesset behind his Presidential bid, was re-invented out of the Jewish Blood and Ashes of Arafat's War against us.

Think back.  It's November, 2000 and then PM Ehud Barak had suffered the crushing defeat of the preliminary and first votes for a measure to dissolve Knesset and go to new General Elections.  Sharon had been trying for months to form a Unity Government with Barak in order to solidify his "temporary" leadership in Likud and derail Bibi's chances. 

Barak smells the end and announces his acquiescence to new elections.  The discussion begins -- when will the new elections take place?  Who will the Likud candidate be?  Will the Likud contestants be Bibi and Sharon?  The polls of the time showed Bibi crushing Barak.  These same polls showed Sharon and Barak running neck and neck.  But, stop the music fans!!  Hold the phone!!  The other shoe drops.

Ehud Barak finds a flaw in the Direct Election Law which enable new Prime Ministerial elections without dissolving Knesset.   He's also derailed a challenge from Bibi because the law states that only a current sitting Knesset Member can run for Prime Minister.  Bibi resigned his seat in Knesset as well as his Party leadership position after losing to Barak in the June, 1999 elections.   In passing, it's a wonderment how Bibi missed finding this flaw himself prior to Knesset dissolving itself before the June, 1999 elections and his subsequent blow-out loss to Barak.  Can you imagine what might have happened if...?

And how the parties of the Nationalist Right did scurry around.  Sharon, as Likud leader saw himself in the catbird seat -- it was either he or Barak.  Bibi still had a shot at running for and winning the Likud banner.  Barak had given the Okay for legislation to be voted on which, if passed would enable Netanyahu to run despite his lack of a Knesset seat.  Bibi, however, saw the writing on the wall as to his ability to govern with a gridlocked, dead-heat in Knesset.  He lobbied hard for new General Elections where Likud would crush Labor for Knesset and would pick up thousands of Shas voters who would come home to Likud.  The polls showed Shas losing half of its mandates to the Likud.  But Sharon chose the shot, uncontested, at the top job rather than showing the courage to tell Likud to vote for dissolution of Knesset leading to a run for it's leadership against Bibi, Moshe Feiglin, etc.  The winner, of course, would contest with Barak for the office of Prime Minister in new general elections.  

Sharon chose the catbird seat uncontested in Likud over the great probability of growing the Likud's Knesset power base with what seemed to be a massive Knesset election victory in the making.  That is "The Original Sin."

The Knesset dissolution bill came up for a final vote and was defeated while the "Bibi bill" passed.  Netanyahu dropped out of the race not wishing to run due to a special law and not wishing to be saddled with a gridlocked Knesset.  Sharon got his way -- it was one-on-one against Ehud Barak.   Later, after Sharon's election, the Direct Elections law was nullified by vote of Knesset -- to take effect with the next set of elections.

As things turned out Sharon crushed Barak in the most massive electoral victory in Israel's history.  But he won at the expense our national security.  The Prime Minister who won such a huge electoral victory went on to bring the Labor party into a "National Unity government" and to put himself, his party and his natural political allies in a most disadvantageous position visa vi the Labor party, the junior coalition partners.

This massive election victory was a vote of confidence in the ability of Arik Sharon, the greatest of our modern-day fighting generals -- greater maybe than George Patton, to bring an end to this War and to Oslo which planted it's seeds.

And so, now we see Shimon Peres and Yassir Arafat, once again hand-in-hand.  We hear Peres alluding how international observers are permissible once the violence stops.   We now watch how Sharon must bow to Ben-Eliezer and to take down the outposts, agree to the Mitchell Plan and the Tenet "Ceasefire" and start "freezing settlements."  Peres has expressed that this "settlement freeze" is already in effect.  We now continuously hear what seem to be threats from Peres and the Labor Party -- do what we want or we'll leave and you'll have no government. 

All of this, my friends, is traceable to "The Original Sin."

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