Commentary;
Top PM "Advisor" to Profit on Backs of Expelled, of Israeli Taxpayers
              By Moshe Burt

On 27 September, journalist David Bedein released a story which outlined what seems to be an apparent conflict of interest regarding PM "Advisor" Dov Weissglass and his personal business activities representing the "PA" while alledgedly negotiating with both the "PA" and in Washington on behalf of Israel regarding the PM's plans for the "disengagement" in Gaza and locations in Northern Shomron.

The story states that "Weissglass's law firm and business trusts represent the financial interests of the Palestinian Authority, including Muhammad Rashid, the treasurer appointed by Yassir Arafat to manage the PLO-chief’s elusive accounts, amounting to several billion dollars." It also states that "Weissglass and top P.A. officials ... plan to build a resort in place of Jewish communities in Gush Katif, after the residents are expelled from their homes."

So it seems that not only would the tab for the Expulsion of Jews from Gaza and the Shomron be paid on the backs of Yosef Q. Ploni, Israeli taxpayer.  Mr. Weissglass would apparently stand to earn huge profits from the possible Israeli surrender of a part of Eretz Yisrael; both on the backs of the Jewish residents of Gaza through their pain and suffering due to expulsion from their homes and their land, and at the expense and jeopardy of all Israeli taxpayers.  Dov Weissglass seems a bad man who has not only gone astray himself, but may have led his Prime Minister astray in the name of personal profit motivations. 

The entire "disengagement" issue raises a number of questions which I have not seen asked elsewhere. 

Prime Minister Sharon keeps insisting that there is padding in any Budget and that 97% of the budget gets expended leaving 3% for contingencies. (I may not be using the precise language, but I hold that the meaning is the same.)  If that is true, why, over my past 5 1/2 years in Israel, do I keep hearing of huge budget deficits, ministerial cutbacks and lay-offs, year after year? Why do I keep hearing of military cutbacks?  Of education ministry cutbacks which year after year cause a continuing deterioration of the student product emerging from Israel's educational system? This 3% explanation just doesn't seem to jive.

Further, I hear expulsion cost estimates (including compensation, manpower costs of either police or military, infrastructure costs of relocation, etc)which range from 1 billion NIS to over a 1 billion $US and these seem low-ball.

There are more questions, of bread-and-butter to all Israelis.  Is the sinat chinom sooo blind in the hearts of many secular Israelis who have been educationally-deprived and have lost sight of Jewish history, of why there is an Israel and why they are here?  Is their hate so blind that they would harm other Jews who live beyond the so-called "green-line" even when the result will put them further and further behind the tax 8-ball?  Will the hate fuel the stretching of an already over-extended bank minus subjecting Israelis to ever-increasing gangsterous, usurious interest rates and penalties in order to cover the increasing monthly shortfall caused by the additional tax bite resulting from an Expulsion of fellow Jews from their land?

And why are the masses of Israelis in total denial of Arafat's, of Arabia's true mission and goal -- the eradiction of Jews from the entirety of the land, the "green-line" not being sacrosanct.  Why can't they see that Expulsion would fuel, inflame and inspire more pigu'im, ore ambushes, shooting, Izlamikazi suicide bombings and more Jewish bloodletting and death?

Why can't Israelis see that what is happening in S'derot and Neve Dekalim would extend to Ashkelon, Rechovot and maybe as far as Beit Shemesh and beyond?

And there are more philosophic questions?  When is the credibility of a Prime Minister, of his Ministers, of sleazy Israeli politicians shot, kaput, done?  When do we stop believing, taking comfort in, becoming complacent with the absurd statements made by government officials one day which are reversed the next day, month, year or years later when their political cheshbonot or their personal aggrandizement needs or profit motivations are different?  Take these statements for example; "We will never leave the Golan." (Yitzchak Rabin, obm before the 1992 elections)  "...and if they are bad boys, we'll go and take it back." (approximate words of Yitzchak Rabin upon signing the first Oslo agreement)

What happened to "my word is my bond, come what may"?   And please, spare me the rationalizations about President George Bush (or Clinton before him or any US President), Cordelizza Rice or Colin Powell or the meaningless, so-called "new positions" of President Bush conditional upon Israel's "disengagement" from Gaza and Northern Shomron.

And consider these statements; "I want to ask all of you not to show weakness. They are conducting polls now, and they're asking whether you would be willing to evacuate your home in exchange for high compensation and another apartment somewhere else. If they ask you that, tell them, we're planning to buy another apartment [in Yesha]! Send them home!"  "We must make it clear to the government that even if the army withdraws, by government order - and this will happen very soon! - the communities will stay! They will protect themselves; they will open safe roadways and hundreds and thousands of Jews will come to their aid - of this I am convinced."  (Arik Sharon in 1993 as quoted by Israel National News in Sept., 2004)  What of the current assertions of Sharon that Israel will never leave Chevron or Beit El and that America will recognize the settlement blocs in Yesha in exchange for disengagement in Gaza and Northern Shomron.

If we will act as Jews are supposed to act, steadfast and rock-solid on behalf of our brethren and Eretz Yisrael.  If we finally recognize that the Emet of the Unity of B'nai Yisrael in Eretz Yisrael overrides the various agendas of the self-interested politicos who sellout their brethren to appease our enemy, thus inspiring further acts of terror and spilling of more Jewish blood.  If B'nai Yisrael will unify as brethren and reach a closeness with the Almighty, then Arafat and the Arabs, Dubya, Cheney, Zinni, Powell, Clinton, before them, and yes even the small minority of self-styled Israeli elitists -- the latter day eruv rav who currently run the media and institutions here, are all as nothing.

May we be zocha in this coming year take giant steps toward fulfilling Hashem's blueprint of B'nai Yisrael as a Unique people -- an Am Segula, not to be reckoned with as with "the nations."

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Moshe Burt, an Oleh, is a commentator on news and events in Israel and Founder and Director of the Sefer Torah Recycling Network. He lives in Ramat Beit Shemesh.
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