Barak is shouting "Emergency!" and seeking a safety net for his failing government. He is calling for the establishment of an emergency cabinet with the heads of the opposition parties in the defense cabinet - a sort of council of elders, or a "decorative council" that can be blamed for future failures

Unfortunately, our prime minister is obsessed with continuing the Camp David process - which, together with hightailing it out of Lebanon (I do not refer to the retreat itself, which I supported), and the abandonment of the South Lebanese Army after no less than 25 years of working together, have brought us to the present difficult circumstances.

Barak made a historic mistake with his far-reaching concessions at Camp David. Yet he remains unwilling to relinquish the Camp David dream, and still believes that he will somehow, in the next few months, sign some sort of framework agreement in Washington.

Adhering to a failed agreement is, evidently, the last straw for Barak to grasp at in his attempt to save himself. This, despite the fact that Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat has violated every clause of the Oslo Accords, and the Wye, Camp David, and Sharm e-Sheikh agreements - just as he has violated every agreement he ever signed with Arab countries over the past 30 years. Oslo is no more, and Arafat killed it. We must head in another direction.

Out of a desire to avoid jeopardizing the possibility of signing an agreement with Arafat, Barak has waged a hesitant battle against the increasing terror, without setting a clear aim: to abolish terror and return security to the people of this country.

We have faced many grave situations in the past - and survived. To date, we have not utilized even a fraction of the leverage that Israel holds over Arafat and the Palestinian Authority leaders. We have certainly not fully explored ways and methods of upsetting the equilibrium of the Palestinian armed forces and the Palestinian terrorists. There are many ways of proceeding without leading to escalation.

I trust the IDF. Given a government that issues clear directives, the military has always been able to formulate suitable solutions for striking at and eliminating terror. Not tit for tat, not payback, not vengeance, but elimination. Initiation, not response - confronting the enemy with shifting situations, undermining their self-confidence, and forcing them to focus on self-preservation instead of on attack.

We are facing a war waged on us by the PA. This is the strategy that Arafat has chosen. There are no peace talks at the moment, and talks must not be conducted under fire. Now is the time to concentrate all our economic and military efforts against those initiating the war.

We can and must win this battle as soon as possible - without escalation. The longer this war continues, the greater the risk that international intervention will prevent us from ensuring the security arrangements we so badly need.

After things calm down, we will move on to a different political program: a multi-stage program for peace. This program will take the shape of a non-belligerence pact, stretched out over a large time-frame. During that time, we will examine how the relationship between Israel and the Palestinians develops.

We must look at security and economic relations, and see how the two nations deal with each other. All this is contingent upon a halt to Palestinian incitement, combined with a Palestinian education program towards peace.

I would like to add a personal note about Barak. I feel sorry for him. Personally, I like the man.

But I must tell him frankly: "A year and a half ago you were handed a state - with problems, but in good condition compared with today. See how the state looks now - children cannot travel safely on the roads to their schools. Car bombs explode in our cities. Jerusalem residents are under fire. Settlements are being attacked. The country's roads are closed regularly. Cinemas and halls stand empty. No customers throng the markets and shopping malls.

"Israel's citizens are afraid in the only state in the world in which Jews have the right and the power to defend themselves, by themselves. Go out into the street! See what is happening! This is no way to run a state.

The nation deserves security, and that security can be provided."

(The writer is chairman of the Likud Party.

SOURCE:http://www.jpost.com/Editions/2000/11/24/Opinion/Opinion .16188.html 11/24/00)

The PA used its security force, which has been operating illegally in Jerusalem, in violation of the Oslo Accords, to conduct this campaign.

Palestinian Preventive Security Service chief Col. Jibril Rajoub , the General Intelligence Apparatus in the West Bank under Brig.-Gen. Tawfik Tirawi, and the Tanzim - Palestinian Chairman Arafat's Fatah armed militia - all were involved in the planning, initiation, and execution of the violent riots, including the instigation of armed attacks and the use of explosives on soldiers and civilians in the Netzarim area several days before my visit to the Temple Mount.

Deliberate and provocative incitment by Israeli Arab Knesset members, calling on Palestinians and Arab Israelis to confront Israeli police and soldiers in the battle for the Temple Mount was part of this carefully orchestrated operation to ignite riots in large-scale violence in Judea, Samaria, Gaza, and Israel proper among its Arab Israeli citizens.

These regrettable and ominous developments have been termed the inevitable "Palestinian War of Independence."

But there is more to these developments than just the question of who will have control over the Temple Mount. What we are witnessing these days is not just a Palestinian war of independence, it is a struggle over the shape and future of Israel as a state. This struggle's outcome will determine the extent to which Israel can maintain its Jewish and democratic character as defined by the Declaration of Independence amidst those who wish it to be something else: definitely not a Jewish state, and probably not a true democracy capable of defending the rights and liberties of its citizens, Jews and Arabs alike.

I visited the Temple Mount with members of the Likud faction in the Knesset, as I have done many times before, to inspect and ascertain that freedom of worship and free access to the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, which is sovereign Israeli territory, is ensured to everyone: Christians, Moslems, and Jews in particular, since it is and has been for over 3,000 years the site of our holiest shrine.

Ever since the reunification of Jerusalem in 1967, Israel has made careful arrangements to ensure freedom of worship and free access to the site for Moslems, Christians, and Jews alike. Historically, however, it should be noted that only under Israeli rule was that for everyone, including Jews. The Waqf is attempting to deliberately destroy all archaelogical evidence of Jewish claims to this holy site, while using terror and intimidation to impose their exclusive claim to the site.

Proof of the PA's systematic campaign and premeditated efforts to take control of the Temple Mount were publicly presented by Israeli Police inspector-general and other security officials following my visit; the evidence has been documented.

As for myself, despite the recent violent events, I remain fully committed to achieving peace with all our Arab neighbors, including the Palestinians. I believe that we can live together with Palestinians, but not when systematic anti-Jewish, anti-Israel incitement instigated by the PA and its leaders to official media sources continues unabated, as became evident in the past few days.

When Palestinian policemen open fire on civilians, it is difficult to imagine future conciliation. This spread of violence, terror, and incitement will only place the full consequences of these actions on the shoulders of the Palestinian leadership as well as the leaders of the Arab Israeli community. If they continue down this path, they will be leading them astray, rather than giving them the hope of real peace.

Finally, in order to achieve true conciliation, the Palestinians must recognize the historical right of the Jews to their capital, and particularly to the Temple Mount. Freedom of access and religious worship would never be denied to Americans, Europeans, or Arabs in their own respective capitals and countries. It should never be denied to Jews in their one, eternal capital.

Peace is still at hand, but only with an undivided Jerusalem under full Israeli sovereignty.

Anyone who observed this past week the brutal, inconsiderate way ambassadors and officials were removed from office - apparently on order from the Prime Minister's Office - must be concerned with democracy. You can fire someone; you can remove a person from his post, but there is no need to insult, to hurt, to trample on a civil servant's honor and dignity. This is despicable. A real shame.

Democracy is in a state of turmoil. There is a prime minister without a government, without a majority in the Knesset, and without a majority among the public; a prime minister who violated the pledges that got him elected. On top of all that, the Knesset has already passed with a 61 majority vote the preliminary call for an early dissolution.

In any viable democracy a prime minister who vows to safeguard his country's security, protect its holy sites and uphold its unity, and who then violates them, simply goes home.

The prime minister violated his security promises and agreed to hand over the vital Jordan Valley to Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat. Ehud Barak has promised to keep and protect the holy shrines, but accepted the American ideas of handing over sovereignty of a large part of the Old City to the Palestinians; offering them control of the Temple Mount, an office for Arafat, and free access without Israeli inspection!

As for Hebron, we were told about Barak's proposals and non-binding exchange of ideas - an exercise in deception designed to remove the Jewish community from the city. He wants to expel Jews from the Cave of the Patriarchs, a national monument like no other nation on earth has.

The holy shrines have suddenly disappeared from Barak's pledges. He has crossed a red line no government ever did: agreeing to make concessions in Jerusalem. What was once firm and unequivocal has now become solt and flexible. This, I am afraid, will only invite more pressure in the future.

No government and no prime minister has the right to decide by itself to hand over the Jewish people's holy shrines. We are dealing here with national and historical assets of the Jewish people. Whoever decides to give them up, must first obtain the people's consent. Barak simply has not got it.

Barak speaks about unity but creates a critical division among the people, a cleavage that will only become wider and deeper. I am fearful of what this may bring about.

I know that the Jewish residents of Judea, Samaria and Gaza will not evacuate themselves, and no one can say today what dire consequences may result if it is decided to abandon them. Barak is deepening animosity and internal hatred and thus, endangering us all.

Contrary to his statement that what was discussed in Camp David is null and void, Barak continues to conduct clandestine negotiations, and is ready for additional concessions, from the same point where the Camp David summit ended. Apparently, he is using an artificial crisis planned by both Israel and the US in order to adjust the negotiations to a more convenient time schedule based on US domestic political considerations.

A prime minister in any democratic system that does not speak truth to his constituencies is usually forced to resign. In a healthy democracy, a prime minister who patronizes and despises the Knesset and the people's elected representatives, would be on his way home, and fast.

Prime Minister Barak hurries to report to the president of Egypt; is quick to update the king of Jordan; he sends emissaries to the Gulf States and around the world to brief them about the details of the negotiations. But at the same time he bypasses a Knesset law by refusing to report and update, as required, the head of the opposition party. ln any other democracy such practices by the prime minister would serve as a case for removal.

In order to survive and develop, a stable democracy requires secure and lasting peace. Therefore, we must take all the necessary steps for early elections with a government based on broad national consensus that will work to bring real and secure peace, peace with Jerusalem, peace that will safeguard the vital national interests of Israel and protect the historical rights of the Jewish people in its one and only homeland, Israel, and in its undivided capital, Jerusalem.

Only such a government is capable of restoring the confidence of the people in the viability of democracy. The writer is the chairman of the Likud Party

(IsraelWire-07/18/00) Likud MK Dr Uzi Landau, who has served as chairman of the Knesset Foreign Affairs & Defense Committee, will be arriving in Washington, DC on Tuesday.

Landau is in the United States to request meetings with US Secretary of State Madeline Albright, and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak.

Mr. Landau is a longtime Knesset member of the Likud Party, and is an outspoken critic of the Camp David summit. He will be holding a press conference at the media-briefing center at Camp David at 2:00pm on Tuesday, July 18th, and is available for further interview.

"I am in Camp David to remind Mr. Barak of the commitments he made to the Israeli public before the elections. I feel the moral imperative to remind him that Jerusalem is not for negotiation, the Jordan Valley is integral for Israel's ability to defend itself, and it is impossible to agree to the right of return for Palestinian refugees," stated Dr. Landau.

"After the largest demonstration in Israel's history yesterday (July 16), a rally which centered around unity, I must raise a voice of moral conscience against these negotiations. I would like to convey the deep convictions of the majority of the Israeli Knesset of the dangers confronting Israel. Mr. Barak - you must adhere to your election commitments, and we urge you to build a consensus before you make territorial concessions that endanger the security of the State of Israel, and our eternal capital," stated Mr. Landau.

"I am requesting meetings with Mrs. Albright, as she met with a number of opposition Palestinian politicians last week, and updated them on the course of negotiations," stated Landau.

Dr. Landau's trip comes on the heels of Likud MK Limor Livnat being asked to leave the press-briefing center in Camp David by State Department Officials.

"We will not be silenced, and our efforts to convey the message of the majority of the Israeli Parliament to Mr. Barak and to the American Jewish community and general public will continue," stated Landau.

A series of Israeli Knesset members and politicians from the opposition Likud party, including Likud MK Limor Livnat, former Ambassador to the US Zalman Shoval, and others are expected to visit the Washington area, and US to raise their concerns about the course of negotiations.

Long a champion of the settlers, Sharon, a former general, invoked the biblical names for the West Bank, saying: "Samaria and Judea are the cradle of the Jewish people. There I would say the Jews started to exist as a nation."

Last month, Prime Minister Ehud Barak spelled out a vision for a peace deal that would extend Israeli sovereignty to occupied land encompassing 80 percent of settlers. Angry settlers accused Barak of ceding the rest to the Palestinians.

"Uprooting Jewish communities no doubt will tear this nation (apart). ... I think it will be a major mistake by any government to do it," Sharon, the hawkish 72-year-old leader of Israel's rightist Likud party, told the Foreign Press Association.

He differentiated between the West Bank, where more than 170,000 Jews live in settlements scattered among more than 2 million Palestinians, and Sinai, where a Likud-led government uprooted settlements as part of a 1979 peace treaty with Egypt.

Sharon said Sinai was never part of biblical Israel whereas the West Bank, which Israel captured from Jordan in the 1967 Middle East war, was rich with Jewish heritage.

Barak, a 58-year-old former army chief, came to power 11 months ago vowing to accelerate peace moves that slowed under Likud Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the man he defeated. Sharon succeeded Netanyahu as Likud leader.

Talks between Israel and the Palestinians on a framework for a final peace move this week to the Washington area. They aim to iron out the toughest issues of their conflict, including the fate of settlers who have intensified their street protests.

SHARON ASSAILS SYRIAN "REGIME"

On Syria, Sharon said he believed the death of President Hafez al-Assad might enable Israel to seek better peace terms than those he said Barak had been seeking. "Barak altogether gave up everything," Sharon said.

Sharon said he opposed the readiness of Barak's One Israel faction to return land on the Golan Heights captured from Syria in 1967. Damascus demands it get back all of the heights. Negotiations fell apart in January.

The Likud leader said it made no difference if Assad's son Bashar, or someone else, ruled Syria.

"It doesn't make a difference if it's that man or another man -- we speak about a regime," Sharon said.

He said he did not see a threat of war with Syria.

"Israel is militarily a strong country and I think that they got all the warnings and they understand that Israel doesn't have any intention whatsoever to see any hostile activities."

Sharon, who as defense minister led Israel's 1982 invasion of Lebanon, said he hoped for quiet and a normal life in Lebanon now that Barak had pulled Israeli troops out last month.

The Likud leader, who trails Barak in most opinion polls by 10 points, said the only election promise the prime minister had kept since taking office was to withdraw from Lebanon.

"He is busy all the time with one thing -- he is busy only with the attempt, I would say, to sign an agreement with Syria or to sign an agreement with the Palestinians. He doesn't deal at all with the other things," Sharon said. (Copyright ©2000 ABC News Internet Ventures 06/12/00)

SOURCE:http://abcnews.go.com/wire/World/reuters20000612_1099. html 06/12/00 JERUSALEM, Israel

Once, when we were few and weak in military and economic terms, we acted like an independent country. Now that we are many and Israel is strong, we have almost become a client state. Our leaders receive call-up papers, telling them to report to an army base in the US where they will have two months to reach an agreement.

Time is short for Clinton and Assad. One needs an international achievement by the summer; the other needs money to buy modern arms as soon as possible.

So our leaders pack their little suitcases and set off as instructed. But Israel has no reason to hurry. We need lots of time to examine Syria's true intentions.

The Barak government wants a diplomatic solution, knowing it has no solution to the country's economic and social problems. Perhaps it hoped that by selling off the Golan it would get the money to solve its economic problems.

But even if Congress approves a security aid package it won't grant funds for evacuating settlements from the Golan and for redeployments. These expenses will fall on us.

For the cost of the civilian evacuation alone it would be possible to lay the foundations for railways and perfect public transport all over the country.

It would be possible to create more than 120,000 jobs and solve the unemployment problem, or set up a free education system, including a long school day and free universities for all.

It would be possible to set up thousands of startups and again have over 5 percent annual growth, to create a genuine economic and social revolution and move Israel fully into the information age.

The prime minister hasn't told the nation any of this. He says he will insist on our vital interests and that the agreement strengthens us. But that is not true.

By giving up all the Golan and supporting the arming of Syria, Barak is increasing the danger of war. Yet when he was chief of General Staff he opposed withdrawal from the Golan even in time of peace. American generals who came to assess the military importance of the Golan agreed. The late Yitzhak Rabin said the same, and so, of course, did I.

It's wrong to claim that a peace treaty is the answer to a security problem, because the Syrians' intentions may change and a withdrawal from the Golan and the arming of the Syrians are irreversible acts.

I was the OC Northern Command and I remember how difficult it was to stand up to the Syrians when they were on the Heights and we were down below.

Barak hasn't demanded the removal of the Syrians from Lebanon. Nor has he insisted on renewed and efficient supervision of Iraq, which is apparently once more producing weapons of mass destruction.

Instead, his aides marvel about the "smart weapons" we may receive. They're important, but not sufficient to decide battles.

In Iraq the Americans and their allies didn't succeed in destroying even one mobile Scud launcher. In Kosovo the Serbs used simple diversionary tactics, and the Americans managed to destroy only 4 percent of the Serbian tanks.

Barak says he won't destroy the achievements of Shamir, Peres, Rabin, and Netanyahu. But there is a decisive difference between them and him. They all shrank from withdrawing from the Golan. And they were more experienced than he is. Only Barak wants desperately to do it, and he's not telling his government.

It's clear he has made commitments to Clinton without discussing them here. This undemocratic behavior is intolerable.

Mubarak knows it; Arafat has reported it. But the cabinet doesn't discuss it, the government hasn't decided it, and the opposition hasn't been informed.

Also, Barak is going to expel 18,000 Jews from their homes. This will be a mortal blow to Zionism and the settlement movement.