Knesset Opposition Pours Scorn on Sharon Policies

Opposition politicians capitalized on yesterday's special Knesset session to lambast Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, and his policies. Sharon declared his readiness to meet with moderate Arab leaders at the special Knesset meeting.

Opposition leader MK Yossi Sarid (Meretz) told Sharon that "you don't have the right to destroy Menachem Begin's life work, and his establishment of peace with Egypt, and you don't have the right to destroy the labors of Yitzhak Rabin's life, and his forging of peace with Jordan."

Sarid declared that instead of crafting broad, long term policy, Sharon is preoccupied with passing issues such as the refugee camp in Jenin. Sharon must ponder how he created the current situation in which the world stands against Israel, Sarid said.

Sarid ridiculed official IDF reports about the confiscation of Palestinian weapons during the current military operations on the West Bank. "The Chief of Staff said that two thousand firearms have been seized up to now. Let my people rejoice. In the same breath the chief of staff said that the Palestinians have hundreds of thousands of firearms."

In a similar vein, Sarid criticized reports about the liquidation of hundreds of terrorists. "Let's suppose that we kill 500 terrorists," said the opposition leader. "Won't 1000 new ones arise to replace them. Or 5000? I will take the liberty to assume that terror will not be eliminated. Instead it will strengthen - the number of terrorists will increase."

MK Yosef Lapid (Shinui) said that the public needs to be convinced that the government is truly oriented toward peace.

Arab MKs based their remarks on reports they received about developments on the ground in Nablus and Jenin. MK Hashem Mahameed (United Arab List) charged that "dozens of corpses" have been piled up on streets of a refugee camp in Jenin, and that "there is nobody to evacuate them, due to the fact that the IDF prevents ambulances from entering the camp." Mahameed added that the IDF is perpetrating a massacre on the West Bank "which resembles the massacre in Lebanon's Sabra and Chatila camps."

MK Muhammad Kanan (Arab National Party) said that he has received phone calls from Jenin in which residents spoke about the demolition of 50 populated homes.