Agriculture Min ister Ariel Sharon got Knesset Finance Committee approval today of an additional IL 20 million budget for development work at outposts in the Rafah salient of northern Sinai. But he won the grant only after sharp questioning by committee members and a bitter debate during which Sharon accused his political foes of “mercilessly spilling” his blood.
Labor Alignment MKs, joined by coalition “doves” wonted to know what point there was to invest money in an area the government has already announced it would return to Egyptian sovereignty. They demanded that Sharon explain the reasons for establishing the 13 outposts and questioned Sharon’s contention that all the work he authorized in Sinai had prior approval by the Cabinet.
The outposts were established several months ago, after President Anwar Sadat launched his peace initiative, and created a severe strain in Israel’s relations with the U.S. which regarded them as an obstacle to peace negotiations with Egypt. The outposts were seen as potential new settlement sites.
Sharon described them as centers of land reclamation. He said most consisted of a water tower surrounded by a fence. He claimed that the technique of “creating facts” in delicate areas had always proven right during his military career on all of Israel’s fronts.
Sharon insisted that the Cabinet and Begin personally had approved the outposts but even then “the personal attacks against me continued. I decided to put the newspapers aside. . . They attacked me for ten consecutive days and I did not respond,” Sharon said. “Not even one Cabinet minister got up and said this was a Cabinet decision. I waited patiently for the Premier’s official statement.”
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
