''Sharon was disrespectful, called him a panicker, but Netanyahu was right': Commentator recalls

August 17, 2021   

Media personality Yoav Krakowski, head of the political department at the Kan Broadcasting Corporation, wrote this evening (Tuesday), in a post he published on his Facebook account, about coverage of the disengagement plan from the Gaza Strip and the warning issued at the time by Benjamin Netanyahu. Do you have money in Boydham? Want to know where to invest? Ask the CEO Where would you like to travel? We have compiled great vacation offers for you only in Israel. 16 years have passed since the start of the disengagement plan led by Ariel Sharon. I covered it - and like many others, it was burned into my memory as a formative memory. I also covered the political struggle that preceded it. At the time, opponents of the plan warned: Gaza would be occupied by Hamas, Iran would help them with armaments. Rockets would be fired from Gaza at the southern settlements first and all the way to Tel Aviv. Ariel Sharon was disdainful, because the one at the head of the warning was one, Benjamin Netanyahu. Sharon called him a panicker, from the word panic. He accused him of panicking the public for political reasons. I especially remember the 'Speech of Silence'. A speech that Ariel Sharon gave at the beginning of a meeting with Likud activists at the Ze'ev Citadel, on one of the last Thursdays in the winter of 2005. He said: "The Iranians with the Syrians and Hezbollah will bombard from the north - Hamas will take over Gaza from the south - submarines from the west, drones - tunnels underneath. Everything around me is bubbling - I say a little quiet. A little quiet." Tragically, it all happened. January 2006 Hamas took control of Gaza. Summer 2006 Second Lebanon War against Hezbollah. Qassam rocket fire was replaced by Grad missiles on the southern, central, Tel Aviv and Jerusalem communities. Penetrating tunnels were dug from such a strip into Israeli territory, Hezbollah and Hamas were equipped with advanced weapons, including unmanned aircraft. Yes, everything is bubbling, Arik. Everything. Want to independently check the risk level of your family and loved ones? Have you already received your third? If you have already reached the age of 60, you deserve to receive a boost now. It is not certain that all of this would not have happened even if the disengagement plan and unilateral withdrawal without an agreement had not been carried out, but it is clear as day that if the withdrawal had been made in agreement with the Palestinian Authority - a move that Sharon strongly opposed in order to humiliate Abu Mazen - Gaza might not have fallen into the hands of Hamas. Netanyahu warned, Netanyahu supported and voted in favor, but Netanyahu was right.