Is Ariel Sharon The "False Prophet"?

Probably not. But it's certainly a disheartening thing to see one of Israel's greatest, most hard-headedly realistic champions, what one might call the Ronald Reagan of Jewry, turn into the first national leader since Adolph You-Know-Who to drive Hebrews from their homes at the point of a gun.

Now, stoking the fires of intra-ethnic resentment even further, he says that he expects his country's flight from Gaza to spark a "civil war."

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon suggested the Jewish state is in crisis and appears to be on the "eve of a civil war" as his goverment moves to remove 8,000 Jewish settlers from the Gaza Strip.

In his most ominous comments about the level of tension in his country as it seeks to end Jewish settlements in the Gaza strip later this summer, Sharon said his government's decision is meeting angry resistance.

In an exclusive interview with NBC News, Sharon – in Crawford, Texas Monday for talks with President Bush – told correspondent David Gregory point-blank he expects settlers to rebel "before and during" the withdrawal.

Well, if you were they, wouldn't you be pissed at this betrayal? How many times does Munich 1938 have to be reprised before it finally sticks in politicians' minds that the Sudetenland will never be the end, but the beginning of sorrows far, far worse?

Sharon then poured salt into the wound:

The danger is so grave, in fact, that Sharon says for the first time, he has security in place to keep him alive.

"All my life I was defending [the] life of Jews," he said, in reply to a question of whether he feared for his own life. "Now, for [the] first time, security steps are taken to protect me from Jews."

Wow. He stabs Jewish settlers in Gaza in the back and morally equates them to Palestinian terrorists at the same time. This guy's talented.

I'm not sure if the PM was trying for any particular reaction, but the one he did get back home wasn't a happy one - from any quarter.

Knesset Members from both left and right said that PM Sharon's remarks on NBC television about a "civil war" atmosphere and his need for protection from Jews are incendiary and provocative, Arutz Sheva reported Tuesday.

MK Tzvi Hendel (National Union), a resident of Gush Katif and one of Sharon's most bitter opponents, said, "Sharon is a liar. He knows that the only one who can lead to a civil war is he himself."

Hendel's party colleague MK Uri Ariel also blamed the Prime Minister for the atmosphere he himself created: "Sharon is like someone who pushed his mother down the steps, was put on trial for murder, and then asked for mercy because he's an orphan."

Even on the left, there were some who had no use for Sharon's remarks.

Extreme left-wing MK Zahava Gal'on (Meretz/Yahad) accused Sharon of "making cheap and provocative use of threats of civil war."

Former Justice Minister Tommy Lapid of the left-wing Shinui Party said, "Remarks like these by the Prime Minister cause more extremism and tension, instead of calming things down. I don't think that such dangers exist."

The Yesha Council of Jewish Communities in Judea, Samaria and Gaza issued a statement proposing once again that Sharon "prevent the civil war of which he is warning, and bring the disengagement issue to a public referendum. Sharon is tearing the nation apart and causing a split in the nation - and then he runs to impress the Americans with stories of a civil war."

Perhaps the most disheartening factor of all in this situation is that it is the Bush Administration which is propelling it.

The White House says the Gaza withdrawal is vital to building a lasting peace in the region. But the Jewish settlers aren't eager to abandon their homes, as well as land they believe rightfully belongs to Israel.

And, Sharon's government is adding onto other Jewish settlements, another sore point for the administration – especially, NBC News reported, "in the sprawling settlement known as Ma' aleh Adumim."

The Bush Administration believes that is "a direct violation" of Washington's demand to halt such construction. [my emphasis]

You know, the death of Yassir Arafat may have been a curse in disguise. As long as that greasy, murderous pig was the face of "Palestine," the neoBushies, at least, were willing to see the Holy Land equation as it really is, rather than indulging in the failed, demented "land for peace" fantasizing of the past.

But now they've succumbed to that same snake oil, signing onto the notion that the problem in the Middle East isn't Muslim despotism but the lone outpost of Western democracy in the entire region, which must be forced to give away strategically irreplaceable swaths of its own territory to its blood enemies in order to "build a lasting peace."

"Peace" like the following:

On Monday, a terrorist drone aircraft easily entered Israeli airspace - and then returned safely to Lebanon. The highly-publicized incursion demonstrated just how precarious Israel's security is.

The militant Hezbollah claims it manufactures the dangerous drones or unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) that are flying over Israel.

But U.S. and Israeli intelligence sources have told NBC News that the terrorist organization actually obtained the UAVs from Iran and that Iranian soldiers operate them from bases just across the border from Israel in Lebanon.

This is the only "peace" the Israelis can ever expect from their enemies, and especially if they continue to embrace retreat and appeasement as the avenues to get there.

Gaza, in any case, won't be enough. The Golan Heights won't be enough. Most of the West Bank won't be enough. Arafat made that clear five years ago.

So what could Sharon be offered to keep this pell-mell retreat going, in the interests of a "peace" that, in some recalcitrant portion of his mind, he has to know is false?

A US/Western security guarantee, perhaps?

One thing is certain: if Sharon won't go that far, there's somebody coming after him who will.