Remember: as of two weeks ago, 178 Jews were killed, and over 1500 Jews wounded under Sharon’s government. We didn’t have numbers like these even under Rabin’s government. The man who declared that he knows how to deal with terror, "give me the steering wheel and you’ll see how to deal with terror," has failed abysmally.

For months now we are aware of the fact that the greatest "achievement" of the Sharon government is the statement that Arafat is no longer relevant. Yet it seems that Arafat is quite relevant – and how! And the P.A. is not being treated as a terrorist supporting entity as the government had decided it was.

Prime Minister Sharon met with three senior P.A. officials in his official residence in Yerushalayim: Abu Ela, Abu Mazen, and Mohammed Rashid. They came as emissaries of Arafat (who is very relevant), and as representatives of the entity which supports terror. Ministers on the Right twist themselves into pretzels in order to understand this meeting with Sharon. Minister Benny Alon explained that this was only "a tactical move," while Yvette Lieberman said that based on his information, he was calm.

Then the prime minister gave interviews to the media in which he explicitly declared that he would give the Palestinians a state, while he repeated the mantra of "painful concessions." He said, "For the sake of true peace I am ready to give up parts of Eretz Yisroel." Another quote, "In the end, there will be a Palestinian state, an established state with a police force which will keep order."

Peres also met with Abu Ela, a day later in Washington. The Minister of Defense, Puad Ben Eliezer went to crawl and prostrate himself before Egyptian President Mubarak. Then came reports that Peres was on the verge of an agreement with Abu Ela. If we add to this what Arafat said in the N.Y. Times, about his "flexibility" regarding the Palestinian Right to Return, in order to reach an agreement with Israel, we notice an unpleasant odor of something Sharon is cooking up.

In the meantime, those "loyal to Eretz Yisroel" in the government, sit and explain that all this is nothing but tactical steps, and that the government hasn’t yet come to a decision. Such an argument could only be presented to mindless fools, for even on the eve of the Oslo Accords was there an official decision by the government to arrange such an agreement? Everybody knows that the order of things is first preparing the agreement, and only after it’s signed and sealed is it brought to a vote in a session of government, as Sharon has done with other political agreements. So the oblivion of those ministers on the Right, despite the dangers that lie in wait for us, is truly frightening.

In general, the ministers on the Right have a new approach to things. They simply disappear after each murderous attack and do not react. Only after a few days go by, when things quiet down, do they initiate various campaigns whose goal is to enable them to survive politically.

At first they presented their greatest achievement, the resolution that Arafat was no longer relevant. When it turned out that he was relevant after all, their excuse was that all Sharon’s meetings were only for tactical purposes. And what will they say if, ch’v, there’s a Palestinian state?

It’s very hard to argue with people who are comfortably ensconced in their seats, but it was enough to see them squirming in front of the microphones, and hearing them explain why they ought to retain their seats, when at the time they were in the Opposition, they yelled about the terrible danger with Barak’s government. Now that has all changed.

Whoever still has a shred of faith in these people, and relies on their "Rightness," ought to read the map while there’s still time. The one thing that frightens them, as the Rebbe once said in a sicha on shleimus ha’Aretz, "is the fact that on election day they might not be elected." It’s only when they wake up and realize that people aren’t stupid, and the day will come when they will have to give an accounting, that there might be a change for the better.

The other week, Knesset member Michoel Kleiner, chairman of the Cheirut party, proposed a law in the Knesset that would abolish the Oslo, Chevron, and Wye Agreements. Eleven Knesset members supported the bill, among them members of Mafdal and the Ichud Leumi, but the charedi parties and Shas abstained or voted against it.

The Oslo Tragedy is written with the names of the charedi parties, particularly that of Shas. Apparently Shas hasn’t regretted those agreements they were partners to, even as we stand on the brink of hell.

The Rambam says that t’shuva is regret for the past and a resolution for the future, and when a person encounters the same opportunity to sin, he withstands the test. We would have hoped that the same religious party that enabled Yitzchok Rabin to carry out the Oslo Accords, would – when it came time to vote to abolish it – have done so, if only to declare their regret. But it didn’t happen.

Neither did it happen with Yahadus HaTorah, which was very busy with money for yeshivos and cuts in benefits for children. Let it be stated clearly: The murder of hundreds of Jews are on the heads of those parties which enable it to happen, and why do they enable it? Because of the money they get. They had the opportunity to prove their disassociation from the Oslo tragedy, they could have demonstrated that a dati or charedi Jew in the Knesset is not there solely to bring home the greenbacks, but to demonstrate before one and all that the Torah says that life is the most sanctified thing of all.

The Rebbe MH"M said this more than once, "You cannot build Torah and fear of Heaven on money stained with Jewish blood!" It’s shocking to see how those religious parties are concerned with one thing and one thing only: protecting their budgets which drip with Jewish blood!

The very same week that charedi representatives abstained from voting to abolish the Oslo Accords, a terrorist went right up the entrance to Bnei Brak. It was only by an outright miracle that he was shot and killed, right by the entrance to the city, by passersby and police who were called to the scene.

Perhaps this was a sign from Heaven to those charedi representatives that even Bnei Brak is not immune from terrorists and suicide bombers, and that the goal of these murderers is to penetrate everywhere, including Bnei Brak.

We have mentioned before, that in a sicha about how the terrorists won’t concede anything, the Rebbe enumerated, among other places, Bnei Brak and Kfar Chabad, may it not come to pass!

We’ve written about this in the past, but from day to day we see how true it is. In the war in Lebanon, Sharon started off right, but finished miserably, including the resolution of the Kahan committee that he could never again serve as minister of defense (and even now he has a court case going on in Belgium).

The tragedy back then was that Sharon took one step forward and two steps back. Sharon recently said that he regretted not eliminating Arafat in 1982 when he had the chance. Sharon has a record of regrets. He’s sorry that he destroyed Yamit and the yishuvim of Pitchat Rafiach, and now he tells us he regrets he didn’t eliminate Arafat back then. But the mistakes he made in Lebanon are repeating themselves now; it’s just the names and places that have changed.

Back then, too, Israel was given the green light from the U.S., and the Left wasn’t relevant at the time. Sharon felt like Israel’s commander in chief with nobody standing in his way, but at the critical moment he backed down and became afraid of his own shadow. That’s when he began to fall.

This is what is happening now. More than ever before, the Left was considered irrelevant, but now it’s beginning to gather strength. The conscientious objectors to the draft are the darlings of the media, just like back during the war in Lebanon. The landslide majority with which Sharon won the elections, is beginning to dissipate. The opportunity they had to eliminate Arafat and the P.A. was lost. Furthermore, even when President Bush and peace envoy Anthony Zinni announced that Arafat is a terrorist, Sharon quickly said that he wouldn’t eliminate Arafat (despite his regret over not having done so in 1982 ...).

The story of Sharon won’t have a happy ending. We thought he learned his lessons and understood that there was only one solution: carrying out speedy and courageous actions, just as he did in the 70’s, when he served as general in the South. Today we have the Sharon of Yamit, Lebanon, Chevron, and Wye.

Twenty years from now, will we hear Sharon in his home in Chavot HaShikmim, telling the nation what a terrible mistake he made when he established the Palestinian state, r’l?

The media was full of talk of the completion of Sharon’s first year in office. The man who began with great hopes and declared that he would prevent the formation of a Palestinian state, and even promised to bring us security and peace ...

Remember! By now it’s more than 178 Jews murdered, and over 1500 Jews injured. This is the sad summation of Sharon’s first year. We didn’t have numbers like these even in the darkest days under Rabin. The man who announced that only he knew how to deal with terror has failed abysmally.

There is only one way to deal with terror: the way of the Torah and Shulchan Aruch: "go out against them with weapons, so the land won’t be easy for them to conquer." Sitting on the fence in the guise of a united government, has not helped.

What can the government do at this point? As always, the answer is in the Rebbe’s sichos. In the sicha of D’varim 5739, the Rebbe says, "And not like the opinion of those who err who say that the situation is hopeless and nothing can be done, since we see that the Arabs disregarded a number of things which were agreed upon and signed at Camp David. So we have the opportunity to say this was a mekach ta’us (an invalid transaction). Once they reneged, we say ‘forget it’ to the whole thing.

"It’s true, we’ll hear very sharp, denigrating comments, but nothing more than diplomatic words, and it won’t hurt anyone, since it’s clear that then will be, ‘and you shall lie without fear,’ and, ‘a sword shall not pass through your land.’

"Furthermore, even regarding the land they already gave away, it’s still not lost, and it can all be reclaimed, since they annulled the agreement they made."