Tuesday, February 03, 2004
Sharon "goes to China"
Sharon survived his confidence vote, and, I predict, will remake Israel's borders come hell or high water. The Palestinians have their chance here, if they will only get organized and seize the day.
The heart of the matter:
Once considered the godfather of the settlement movement, Sharon survived a confidence vote in parliament by a single vote Monday after saying he had ordered plans be drawn up to remove 17 of the 21 Gaza enclaves. Some 7,500 settlers occupy 21 percent of Gaza amidst more than one million Palestinians.
The announcement, which stunned friends and foes alike, marked the first time Sharon had revealed details for such an extensive pullout from land occupied in the 1967 Middle East war that Palestinians want for state of their own.
There is a lot going on here, and the very unhealthy dynamic that has prevailed since the rejection of the Barak compromise is changing. Sharon himself may be looking to his role in history. He seems to be willing to do what it takes to secure the Israel that is, even it means compromising on the Israel that he wants. Put differently, as a liberal Israeli friend of mine observed recently, neither critics nor supports of Sharon (and my friend is a critic) should forget that he bulldozed the settlements in the Sinai after Camp David.
The heart of the matter:
Once considered the godfather of the settlement movement, Sharon survived a confidence vote in parliament by a single vote Monday after saying he had ordered plans be drawn up to remove 17 of the 21 Gaza enclaves. Some 7,500 settlers occupy 21 percent of Gaza amidst more than one million Palestinians.
The announcement, which stunned friends and foes alike, marked the first time Sharon had revealed details for such an extensive pullout from land occupied in the 1967 Middle East war that Palestinians want for state of their own.
There is a lot going on here, and the very unhealthy dynamic that has prevailed since the rejection of the Barak compromise is changing. Sharon himself may be looking to his role in history. He seems to be willing to do what it takes to secure the Israel that is, even it means compromising on the Israel that he wants. Put differently, as a liberal Israeli friend of mine observed recently, neither critics nor supports of Sharon (and my friend is a critic) should forget that he bulldozed the settlements in the Sinai after Camp David.
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