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Jewish World Review Feb. 9, 2001 / 16 Shevat, 5761
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Sharon the peacemaker
can now show his face
http://www.jewishworldreview.com --
ONE of the first things Ariel Sharon should do is send a
thank-you note to Yasser Arafat. After all, it was the
Palestinian leader's camel-stubborn refusal to accept
Ehud Barak's unprecedented peace offers that turned
Israelis against the outgoing prime minister. And it was
the Arafat-sanctioned war of terror that plunged the
final nails into Barak's political coffin.
Not that I think Sharon's election is such a disaster.
It isn't not for Israelis and, in an odd way, not for
Palestinians, either. After almost two years of watching
Arafat spit in Barak's face every time he made a
concession, Israelis want a less compromising leader.
As for the Palestinians, exit good cop, enter bad cop.
The 72-year-old Sharon is a symbol of toughness. The
international press loves to talk of his "bloodstained
career." What few commentators remember, though, is that
Sharon can be a pragmatic peacemaker. He was among those
who convinced the late Menachem Begin in 1978 that the
only path to peace with Egypt was to withdraw from the
Sinai Peninsula which Sharon himself had helped
capture during 1967's Six-Day War.
And after Egypt and Israel signed their historic Camp
David accord, it was Sharon who oversaw the forcible
expulsion of right-wing Israeli settlers from Sinai
settlements like Yamit.
So what will Sharon do this time around? For starters,
he says, he won't be "eating Arabs for breakfast." But
he will wipe the platter clean. All those far-reaching
offers that Barak made an Israeli withdrawal from 98%
of the West Bank and Gaza, the dismantling of many of
Israel's settlements there, the redivision of Jerusalem
and the immediate recognition of a Palestinian state
are off the table for now.
Sharon's own menu for peace is to honor only agreements
with the Arabs already ratified by the Knesset. He says
he's open to compromise, and that includes an eventual
Palestinian state. But his vision of compromise is one
that will not endanger his strategic view of Israel's
minimal security needs. That means no military
withdrawal from critical border areas like the Jordan
Valley; no substantial dismantling of Israeli
settlements on the West Bank and in Gaza; a sharing but
not a division of Jerusalem and absolutely no
negotiations while violence is the Palestinian response.
Sharon will try forming a government that will encompass
as many of Israel's parties and opinions as possible,
above all Barak's Labor wing. The new prime minister
faces a particularly fractious parliament. And unless he
can form a workable coalition, he and Israel will be
facing premature elections as well as Palestinian
intransigence.
One of Sharon's fondest hopes, he says, is to have
Barak, his defeated political opponent and former army
colleague, join him as defense minister. Sharon thinks
the two great military men could form a powerful
partnership. Barak has indicated that he would not
accept membership in a government of "extremists." But
some say he can be persuaded to join Sharon.
Problem is that Barak's devastating defeat has pulled
the carpet out from under his party. He has already
formally resigned as Labor's leader; he may not be
sanctioned to join Sharon's government.
Whatever happens, Sharon is determined to try to unite
Israel and achieve real peace and personal security
for Palestinians, he claims, as well as Israelis.
If the fire-breathing Menachem Begin could make peace
with Egypt, then why can't Sharon be the Israeli to make
meaningful peace with the Palestinians? And maybe, just
maybe, they, too, will someday go to free polls and
elect their leader, as Israel did on
By Richard Z. Chesnoff
JWR contributor and veteran journalist
Richard Z. Chesnoff is a senior correspondent at US News
And World Report and a columnist at the NY Daily News. His latest book is Pack of Thieves: How Hitler & Europe
Plundered the Jews and Committed the Greatest Theft in History.
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