Jewish World Review March 15, 2001 / 20 Adar, 5761
Odd couple is Arafat's best chance
http://www.jewishworldreview.com --
THEY are without doubt the oddest couple in Israeli
political history. But the partnership of the new
superhawk Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, the darling of
the Israeli right wing, and his new superdove Foreign
Minister Shimon Peres, the elder statesman of Israel's
left, may just work.
Indeed, these two septuagenarians may succeed in
reaching a deal with the Palestinians where their
younger predecessors, Benjamin Netanyahu and Ehud Barak,
failed.
The secret to their potential success is sheer
pragmatism. For all his tough talk, Sharon, unlike Likud
rival Netanyahu, knows that a deal has to be made with
the Palestinians. The retired general also has an old
soldier's keen awareness of how to negotiate with the
Palestinians, when to talk and when to listen. Most
significantly, he believes in steady but gradual steps,
rather than in constantly grabbing for an elusive ring
of overall settlement, as Barak did.
Peres is on much the same track. Though famous for
Garden of Eden ideas about fraternal peace between Jews
and Arabs, and often ridiculed for his penchant to talk
about "turning tanks into tomatoes," Peres, too, has
become a gradualist. Largely ignored by Barak (who
rarely listened to anyone), he has been urging interim
agreements that advance peace by postponing decisions on
such fireball issues as Jerusalem.
Official Palestinian response to the new Israeli
leadership duo has been mixed: positive one day,
negative the next. Nonetheless, there is a slow,
unwelcome realization among some Palestinians that their
costly new intifadeh is getting nowhere fast.
"Where is this all leading?" Palestinian analyst Daoud
Kuttab asked recently. The very fact that people like
Kuttab, one of the first intifadeh's most vocal
defenders, have dared to publicly question the shadowy
leaders of the current violence is of major significance.
Other Palestinian critics of Arafat and Co. are far from
interested in ending violence or making peace with
Israel. The terrorist fanatics of Hamas and other
extremist groups are increasingly outspoken in their
attacks on Arafat's regime, especially on the unbridled
corruption of many of the aging Palestinian chief's
closest advisers. Several greedy Arafat insiders already
have been mysteriously assassinated. Now, reports
Israeli Arab journalist Khaled abu Toameh, one of the
best-informed newsmen in Jerusalem, other Palestinian
mucky-mucks have gone into hiding.
So where does this leave Yasser Arafat? Up the
proverbial creek, with a diminishing supply of paddles.
Cut off from their jobs in Israel thanks to the
intifadeh, and now under security blockade, the
Palestinian population faces economic chaos and the
Palestinian Authority financial collapse — save for the
monies Arafat and his cronies have cached away. One
Israeli intelligence report says an increasingly
desperate Arafat recently offered Iraq's Saddam Hussein
$20 million in cash if he has to flee Gaza and seek
asylum.
Before he takes the money and runs, Yasser would do well
to strike a deal with Israel's odd couple. Maybe then he
can retire at
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, recently updated, is Pack of Thieves: How Hitler & Europe
Plundered the Jews and Committed the Greatest Theft in History.
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