By Dr. Nayyer Ali

Sharon’s Stroke


January 20, 2006

 

The sudden and critical intracerebral bleeding that has afflicted Prime Minister Ariel Sharon carries huge repercussions for the Middle East. Although he has apparently survived major brain surgery, it appears that even if Sharon physically survives this catastrophic stroke in the long run, his days as the leader of Israel are effectively over. Major Israeli newspapers have reached that conclusion.
Ariel Sharon was a hawk, a leading member of the Israeli right wing, and one of the founders of the Likud party. He is particularly associated with the settlement project that sought to Judaify the Palestinian territories seized in the 1967 war by planting illegal colonies by force, and to permanently expand Israel beyond its international borders recognized by the UN.
Sharon was more than willing to kill Palestinians in his pursuit of Zionist aims. He led a commando unit in 1954 that attacked a Palestinian village (Kibye) in Jordan, and dynamited homes with the inhabitants still inside. He was also the planner behind the Israeli invasion of Lebanon in 1982, an invasion that resulted in thousands of civilian deaths, the massacre of Palestinians in the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps, and the eventual formation of a Shia group known as Hezbollah that invented Muslim suicide bombing. Sharon was found by an Israeli court to be “indirectly responsible” for the Sabra and Shatila massacres. Most neutral and Palestinian observers would remove the word “indirectly” from that description.
Although Sharon vigorously pursued this rightist dream of a “Greater Israel”, he was eventually clear-eyed enough to see that it was an impossibility, and that Israel’s interest lay in abandoning this project. As such, in the last two years he embarked on a partial reversal of his life’s policies. He unilaterally withdrew from Gaza, and pulled out settlers, some by force. He recognized verbally that the Palestinians are an “occupied” people, and that he would have to accept a Palestinian state as part of any final peace deal. Finally, when it became clear that much of the Likud party remained committed to “Greater Israel”, he abandoned the party, formed a new political party called “Kadima”, and called for elections that were scheduled for March. Polls showed Kadima romping to huge win, and with support from Labor, Sharon would be in a position to form Israel’s first government committed to reaching a peace deal based on acceptance of Palestinian statehood. Polls also showed that Likud had disintegrated and would finish with very few seats in the next government. This is not to paint Sharon as a latter day Mother Theresa. His change of policy was due to the dictates of Israel’s own interest, not out of some moral compulsion to do justice to the Palestinians. But whatever his motives, he led a real and huge shift in policy.
The incapacitation of Sharon throws this all into confusion. Kadima’s popularity was very much based on Sharon the individual, and whether the party can even remain cohesive, much less win the March vote, is an open question.
The strength of Kadima also reflects a true shift in Israeli public opinion. The bulk of Israel’s voters have finally accepted that peace with the Palestinians will require a real Palestinian state, and the withdrawal of large numbers of West Bank settlers. It will also mean return of Arab East Jerusalem to the Palestinians. Sharon has brought the Israeli electorate to this point. To reach the end though, the Israelis will need to finally accept that all of the West Bank will have to be returned, and that Palestinians will have to have sovereignty over Al-Aqsa.
Sharon intended to hold onto large sections of the West Bank that were being sliced off by the path of the Wall Israel has built. Behind this wall there are settlements holding several hundred thousand Israelis. So far, no major Israeli leader has been willing to relinquish these. But peace will require the Israelis to traverse those last painful steps. Israel was created by virtue of millions of Jews who willingly moved thousands of miles with few assets to support them. To achieve lasting peace it is not too much to expect that 250,000 Jews can move 5 or 10 miles. Sharon had started the Israelis down the path of settler withdrawal. Whether he would in the end have gone to its logical conclusion we will likely never know. Israel needs to finish what he started. Comments can reach me at Nali@socal.rr.com.

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