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.
