The Pied Piper- by Uri Avnery -- A perspective on Sharon

[Tom Joad]

Intro: The following was written before Sharon's latest health concerns. Some would see Sharon as someone who, after years as a warrior, is now seen the light and was leading Israel toward peace. Others disagree, including some Israelis.
Uri Avnery is a leader of Gush Shalom, part of the Israeli Peace Bloc. He has traveled numerous times to the West Bank village of Bil'in to stand with Palestinians to protest the Apartheid Wall.
For more on that, see http://zope.gush-shalom.org/home/en )

http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=22&ItemID=9362

The Pied Piper
by Uri Avnery December 20, 2005
Gush Shalom

<snip>
This illusion is gaining ground. Many Leftists, who have spent the last few years luxuriating in a warm and comfortable despair that releases them from any duty to stand up and fight, have now found an even more agreeable solution: Sharon, the man of the Right, will realize the dream of the Left. One has only to vote for Sharon, and then the longed-for peace will come. No need to make any effort, to struggle, even to lift a finger.

<snip>

If anyone is looking for proof, he could find it in this week's statement by one Kalman Gayer, an American who advises Sharon on opinion polls. He disclosed Sharon's "real" plan in Newsweek: to give the Palestinians back 90% of the West Bank and to compromise over Jerusalem.

The Likud uttered a heart-rending cry, the Left was bewildered. What? Really? Sharon prepared to "give up" more than Ehud Barak? But someone who is familiar with the peculiar language of Sharon could easily interpret the code: According to Gayer himself, Sharon does not believe that this will happen in his lifetime, because there is no Palestinian partner for peace. So he is prepared, in the meantime, to give back only half of the West Bank.

Thus, miraculously, we come back to Sharon's original formula: to annex unilaterally 58% of the West Bank, not to conduct any peace negotiations with the Palestinians and to keep the whole of Jerusalem.

[Behind the Aegis]

1. Dupe...

...from here.