A brief history of Sharonism

[Darranar]

This week's headlines already distributed the hide of the bear: the Katif Bloc settlements in the Gaza Strip will be evacuated, the homes will be placed under the responsibility of an international body that will supervise their transfer to the Palestinian Authority, and the army camps will be shut down, with the Israel Defense Forces deploying on the international boundary along the Gaza Strip - and all by the end of the year.

MK Zvi Hendel (National Union) reacted angrily: "The depth of the withdrawal will match the depth of the investigation" - referring to the police investigations under way against Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, and echoing a phrase coined by former prime minister Ehud Barak in relation to the Golan Heights. His party colleague MK Uri Elitzur accused Sharon of cheating those who voted for him. Rabbi David Hacohen, from Bat Yam, speaking at an emergency meeting of right-wing rabbis, asserted: "The dismantlement of Jewish settlements is a crime against the Jewish people ... no less than the Munich agreement, which was done with the Nazis." Residents of the Katif Bloc of settlements in the Gaza Strip demonstrated on Wednesday in Jerusalem in an effort to get the plan rescinded.

All these people and others are behaving as though Sharon means - even for a minute - what he is saying. As though this were a prime minister whose dominant trait is credibility. As though his past shows that he does what he promises. In fact, all Sharon really wants is to gain time. That has been his strategy for the past three years. He wants to look good in the eyes of the Americans. For that he needs a plan of some sort, which he presented yesterday to three emissaries of U.S. President George Bush, so they can go home and tell their boss that Israel is moving in the direction of ending the conflict.

By the time Sharon meets with Bush, at the end of March, his disengagement plan will have become part of Bush's "road map," which will be good for the president's election campaign. In fact, the only thing of interest to Bush now is quiet. He just wants Israel to vanish from CNN's screens until after November. That way Sharon will gain another year of doing nothing, and then the crunch will come, and all the plans will have to be clarified from the beginning. Sharonism at its finest.

Haaretz

[mac2]

1. Whose fooling who?

Sharon out of Palestine? Until after the American election and the charges against corrupt Sharon in Israel dropped.

[Violet_Crumble]

2. I doubt many believe what Sharon says...

Looks to me like the rage over his latest plan is due to opposition to him making even empty promises that won't be carried out. They know he's full of hot air, but even uttering obvious empty words about dismantling even one settlement is too much for those folk to handle...

Violet...

[Jim Sagle]

3. Ariel's da man, doin' the best he can...to make a world a better place.