Gaza pullout huge gamble for Israel’s Ariel Sharon

JERUSALEM – Like many Israeli settlers, Tikva Odem long revered Ariel Sharon as the man who led them to the “promised land”.

Now she scorns him as a traitor for his plan to evict 9 000 of them from occupied territory. Veteran leftist Yossi Beilin used to do everything he could to oppose Sharon’s policies.But now he writes newsletters justifying his grudging support for his old right-wing rival.After a career spanning the modern history of the Jewish state, Sharon has turned Israeli politics on its head as he risks all with his plan to uproot settlers from the Gaza Strip and a sliver of the northern West Bank.It marks a stunning change of course for Sharon, who for decades was the driving force behind settlement building on land captured by Israel in the 1967 Middle East war.”We had a dream,” the 77-year-old prime minister told reporters recently.”If we had settled a million Jews (in the territories) instead of a quarter of a million, maybe the situation would be different today.But that didn’t happen.”Not since the now-tattered Oslo peace accords signed with the Palestinians in the 1990s has an Israeli leader taken such a high-stakes gamble or created such division among his people.Sharon’s Disengagement Plan, set to go into motion on Aug.17 with Israel’s first removal of settlements from land Palestinians want for a state, is pitting Jew against Jew, secular against religious, hardliner against peacenik.The Palestinians remain wary.They suspect the shrewd ex-military man wants to trade tiny Gaza for a permanent hold on much of the much larger West Bank and put peace efforts on ice.But the fiercest criticism comes from Sharon’s former rightist allies.They accuse him of rewarding Palestinian violence and betraying Israel’s biblical birthright.One group of ultranationalists has even put an ancient death curse on him.With the resignation of Finance Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in protest, Sharon is now also facing a leadership battle in his divided Likud party and an early election expected in 2006.For its part, Washington has hailed Sharon’s plan as a possible springboard to renewed peacemaking following the death of longtime Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat last November.But questions remain about whether the Gaza pullout will actually have any lasting effect on peace prospects, whether Sharon is setting a precedent for wider withdrawals and even whether he can survive politically in the aftermath.Not long ago, the notion that the “Bulldozer” of Israel’s settlement project in the Palestinian territories would tear down part of his creation was unthinkable.The burly ex-general made his name in war and politics for never giving an inch.He drew Arab enmity for directing Israel’s 1982 invasion of Lebanon, in which Christian militia allies massacred Palestinian refugees at the Sabra and Shatila camps, and later for his crushing response to a Palestinian uprising that erupted after he visited a sensitive Jerusalem shrine in 2000.But Sharon astonished everyone in 2003 when he said Israel would have to evacuate some enclaves to reduce conflict with Palestinians and safeguard its demographics as a Jewish state.”Sharon is the only leader popular, pragmatic and ruthless enough …to carry out such a plan,” said Uzi Benziman, author of the biography “Sharon: An Israeli Caesar”.Aides say Sharon’s latest gamble was spurred in part by mounting public ire at the cost of staying in Gaza and by fears that an international solution to the conflict might be imposed.- Nampa-ReutersVeteran leftist Yossi Beilin used to do everything he could to oppose Sharon’s policies.But now he writes newsletters justifying his grudging support for his old right-wing rival.After a career spanning the modern history of the Jewish state, Sharon has turned Israeli politics on its head as he risks all with his plan to uproot settlers from the Gaza Strip and a sliver of the northern West Bank.It marks a stunning change of course for Sharon, who for decades was the driving force behind settlement building on land captured by Israel in the 1967 Middle East war.”We had a dream,” the 77-year-old prime minister told reporters recently.”If we had settled a million Jews (in the territories) instead of a quarter of a million, maybe the situation would be different today.But that didn’t happen.”Not since the now-tattered Oslo peace accords signed with the Palestinians in the 1990s has an Israeli leader taken such a high-stakes gamble or created such division among his people.Sharon’s Disengagement Plan, set to go into motion on Aug.17 with Israel’s first removal of settlements from land Palestinians want for a state, is pitting Jew against Jew, secular against religious, hardliner against peacenik.The Palestinians remain wary.They suspect the shrewd ex-military man wants to trade tiny Gaza for a permanent hold on much of the much larger West Bank and put peace efforts on ice.But the fiercest criticism comes from Sharon’s former rightist allies.They accuse him of rewarding Palestinian violence and betraying Israel’s biblical birthright.One group of ultranationalists has even put an ancient death curse on him.With the resignation of Finance Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in protest, Sharon is now also facing a leadership battle in his divided Likud party and an early election expected in 2006.For its part, Washington has hailed Sharon’s plan as a possible springboard to renewed peacemaking following the death of longtime Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat last November.But questions remain about whether the Gaza pullout will actually have any lasting effect on peace prospects, whether Sharon is setting a precedent for wider withdrawals and even whether he can survive politically in the aftermath.Not long ago, the notion that the “Bulldozer” of Israel’s settlement project in the Palestinian territories would tear down part of his creation was unthinkable.The burly ex-general made his name in war and politics for never giving an inch.He drew Arab enmity for directing Israel’s 1982 invasion of Lebanon, in which Christian militia allies massacred Palestinian refugees at the Sabra and Shatila camps, and later for his crushing response to a Palestinian uprising that erupted after he visited a sensitive Jerusalem shrine in 2000.But Sharon astonished everyone in 2003 when he said Israel would have to evacuate some enclaves to reduce conflict with Palestinians and safeguard its demographics as a Jewish state.”Sharon is the only leader popular, pragmatic and ruthless enough …to carry out such a plan,” said Uzi Benziman, author of the biography “Sharon: An Israeli Caesar”.Aides say Sharon’s latest gamble was spurred in part by mounting public ire at the cost of staying in Gaza and by fears that an international solution to the conflict might be imposed.- Nampa-Reuters