Ariel Sharon’s speech at the “Herzliya Conference”, an annual gathering of Israel’sfinancial, political and academic aristocracy, proved again his wondrous ability toconjure up an imaginary world and divert attention away from the real one. Like everysuccessful con-man, he knows that the audience desperately wants to believe good tidings andwill be happy to ignore bad ones.
It was an optimistic message, as the bewitched commentators proclaimed. According to him, weare on our way to paradise, 2005 will be a year of tremendous progress in all fields and all ourproblems will be solved.
Most of the speech was devoted to his fabulous achievements since he launched, at the sameconference a year ago, the “Unilateral Disengagement Plan”.
This (in my own free translation) is what he said: America is in our pocket. President Bushsupports all of Sharon’s positions, including those that are diametrically opposed toBush’s own former positions. Europe has resigned itself to him. The Great of the World arestanding in line to visit us, starting with Tony Blair. Egypt and the other Arab states arecosying up to us. Our international position has improved beyond recognition. The economy isadvancing by leaps and bounds, our society is flourishing. Apart from the right-wing lunaticfringe, there is no opposition left. The Labor Party is joining the government and willsupport all its steps. (He somehow forgot to mention Yossi Beilin’s Yahad party, which, too,has promised him an “iron bridge”.)
Sharon has achieved all this solely by talking. His words have not been accompanied, up to now,by even one single action on the ground. There is no certainty that Sharon really intends toimplement the “disengagement” at all. His intentions can be defined as follows:
1 – If it is possible to avoid the implementation of the plan altogether, especially the evacuation of settlements, without losing the sympathy of the world and the Israeli public, fine.
2 – If there is no alternative and implementation must start – everything must be done to drag out the matter, and especially the evacuation of settlements, for as long as possible. Evacuate one settlement and rest. Evacuate another one and rest again. It should take years.
3 – Either way, the disengagement should not change the plans concerning the West Bank.
And in the meantime: In the Gaza Strip, from which Sharon is supposed to “disengage”, theIsraeli army is in action every single day and night, killing from three to ten Palestiniansevery 24 hours. Houses are being destroyed wholesale. Some of the atrocities committed by thearmy have shocked the Israeli public. Not one single settler has been removed. On thecontrary, new settlers have still been arriving.
All this does not point to any real determination to implement the promised disengagement.Sharon’s actions on the West Bank, on the other hand, show a solid determination to implementhis plan there.
In the West Bank, the occupation has intensified . The cruel checkpoints continue to preventany possibility of normal life. The photo showing a Palestinian violinist compelled to playfor the soldiers at a roadblock has evoked terrible memories in the minds of many Israelis. Thebuilding of the annexation-wall goes on, with a few changes of the route to placate the Israelicourt, while disregarding the decision of the International Court. The settlers uprootPalestinian olive groves in order to build new neighborhoods in their place. Settlements arebeing expanded all over the West Bank, a network of “Jews Only” roads is being built, more“illegal” outposts come into being under army protection and with the tacit help of allrelevant ministries. Plenty of money flows into these projects, while pensions are being cutand sick people lie around in the corridors of the hospitals.
Is this how a statesman with a vision of peace acts? He behaves more like a doctor who treats thehand of a patient while sticking a knife into his belly.
All this is happening while the world gives Sharon enthusiastic support, solely on thestrength of his talking. As long as he holds forth on the “disengagement”, he can pretty much doon the ground whatever he fancies.
David Ben-Gurion once said: “It is not important what the Gentiles say, what is important iswhat the Jews do.” Sharon’s version is: “It is not important what we say, what is important iswhat we do.”
The most important part of the speech was the part that was not there. There was no peace offer tothe Palestinians. He did not talk about peace at all.
Throughout the world, the conviction is spreading that there now exists a “window ofopportunity”, that this is the time for a new, redeeming peace initiative. Indeed, Sharonmentioned with great satisfaction that Yasser Arafat is dead and that there is now a chance forthe emergence of a “moderate Palestinian leadership”. So what did he offer this moderateleadership in his speech?
Not a thing.
He hinted vaguely at “long-term arrangements”. Meaning: more interim agreements on top ofthe existing interim agreements, whose sole aim is to push a real peace agreement beyond thehorizon. It emerges from his speech that Israel will retain forever not only the “largesettlement blocks”, but also “areas essential to our security”. Which areas could he mean?This is well-known: the Jordan valley and the other territories designed in the Osloagreements as “Area C”. The final result of the “Disengagement Plan” will therefore be theannexation of 58% of the West Bank to Israel, as Sharon has wanted all along.
The Palestinians will retain, under this plan, 10-12% of pre-1948 Palestine, including theGaza Strip (which is a mere 1.5% of the country). Sharon’s “Palestinian State” will consist ofa number of enclaves cut off from the world. That is what he means when he talks about “the end ofthe occupation”, making “very painful concessions” and “our unwillingness to rule overanother people”, words that have attracted widespread admiration.
To rule out any doubt, Binyamin Netanyahu, too, outlined in his speech at the conference thefuture borders between us and the Palestinians: “Not the Green Line and not even close to theGreen Line.”
Nobody is offering the new Palestinian leadership peace negotiations. At most, somecoordination of the steps leading to the withdrawal from Gaza. What else? The Minister ofDefense, Shaul Mofaz, promised in his speech at the conference that the army would leave thePalestinian towns “for 72 hours” for the elections. Between roadblock and checkpoint,between one “targeted liquidation” and the next, Palestinian democracy will flourish forthree days.
Sharon boasted that for all practical purposes the army has already vanquished terrorism.That was said a few days after the Palestinians, in a commando action that elicited some silentadmiration even from the army, succeeded in destroying an entire army outpost on the“Philadelphi Axis” by detonating a huge amount of explosives in a tunnel dug beneath it andstorming the remains. (This did not cause too much excitement in Israel, because all the fivesoldiers killed were Arabs, mostly Bedouin volunteers from among the state’s Arabcitizens.)
For the time being, the number of violent attacks on Israeli citizens has indeed fallen, butmainly because of Abu Mazen’s efforts. This may well continue for some time, as long as thePalestinian public has some hope of seeing a light at the end of the tunnel. As soon as they losethis hope, they will give the green light to a new wave of attacks.
Sharon promises Israelis a wonderful year, a year of security and tranquility, economicgrowth and social progress. There is no chance of this coming about as long as he is blocking theroad to peace and keeps the peace process “in formalin”, as described by his closest advisor.
European leaders talk about making a huge donation to the Palestinian authority after theelection of Abu Mazen. This is an illusion as old as Zionism itself: that thPalestinian people– or any other people fighting for its freedom, for that matter – can be bought off and will giveup its land and independence for a mess of pottage.
If the money is not accompanied by a massive European intervention for the speedy terminationof the occupation and the attainment of a permanent Israeli-Palestinian solution, themountain (as the ancient saying goes) will give birth to a mouse.