How the hell did I get into this goddamned mess? I wake up in the morning and can’t believeit. What, I, Arik Sharon, am waging a war against the settlers? I, who put them there in the firstplace ? I, who drafted the map of the settlements long before the settlers themselves everdreamed of it ?
How, for God sake, did this start? What did I want, after all?
President Bush asked me to produce a peace plan of some kind. He needed it for hisreelection campaign. Alright then, shouldn’t I do him a favor, after he supported us oneverything just to get a good word from me, frequently performing a U-turn, like with thesettlement blocs?
I also had to do something to put an end to the ravings of this Beilin fellow. His “peaceplan” got an international echo, presidents and prime ministers danced around him. Thatcould have been dangerous. First of all, because it could undermine the public convictionthat “we have no partner for peace”. True, we have Ehud Barak to thank for this, but it is stillthe most effective weapon in our arsenal. So I had to produce something that would sweep thisinitiative off the table and also put me back into the center of Israeli and internationalattention. It had got around that I am old, tired, weak , without initiative; that I am lettingthings drift. What, I am old? I am weak? So I took grabbed this plan and demonstrated just howresolute, steadfast, and strong-willed I am.
And look what happened: for a whole year already, my “disengagement plan” has beencreating upheavals in Israel and keeping the whole world busy. Everybody recognizes that itis the only game in town.
True, I did not think much before I floated it. And truly I never dreamt that it would assumesuch proportions.
What, after all, did I propose? That we pull the army out of the Gaza Strip and evacuate thesettlements there. The Americans asked me to add a handful of tiny settlements in NorthSamaria , so I did. Big deal.
As always, I had a plan for the best case and a plan for the worst case. In the best case, Ireckoned, nothing will come of it at all. Either the nobleman or the horse will die (*). And inthe meantime I would have proved that I am really a man of peace, I would have created aworld-wide sensation, I would look good. And in the end we would not have to relinquish onesquare inch or remove one single settler.
In the worst case, if this did not succeed and I really had to implement the plan, that wouldnot be bad either. I would integrate it in my grand design of annexing the best part of Judea andSamaria , and leaving the Arabs in half a dozen enclaves. After all, the Gaza Strip will in anycase become one of these enclaves. Anyone wants these Arabs in the State of Israel ?
I was sure that the leaders of the settlers would understand this logic. I invited them forprivate talks on my farm and told them: Look, boys (what, aren’t they my boys?), I am going toexecute a brilliant manoeuvre. We shall sacrifice some small settlements. All thesettlements in Gaza and some in Samaria . In the next phases we shall also have to sacrifice someof the more serious settlements in the heart of Samaria . Sorry, but there’s no way to avoid it.
True, it hurts. I told you in advance that there would be “painful concessions”, didn’t I?But look at it from the historical point of view: we shall evacuate some thousands of settlers,but we shall save the other 200 thousand. Not only that, but further along the road we shallbring in hundreds of thousands more settlers and settle them on all the land that we shall annexin Judea and Samaria . It’s like pruning a few branches of a tree in order to deepen its roots andenlarge its crown.
I was sure that they would jump at it. What, don’t they know me? Haven’t I talked with themhundreds of times? Didn’t they stay on my farm days and nights? Don’t they understand thehistoric dimensions of this plan? Don’t they see that this is a giant step forwards to therealization of Zionism?
I told them: Zionism means a Jewish state in all of Eretz Israel , without Arabs. This is ahistoric process. Zionism always knew how to realize at every phase what could be realized atthat stage. It understood the limitations of power and took at every point what it could take,without giving up its determination to achieve the rest in due course.
Our task in the present phase is to annex most of Judea and Samaria, leaving the Arabs – forthe time being – in Gaza, Hebron, Ramallah, Nablus, Jenin and their surroundings. Let themcall this a Palestinian State , what do we care? But for this we must evacuate some settlements.A few dozens, yes, among them some of the most precious ones. That hurts? Yes, it does. But onehas to look at the big picture. Think about the end, the final phase, when you and I won’t bearound anymore. Then the Arabs will be removed from these areas, too.
So what happened? The settlers started to rave. Not one single settlement can be removed,they shouted.
I told them: Look, I am a soldier. Before the battle of Abu Ageila (**) I knew that so-and-somany soldiers would be killed. It is not that I didn’t think for a moment about the bodies, aboutthe bereaved families. But that did not hold me back. If the aim was important enough tosacrifice these soldiers, they had to be sacrificed. No hesitation. No second thoughts. Ifsomebody is not able to do this, he cannot be a commander. So look at it this way.
I thought they would understand. It’s logical. But it appears that they don’t give a damnfor logic. They were in a trance. All kinds of crazies, rabbis and born-again Jews, weredriving them along. They said that if we evacuate one single settlement, the process cannot bestopped anymore. That in the end we shall evacuate all of them. I tried to calm them down, butthey were running amok.
And for whom? For the settlers of Gush Katif would you believe, who were Labor people tostart with. Who put them there? Israel Galili and Moshe Dayan. (***). So they should not talkabout God and the Biblical commandment to cultivate Eretz Israel . But the religious hard coreof the Judea and Samaria settlers are inciting them, and now it is starting to look like a warbetween the people of Israel and the settlers as a whole.
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Would anyone have believed five years ago that I, Arik, would become the Enemy Nr. 1 of thesettlers? That they would curse me and plot to kill me? That I would be readying the army for theevacuation of the settlers, who I myself have raised and pampered? That’s the irony ofhistory.
I would be much happier at this moment if I were with those guys, the settlers, and wasraising hell against another Prime Minister.
Somebody wrote that this is a war between the State of Israel and the Jewish State. That itconcerns the very identity of the state. That I, a native-born Israeli from Malal village,will break the religious fanatics of the settlements, who want to destroy Israeli democracy.Nothing could be further from my thoughts. I have always respected the religious people andtheir rabbis. Once I even put my foot in my mouth and said that it is more important to study theTalmud than to serve in a combat unit in the army.
But what alternative do I have? I feel as if I am swimming in the sea and currents muchstronger than myself are sweeping me along. I cannot withdraw from the plan, because I have anobligation to Bush and because I have to look determined and iron-willed, otherwise Bibi andthe other hyenas in the party will eat me for breakfast. And I have to protect the army. Withoutthe army, what will be left of Israel ?
So that’s that. One must get up for another working day. One must set up a coalition with allthose nonentities, plan the moves against Abu Mazen who will be elected tomorrow and is tryingto outfox me with honeyed words . And, most importantly – deal with the settlers, who will yetcause a civil war.
Who would have believed that it would come to this?
(*) Here Sharon is alluding to the classic Jewish joke about the Polish nobleman who threatens to kill his Jew if he does not teach his horse to read.
(**) Sharon ’s most famous battle during the 1967 war.
(***) Galili and Dayan were both hawkish Labor Party leaders.