Ezer Weizman once told me this about Ariel Sharon: “Arik is like acontainer of sulphuric acid. Wherever you put it, the acid will eatthrough the container and then eat through everything around it .” Thiswas said many years ago, before the presidency put a damper on Weizman’slanguage.
Now, everyone is trying to figure out: Just who is the real Ariel Sharon ?Is he the butcher of Kibbyeh or is he the wrecker of Yamit andits settlements? Is he the man who had brought in thePhalangist murderers to the refugee camps of Sabra and Shatillah, orthe person who, 22 years ago, asked me to arrange a meeting betweenhim and Arafat? Is he the man who called on the Palestinians totopple King Hussein and establish a Palestinian state on theterritory of Jordan, or is he the man who is showering the ill king ,his bosom buddy, with slimy compliments? Is he the agitator againstRabin or the eulogizer for Rabin ?
One could be justified in assuming that the man has no allegiance toanyone or any ideal. But that would be incorrect. In fact, he is utterlyconsistent in his loyalty. Sharon is devoted to Sharon .
Most politicians are egocentric creatures who love to hear their ownvoices and see themselves in the media. It is perfectly natural. ButSharon goes beyond this. He is convinced that the very survival of thepeople of Israel hangs on the turning over of the steering wheel of thestate into his hands. It is a matter of life and death for thenation. Which is why anyone who stands in his way is nothing but acriminal and traitor who deserves to be trampled and run over. Andconversely, every act which brings Sharon closer to supremeleadership is a patriotic service, moral by its very nature, andit matters not whether the act is hawkish or dovish, rightist orleftist, religious or non-religious .
This does not mean that Sharon has no fundamental philosophy. He doeshave one — a most primitive, brutal, rapacious, extremist -nationalist philosophy. But he is prepared to sacrifice it, temporarilyor permanently, if the advancement of the supreme patriotic objectiveshould so demand: The crowning of Ariel Sharon as the King of Israel .
Once I was asked by the then-Egyptian Minister of State for ForeignAffairs Butros Butros Ghali to explain Sharon to him. Inthose days, Arik Sharon, the Minister of Agriculture, preachedagainst any withdrawal from the Sinai, establishing the “Towers inthe Air” — fake settlements designed to prevent the return of theterritory. I explained the principle to the Egyptian minister .Shortly thereafter, the following events took place: President Sadaturgently invited Sharon, complaining that no Egyptian can solve theirrigation problems on his private estate. Sharon promised to solvethe matter within weeks. He proceeded to mobilize all the resourcesof the Ministry of Agriculture (the Israeli one), worked like crazyand within the promised time, there was the finest irrigation systemin place. Sadat convened the leadership of his government and armyand presented to them Sharon’s amazing talent to get things done .The result: From that moment on, Sharon began to support thewithdrawal from all of the Sinai, dismantling with his own hands allof the settlements there, including the city of Yamit .
Will history repeat itself now? It depends. Sharon’s objective is totopple Netanyahu and inherit his position. To thatend, he had to first get himself nominated to the status of a seniorminister (Foreign or Defense). He is willing to pay the necessaryprice for the appoinment. When this stage is complete, he will rollup his sleeves and go to work: The destruction of Netanyahu and hisgovernment. Netanyahu is, of course, aware of this. He, too, hasbought Sharon’s help for a short period of time, in order to overcomea temporary difficulty .
Now, Sharon must decide on his next strategy. What is the best way todestroy Netanyahu? To gain American favor, to become apeace-maker, to strike a pose of the Israeli De Gaulle orRabin the Second? Or conversely, throw his lot with the extremeRight and lead his assault at the head of the Messianic camp? It ishard to predict. One thing is certain, though: Throughout his entirecareer, as a military leader and a politician, Sharon was atop-notch tactician but a lousy strategist (otherwise, he would notnow have to serve a Prime Minister who could be his son and whom heheartily despises). This is why Sharon may well try to hold on toboth ends of the rope, to be nice to the Americans and to KingHussein, and perhaps even to the Palestinians, on the outside, whilebeing nice to the settlers at home. But it won’t work .
There is a big difference between the two antagonists. Sharon has notime left. He is 70 years old, and if he does not come to power soon ,his chances will evaporate. Like Shimon Peres, he suffers fromwhat the Germans call Torschlusspanik, the fear of the closinggates syndrome. Netanyahu, on the other hand, has plenty of time .
This struggle is much like a fight in a Roman arena, with agladiator in heavy armor and a sword, against a bare opponentarmed with a net and a trident. The gladiator had to move in on hisopponent and dispatch him with a thrust of his sword, while hisopponent’s goal was to entangle the gladiator in the net and impalehim on the trident. Such fights entertained the Roman rabble, justas the present fight entertains our media. Unfortunately, this timeit is not only the lives of the two players that are on the line, butthose of the hundreds or thousands of the casualties of the nextwar .