Text by Robert Rosenberg
Photo of the Day by BauBau
Paintings by Silvia Rosenberg

Today's Situation

Sharon’s on his own

Wednesday, February 04, 2004

fficials from Israeli Prime Minster Ariel Sharon’s office and Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qurei’s office were meeting this morning to work out the details for a meeting between the two, probably next week. It wasn’t the first time the officials have met to plan a meeting, but each time, since the appointment of Qurei’ as Mahmoud Abbas’ replacement last year, a Palestinian bombing has forced the Israeli side to cancel the meeting. Not that Qurei’ has been particularly enthusiastic about meeting with Sharon if he isn’t guaranteed some achievements in advance – prisoner releases, checkpoints lifted, closures and sieges removed, all concessions Sharon does not want to make without guarantees that the PA fight terror.

In short, the chicken and egg of who does what when and why, continues – and even Sharon’s ‘bombshell’ about a withdrawal from Gaza has not broken the vicious cycle, even though Qurei (as opposed to Yasser Arafat) as called the Sharon statements as ‘good news’ – if it is actually implemented. Arafat appears to assume Sharon’s Gaza talk is purely public relations, meant to pave the way for a trip to Washington where Sharon will try to convince President Bush that the roadmap is dead and it is time for unilateral moves.

While the Gaza statements have not broken the chicken and egg problem with the Palestinians, it has sent shock waves through the Israeli political system. On the Right, there is open talk about bringing down Sharon – but so far there’s no leader to unite the forces inside the Likud, dubbed ‘the rebels’ and the settlers, who are mostly represented by the National Religious Party and the National Union.

vigdor Lieberman, head of the National Union, still harbors convictions that he is yet to become the real leader of the Right, and announced today that he is ‘in discussions’ with Shas about bringing them into the coalition – as reinforcements to the Right – and replacing the ostensibly more dovish Shinui. But while Lieberman’s politics on settlements and Arabs night have an appeal to the hard Right, his image – and his occasional clashes with the police, who still suspect him of business ties with Russian mobsters seeking influence in Israel – deprive him of the appeal he needs to unite the Right.

Besides, Shas chairman Eli Yishai, not exactly denying he has been talking with Lieberman, emphasized today that with Sharon talking about withdrawing from Gaza and even from parts of the West Bank, ‘there’s no more difference between Right and Left’ – and his rabbi, Ovadia Yosef, has always said that human lives are more important than land. ‘But it would be best to reach an agreement, not take unilateral steps,’ he said. Labor, meanwhile, is promising Sharon a ‘safety net’ pro-withdrawal vote but, says newly reaffirmed acting chairman Shimon Peres, the party won’t be joining a ‘unity government’ any time soon.

In any case, the real alternative to Sharon – on the Right -- is presumably Finance Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, who has remained sphinx-like with regard to his views on the Gaza withdrawal and almost all the other foreign policy and security issues since becoming finance minister last year. Netanyahu this week is embattled with the local authorities – some 200 townships that have run out of money, are unable to pay salaries, and have discovered that the treasury’s belt-tightening moves meant to restructure government services have radically cut the state subsidies that go through town budgets to pay for social services the towns must offer, by law.

So, strikes are breaking out all over – today kindergartens, garbage collection and parking ticket inspectors were all on strike – and Netanyahu is combatively avoiding direct negotiations with Union of Local Authorities, which represents the towns, trying to wear them down, or at least force public opinion against them. But the public so far seems relatively sympathetic to the plight of tens of thousands of city workers across the country, who have not been paid salaries for months. On Sunday, Netanyahu is planning to bring a new plan to the government that would place a lot of the cities that are in arrears into receivership even while providing some of the money to pay workers who have gone without wages.

n other fronts, Haaretz was reporting this morning that Geneva Accord architects Yossi Beilin and Yasser Abed Rabo are trying to win an announcement at the upcoming Arab League summit in Tunisia of Arab League support for the unofficial peace agreement. Beilin shocked many yesterday when he attacked Sharon for undertaking what Beilin called “a panicky, unilateral’ Gaza withdrawal ‘that rewards Hamas’ when instead the prime minister should be talking directly with the PA about an overall deal.

And Netanyahu nephew, Yonatan Ben Artzi, has been told he will be making a fourth appearance before an IDF panel of military judges, trying to convince them he is a pacifist conscientious objector, ready to perform national service in a hospital or any capacity other than as a soldier.

The Ben Artzi hearing comes as the army claimed to the Knesset that there has been a ‘dramatic decline’ in the number of soldiers refusing to serve in the territories. According to Manpower Branch Commander Maj. Gen. Gil Regev, 100 reservists and 29 officers were jailed in 2002 for refusing to serve in the territories while in 2003, only 18 reserve soldiers and eight officers were imprisoned. But refuseniks said the numbers quoted by Regev were ridiculous. Yesh G'vul said that 76 people, including 11 officers, had been jailed for refusal in 2003. They said also that 79 soldiers and 18 officers had added their names to the Courage to Refuse letter in 2003, and that the number of high-school refuseniks had reached 500.

Previously

Going places acrylics on paper, 50x70 by Silvia Rosenberg

Recommended articles

January 15, 2004 A Palestinian refusenik writes an open letter to the Jewish people by Palestinian-American Ray Hanania, who mourns the loss of sense of humor on both sides of the conflict.

January 6, 2004 Death of a Road Map : Ex-Mossad chief Efraim Halevy has finally said what has long been obvious - the Quartet Roadmap for peace is all but dead. Actually, Ariel Sharon said the same thing in his speech to the Likud party convention, though it may have sounded as though he was saying the opposite.

Previously recommended articles at Ariga.

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