Sharon's new disengagement schedule

Tuesday, August 31, 2004

rime Minister Ariel Sharon charged back from a week-long vacation that he surely needed after another defeat in his Likud central committee, launching a new political assault on his own party.

First he opened the government session on Sunday by saying that nobody would stop his disengagement plan. This morning, he told his parliamentary faction that he is advancing the entire disengagement process so that it is essentially over by March 2005, when everyone thought it would only begin. Furthermore, instead of a lengthy staged process, Sharon appears to have adopted the army’s proposed tactic for the disengagement – in one fell swoop, possibly staged over a number of days, but certainly not over months.

The Sharon announcement this morning specified dates for the decision making process for the disengagement, starting with September 14 vote by the cabinet of the principles of the disengagement and compensation for settlers and culminating with full-scale legislation starting November 3. There was no doubt about the significance of November 3rd – the day after the American elections, when it will become evident whether Sharon’s main political asset (other than his overwhelming popularity in the Israeli public), George Bush, is reelected.

Woman Crucified # 13 by Silvia Rosenberg, mixed media on recycled paper, 20x30 cm.

hat part of the Likud faction session, where at least one-third of the MKs are vehemently opposed to the disengagement, and another third are at most reluctantly going along with the prime minister’s plan, was open to the press. Presumably, said all the reporters coming out of the session as it went behind closed doors, a stormy debate will ensue inside.

Sharon knows that he has a majority for the disengagement in the Knesset, and not only because the Labor Party – which today declared it is in full-scale opposition mode – will support disengagement. Yahad (formerly Meretz) and the Arab parties, as well as all of Shinui will also back the prime minister’s proposal, though not with any eagerness. After all, Sharon is insisting that his plan is meant to form the basis of a long-term, unilaterally imposed, interim arrangement and not to revive direct negotiations with the Palestinians.

Sharon’s control over his party is at stake. Finance Minister Binyamin Netanyahu made one of his rare forays into matters outside the realm of the treasury when he argued – outside the faction session – that the government already decided on a staged withdrawal ‘to give the settlers time to absorb the meaning of the evacuation’ and that it would be a mistake to conduct ‘a panicky overnight withdrawal.’

Netanyahu, currently Sharon’s only rival (not counting Uzi Landau, who heads the internal Likud opposition to any disengagement), was ever conscious of the media, made his statement inside the session with Sharon, then went out to the corridor to repeat it for the press. Inside, said the reporters, the prime minister only said in response to Netanyahu that ‘I was glad to hear your interpretation, but there is no intention of dragging out the stages for months.’ Netanyahu, Limor Livnat and other reluctant ministers who supported the government’s June 4th decision in favor of the prime minister’s plan say that they want the gradual withdrawal because it will give the government control over the events. The army is saying with ever more forcefulness that prolonging the evacuation period will only make things more difficult, both because of anticipated Palestinian attacks and because of anticipated Israeli protests by settlers against the evacuation.

On another front, Attorney General Menachem Mazuz was expected to issue a decision today on whether to order a criminal investigation against Public Security Minister Tzachi Hanegbi for the wholesale appointment of supporters from his party’s central committee to jobs in the Environmental Affairs Ministry, which Hanegbi held in the first Sharon government. Hanegbi’s closest advisor, whom the minister gave the powerful job of director general of the public security ministry, has already been suspended by the civil service commissioner. Health Minister Danny Naveh’s political appointments are also being examined by the commissioner, as are other ministers. The outbreak of concern over pickle-barrel style, nepotistic, and otherwise dirty government politics was prompted by a State Comptroller’s report in which retired Justice Eliezer Goldberg practically called for the state to prosecute Hanegbi for breaking laws governing hiring practices in government ministries. An investigation of Hanegbi would be a very hot political potato for the prime minister, who would come under enormous pressure from the media to at least suspend, if not fire Hanegbi, whose generosity with jobs made him one of the most popular politicians in the increasingly notorious central committee of the Likud.

As for the scandal about the Pentagon analyst believed to have delivered draft position papers on Iran to Aipac – or an Israeli embassy official – the consensus in Israel this morning, as it has been since the affair broke out last Friday night, was that the entire affair was much more smoke than fire, and it was not so much about espionage -- which Israel insisted did not take place – as it was about infighting and finger-pointing between various factions inside the Bush administration. While the affair took up much attention over the weekend, by today, it was completely overshadowed inside Israel by Sharon’s new schedule and whatever Mazuz decides.

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