Archives>MIDDLE EAST> Sharon's Year in Power Has Been Israel's Bloodiest in a Generation

Sharon's Year in Power Has Been Israel's Bloodiest in a Generation IHT/Washington Post . 07 february 2002 JERUSALEM Just before he won a landslide victory in Israel's election for prime minister one year ago Wednesday, Ariel Sharon mused on the future he imagined for his newborn twin grandsons. . "What kind of life will they have?" he said in a campaign appearance. "If I'm elected, I will do everything-and a little more-to bring about quiet, security and peace." . Today, Mr. Sharon has failed to achieve any of those goals. The 73-year-old former general, who was scheduled to arrive in Washington Thursday for his fourth meeting with President George W. Bush in a year, has played a key role in the bloodiest 365 days that Israel has undergone in a generation. . He has forged a close and valuable alliance with the Bush administration, which has helped him to isolate and delegitimize his nemesis, Yasser Arafat, the Palestinian leader. He has sealed off Palestinian towns, razed and rocketed Palestinian buildings and crushed the Palestinian economy. But if Mr. Sharon has any strategy to achieve peace - and most Israelis say they doubt that he does - it is clearly not working. . For his domestic audience, he remains nonetheless that rarest of Israeli figures: a relatively popular premier standing astride a reasonably stable government. . "I don't believe there is a rational plan here that leads anywhere," said Avishai Margalit, an Israeli scholar and commentator. But "for most people there is no alternative. I don't remember ever, including me as a kid during the independence war during the worst days in Jerusalem, when the future hung in the air and people were as depressed and dejected as they are now." . Since Mr. Sharon's election, at least 200 Israelis and 515 Palestinians have died in the violence. He has escalated Israel's campaign of assassinating Palestinian militants, authorized dozens of army incursions into territory ceded to the Palestinians in the 1990s and ordered the first Israeli bombing raids on the West Bank and Gaza Strip since 1967. He has waged his tit-for-tat military campaign in the name of punishing Palestinian terrorism and forcing Mr. Arafat and his eight-year-old administration to quell the 16-month-old Palestinian armed uprising. . Eventually, Mr. Sharon's aides say, he hopes to forge a long-term armistice agreement that would skirt irreconcilable disputes over refugees and Jerusalem and, perhaps, establish a Palestinian state - albeit one lacking in contiguous territory, a capital of its own choosing, control of its borders and other basic facets of modern statehood. They say that by besieging Mr. Arafat in his West Bank compound and marginalizing him internationally, Mr. Sharon hopes to encourage a shift in Palestinian leadership. . Yet there is no sign of movement in that direction. To the contrary, there is evidence that Mr. Sharon's tactics have further embittered a new generation of Palestinians. . Security officials on both sides of the conflict warn of a growing and inexhaustible supply of Palestinians willing to die, including as suicide bombers, for the cause of evicting Israel from Palestinian territories. . "He feels that if you put enough pressure and weaken" the Palestinians, "then eventually they will simply bow to the pressure," said Sari Nusseibeh, a prominent Palestinian scholar and Mr. Arafat's top representative in Jerusalem. "But my sense is that he will finally come up against a political mirage. . "He'll find that he has in fact weakened his interlocutor but he won't find that he's lowered his position." . In a poll published last week in the daily newspaper Ma'ariv, Israelis by a margin of 2 to 1 said that they thought Mr. Sharon had no plan to end the violence. . The survey buttressed a long-standing view of Mr. Sharon, who bitterly opposed the 1993 Oslo peace accords and refused to shake Mr. Arafat's hand on an occasion in which they met. In this view, Mr. Sharon dismisses any sweeping resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian dispute. He is determined that Jews must retain as much land in the West Bank and Gaza Strip as possible, even if it means fighting for it. . "It's a blood feud and it's not future-oriented but always backward-oriented," said Mr. Margalit. To Mr. Sharon, "you always settle scores from what happened yesterday, so it's mostly tactics - whom to hit and when and how." . Still, Mr. Sharon arrives in Washington in some ways as a strong leader. His support has slipped in the polls recently but still stands at around half the Israeli public. . The Israeli leader has won unalloyed support from Mr. Bush himself for freezing out Mr. Arafat. Mr. Bush was angered by an apparent Palestinian attempt to smuggle a freighter filled with Iranian-supplied weapons into the Gaza Strip last month. . As he presses his diplomatic advantage against Mr. Arafat, Mr. Sharon appears to be planning to increase his military edge, as well. . Senior Israeli Army officials speak openly of conducting longer and deeper incursions into the largest Palestinian cities in response to continuing Palestinian ambushes, sniper attacks and bombings. . This week, Israeli Army officials said that they were planning to build a mock Palestinian city, for training purposes, in the southern Israeli desert. The $8 million facility would be much larger and more realistic than an existing training "village." . It would allow Israeli troops to simulate raids, roadblocks and other operations in a variety of "neighborhoods" - the twisting alleyways of an Arab market, modern apartments in a city center, scattered houses and orchards at the edge of town. . "The military is prepared to go in with massive forces to Jenin and Nablus" - major Palestinian cities in the West Bank - "and find, identify and destroy as much as possible the military infrastructre," said Gerald Steinberg, an Israeli professor who specializes in security issues. . It is a far cry from the expectations that attended Mr. Sharon's electoral victory last year. . A pariah following Israel's 1982 invasion of Lebanon, which he led as defense minister, Mr. Sharon was widely viewed as too militaristic to be elected prime minister. Over time, he regained stature and respectability, and last year engineered one of the more remarkable political comebacks in Israeli history. . Israeli voters, disgusted with Mr. Arafat and disenchanted with peace overtures by the former prime minister, Ehud Barak, turned to Mr. Sharon in droves. Many were convinced by the avuncular image he presented in television advertising that he would be tough, but also responsible. . Many Israelis regard Sharon as stuck in his present course, incapable of altering his policy even if he wished. If he launches an all-out war, reoccupies the Palestinian territories or eliminates Mr. Arafat, the Labor party would bolt his coalition government. If he opts for negotiations over the future of Jewish settlements, the hard-liners would quit. Either way his government would be likely to fall, so all Mr. can do is forge ahead, analysts say. JERUSALEM Just before he won a landslide victory in Israel's election for prime minister one year ago Wednesday, Ariel Sharon mused on the future he imagined for his newborn twin grandsons. . "What kind of life will they have?" he said in a campaign appearance. "If I'm elected, I will do everything-and a little more-to bring about quiet, security and peace." . Today, Mr. Sharon has failed to achieve any of those goals. The 73-year-old former general, who was scheduled to arrive in Washington Thursday for his fourth meeting with President George W. Bush in a year, has played a key role in the bloodiest 365 days that Israel has undergone in a generation. . He has forged a close and valuable alliance with the Bush administration, which has helped him to isolate and delegitimize his nemesis, Yasser Arafat, the Palestinian leader. He has sealed off Palestinian towns, razed and rocketed Palestinian buildings and crushed the Palestinian economy. But if Mr. Sharon has any strategy to achieve peace - and most Israelis say they doubt that he does - it is clearly not working. . For his domestic audience, he remains nonetheless that rarest of Israeli figures: a relatively popular premier standing astride a reasonably stable government. . "I don't believe there is a rational plan here that leads anywhere," said Avishai Margalit, an Israeli scholar and commentator. But "for most people there is no alternative. I don't remember ever, including me as a kid during the independence war during the worst days in Jerusalem, when the future hung in the air and people were as depressed and dejected as they are now." . Since Mr. Sharon's election, at least 200 Israelis and 515 Palestinians have died in the violence. He has escalated Israel's campaign of assassinating Palestinian militants, authorized dozens of army incursions into territory ceded to the Palestinians in the 1990s and ordered the first Israeli bombing raids on the West Bank and Gaza Strip since 1967. He has waged his tit-for-tat military campaign in the name of punishing Palestinian terrorism and forcing Mr. Arafat and his eight-year-old administration to quell the 16-month-old Palestinian armed uprising. . Eventually, Mr. Sharon's aides say, he hopes to forge a long-term armistice agreement that would skirt irreconcilable disputes over refugees and Jerusalem and, perhaps, establish a Palestinian state - albeit one lacking in contiguous territory, a capital of its own choosing, control of its borders and other basic facets of modern statehood. They say that by besieging Mr. Arafat in his West Bank compound and marginalizing him internationally, Mr. Sharon hopes to encourage a shift in Palestinian leadership. . Yet there is no sign of movement in that direction. To the contrary, there is evidence that Mr. Sharon's tactics have further embittered a new generation of Palestinians. . Security officials on both sides of the conflict warn of a growing and inexhaustible supply of Palestinians willing to die, including as suicide bombers, for the cause of evicting Israel from Palestinian territories. . "He feels that if you put enough pressure and weaken" the Palestinians, "then eventually they will simply bow to the pressure," said Sari Nusseibeh, a prominent Palestinian scholar and Mr. Arafat's top representative in Jerusalem. "But my sense is that he will finally come up against a political mirage. . "He'll find that he has in fact weakened his interlocutor but he won't find that he's lowered his position." . In a poll published last week in the daily newspaper Ma'ariv, Israelis by a margin of 2 to 1 said that they thought Mr. Sharon had no plan to end the violence. . The survey buttressed a long-standing view of Mr. Sharon, who bitterly opposed the 1993 Oslo peace accords and refused to shake Mr. Arafat's hand on an occasion in which they met. In this view, Mr. Sharon dismisses any sweeping resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian dispute. He is determined that Jews must retain as much land in the West Bank and Gaza Strip as possible, even if it means fighting for it. . "It's a blood feud and it's not future-oriented but always backward-oriented," said Mr. Margalit. To Mr. Sharon, "you always settle scores from what happened yesterday, so it's mostly tactics - whom to hit and when and how." . Still, Mr. Sharon arrives in Washington in some ways as a strong leader. His support has slipped in the polls recently but still stands at around half the Israeli public. . The Israeli leader has won unalloyed support from Mr. Bush himself for freezing out Mr. Arafat. Mr. Bush was angered by an apparent Palestinian attempt to smuggle a freighter filled with Iranian-supplied weapons into the Gaza Strip last month. . As he presses his diplomatic advantage against Mr. Arafat, Mr. Sharon appears to be planning to increase his military edge, as well. . Senior Israeli Army officials speak openly of conducting longer and deeper incursions into the largest Palestinian cities in response to continuing Palestinian ambushes, sniper attacks and bombings. . This week, Israeli Army officials said that they were planning to build a mock Palestinian city, for training purposes, in the southern Israeli desert. The $8 million facility would be much larger and more realistic than an existing training "village." . It would allow Israeli troops to simulate raids, roadblocks and other operations in a variety of "neighborhoods" - the twisting alleyways of an Arab market, modern apartments in a city center, scattered houses and orchards at the edge of town. . "The military is prepared to go in with massive forces to Jenin and Nablus" - major Palestinian cities in the West Bank - "and find, identify and destroy as much as possible the military infrastructre," said Gerald Steinberg, an Israeli professor who specializes in security issues. . It is a far cry from the expectations that attended Mr. Sharon's electoral victory last year. . A pariah following Israel's 1982 invasion of Lebanon, which he led as defense minister, Mr. Sharon was widely viewed as too militaristic to be elected prime minister. Over time, he regained stature and respectability, and last year engineered one of the more remarkable political comebacks in Israeli history. . Israeli voters, disgusted with Mr. Arafat and disenchanted with peace overtures by the former prime minister, Ehud Barak, turned to Mr. Sharon in droves. Many were convinced by the avuncular image he presented in television advertising that he would be tough, but also responsible. . Many Israelis regard Sharon as stuck in his present course, incapable of altering his policy even if he wished. If he launches an all-out war, reoccupies the Palestinian territories or eliminates Mr. Arafat, the Labor party would bolt his coalition government. If he opts for negotiations over the future of Jewish settlements, the hard-liners would quit. Either way his government would be likely to fall, so all Mr. can do is forge ahead, analysts say. JERUSALEM Just before he won a landslide victory in Israel's election for prime minister one year ago Wednesday, Ariel Sharon mused on the future he imagined for his newborn twin grandsons. . "What kind of life will they have?" he said in a campaign appearance. "If I'm elected, I will do everything-and a little more-to bring about quiet, security and peace." . Today, Mr. Sharon has failed to achieve any of those goals. The 73-year-old former general, who was scheduled to arrive in Washington Thursday for his fourth meeting with President George W. Bush in a year, has played a key role in the bloodiest 365 days that Israel has undergone in a generation. . He has forged a close and valuable alliance with the Bush administration, which has helped him to isolate and delegitimize his nemesis, Yasser Arafat, the Palestinian leader. He has sealed off Palestinian towns, razed and rocketed Palestinian buildings and crushed the Palestinian economy. But if Mr. Sharon has any strategy to achieve peace - and most Israelis say they doubt that he does - it is clearly not working. . For his domestic audience, he remains nonetheless that rarest of Israeli figures: a relatively popular premier standing astride a reasonably stable government. . "I don't believe there is a rational plan here that leads anywhere," said Avishai Margalit, an Israeli scholar and commentator. But "for most people there is no alternative. I don't remember ever, including me as a kid during the independence war during the worst days in Jerusalem, when the future hung in the air and people were as depressed and dejected as they are now." . Since Mr. Sharon's election, at least 200 Israelis and 515 Palestinians have died in the violence. He has escalated Israel's campaign of assassinating Palestinian militants, authorized dozens of army incursions into territory ceded to the Palestinians in the 1990s and ordered the first Israeli bombing raids on the West Bank and Gaza Strip since 1967. He has waged his tit-for-tat military campaign in the name of punishing Palestinian terrorism and forcing Mr. Arafat and his eight-year-old administration to quell the 16-month-old Palestinian armed uprising. . Eventually, Mr. Sharon's aides say, he hopes to forge a long-term armistice agreement that would skirt irreconcilable disputes over refugees and Jerusalem and, perhaps, establish a Palestinian state - albeit one lacking in contiguous territory, a capital of its own choosing, control of its borders and other basic facets of modern statehood. They say that by besieging Mr. Arafat in his West Bank compound and marginalizing him internationally, Mr. Sharon hopes to encourage a shift in Palestinian leadership. . Yet there is no sign of movement in that direction. To the contrary, there is evidence that Mr. Sharon's tactics have further embittered a new generation of Palestinians. . Security officials on both sides of the conflict warn of a growing and inexhaustible supply of Palestinians willing to die, including as suicide bombers, for the cause of evicting Israel from Palestinian territories. . "He feels that if you put enough pressure and weaken" the Palestinians, "then eventually they will simply bow to the pressure," said Sari Nusseibeh, a prominent Palestinian scholar and Mr. Arafat's top representative in Jerusalem. "But my sense is that he will finally come up against a political mirage. . "He'll find that he has in fact weakened his interlocutor but he won't find that he's lowered his position." . In a poll published last week in the daily newspaper Ma'ariv, Israelis by a margin of 2 to 1 said that they thought Mr. Sharon had no plan to end the violence. . The survey buttressed a long-standing view of Mr. Sharon, who bitterly opposed the 1993 Oslo peace accords and refused to shake Mr. Arafat's hand on an occasion in which they met. In this view, Mr. Sharon dismisses any sweeping resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian dispute. He is determined that Jews must retain as much land in the West Bank and Gaza Strip as possible, even if it means fighting for it. . "It's a blood feud and it's not future-oriented but always backward-oriented," said Mr. Margalit. To Mr. Sharon, "you always settle scores from what happened yesterday, so it's mostly tactics - whom to hit and when and how." . Still, Mr. Sharon arrives in Washington in some ways as a strong leader. His support has slipped in the polls recently but still stands at around half the Israeli public. . The Israeli leader has won unalloyed support from Mr. Bush himself for freezing out Mr. Arafat. Mr. Bush was angered by an apparent Palestinian attempt to smuggle a freighter filled with Iranian-supplied weapons into the Gaza Strip last month. . As he presses his diplomatic advantage against Mr. Arafat, Mr. Sharon appears to be planning to increase his military edge, as well. . Senior Israeli Army officials speak openly of conducting longer and deeper incursions into the largest Palestinian cities in response to continuing Palestinian ambushes, sniper attacks and bombings. . This week, Israeli Army officials said that they were planning to build a mock Palestinian city, for training purposes, in the southern Israeli desert. The $8 million facility would be much larger and more realistic than an existing training "village." . It would allow Israeli troops to simulate raids, roadblocks and other operations in a variety of "neighborhoods" - the twisting alleyways of an Arab market, modern apartments in a city center, scattered houses and orchards at the edge of town. . "The military is prepared to go in with massive forces to Jenin and Nablus" - major Palestinian cities in the West Bank - "and find, identify and destroy as much as possible the military infrastructre," said Gerald Steinberg, an Israeli professor who specializes in security issues. . It is a far cry from the expectations that attended Mr. Sharon's electoral victory last year. . A pariah following Israel's 1982 invasion of Lebanon, which he led as defense minister, Mr. Sharon was widely viewed as too militaristic to be elected prime minister. Over time, he regained stature and respectability, and last year engineered one of the more remarkable political comebacks in Israeli history. . Israeli voters, disgusted with Mr. Arafat and disenchanted with peace overtures by the former prime minister, Ehud Barak, turned to Mr. Sharon in droves. Many were convinced by the avuncular image he presented in television advertising that he would be tough, but also responsible. . Many Israelis regard Sharon as stuck in his present course, incapable of altering his policy even if he wished. If he launches an all-out war, reoccupies the Palestinian territories or eliminates Mr. Arafat, the Labor party would bolt his coalition government. If he opts for negotiations over the future of Jewish settlements, the hard-liners would quit. Either way his government would be likely to fall, so all Mr. Sharon can do is forge ahead, analysts say.