On Tue, 04 Oct 2005 08:30:34 GMT, "torresD" <torresd30@hotmail.com>
wrote:

http://www.counterpunch.org/avnery10012005.html
Weekend Edition
October 1 / 2, 2005

The Gladiators
Sharon's Victory
By URI AVNERY

The contest between Binyamin Netanyahu
and Ariel Sharon in the Likud Central
Committee resembled a duel between two
gladiators in the Roman arena.

The more so since many of the Committee
members behaved like the Roman rabble
who screamed, rioted and demanded blood.

In this fight,
Netanyahu resembled the Retiarius,
a gladiator who had nothing on but
a short tunic and who sought to
entangle his opponent with a cast-net
held in his right hand and,

if successful,

to dispatch him with the
trident that he carried in
his left.

Sharon was like the Secutor,
who wore armor and carried a sword.

The former had the advantage of mobility
and agility, the other moved clumsily
but was well protected.

Many heaved a sigh of relief when
Netanyahu was defeated at the last
minute, contrary to expectations and polls.

Since Netanyahu had positioned
himself on the extreme right,

supporting the settlers and opposing
any withdrawal, he made Sharon look
like the Man of Peace.

But that is, of course, an illusion.

The difference between the two,
if there is one at all, is negligible.

If Netanyahu were Prime Minister,
he would behave exactly like Sharon,
and in opposition Sharon would behave
exactly like Netanyahu.

Sharon is now making both
peace-loving and war-like declarations -

depending on the audience he is addressing.

Before the UN General Assembly and the
Americans he sings hymns to peace,
but he vows to the Likud that he
will not give up another inch.

All these declarations are
not worth a garlic peeling,

to use a Hebrew expression.

One should not believe a word he says,
only his actions count.

In the meantime he builds the Separation Fence,
enlarges the settlements, initiates provocations,
bombs and arrests.

On the face of it, therefore,
nothing that has happened in the
Likud Central Committee has any
impact on the chances of peace.

Just a duel between two gladiators in the arena,
much ado about nothing. But that is an optical
illusion.

In fact,
peace has won a great
victory in the Likud
arena.

This has nothing to do
with the personality or
intentions of Sharon,

but everything with the substance of the decision.

In theory, no ideological matter was at stake.

The committee members were voting, officially,
only on a technical point: whether to hold the
primaries for Party Chairman early, next month,
or at their scheduled time, in half a year.

Big deal.

But what was really at issue
was whether to throw Sharon out,

because he has uprooted the settlements
and withdrawn from the Gaza Strip.

The attacks on him were focused on this point.

His opponents claimed that he
had betrayed the Likud principles,
that the Likud opposes the ceding of
any part of the "fatherland" to the
"Arab enemy", that the evacuation of
any settlement is a crime.

That's what the battle was all about.

The decision was therefore of historic importance.

The Likud is the present incarnation
of the Revisionist Party,

which was founded some 80
years ago under the slogan

"The Jordan has two banks -
one belongs to us and the other one too."

Its very name reflects this claim.

The founder,
Vladimir (Ze'ev) Jabotinsky wanted
to annul the 1920 decision of the
British government to separate Transjordan
(the present Kingdom of Jordan) from Palestine.

That was the "revision" he strove to attain.

Even when the party, in its successive incarnations,
in practice gave up the claim on Transjordan,
it insisted vigorously on "The Whole of Eretz-Israel"
between the Mediterranean and the Jordan River.

In order to achieve this,
it promoted the settlements in
all the occupied territories,

denied the very existence of the
Palestinian people and obstructed
every step that could have led
towards peace.

And now, on Monday, September 26, 2005,
the Central Committee of this party has
voted for a leader who evacuated and
destroyed 25 settlements,

has used the Israel Defense Forces to
"drive out Jews" and has officially
given up a part of Eretz Israel.

From this day on,
the Likud is not what
it used to be.

Some people make light of this
victory because of the tiny margin -
52% against 48%.

But that is not important.

The astounding thing is that any committee
members at all voted for the man who did this.

It is being said that this decision
was not ideological, but jobological.

The committee members voted against
their convictions in order keep the
Likud in power and save their government
jobs.

The polls have shown that the Likud
would lose the elections if Sharon
were thrown out.

The head overcame the heart,
the greed for power was stronger
than the ideology.

If that is true,
the victory is even more important.


The 3060 members of the Likud Central
Committee come from all parts of Israel.

They come from all social strata,
not just from the "elites".

They sense the mood of the general public.

If they have arrived at the conclusion
that loyalty to the settlements and
Greater Israel will lose them the
elections, this has far-reaching significance.

I wrote recently that "the center has held".

Now it is also clear that the right wing
has remained loyal to Sharon. His opponents,

the Loyalists of Greater Israel,

are in a state of collapse.

After their rout in the Central Committee,
they are foundering among the 100,000 party
members.

Polls show that a large majority
of these now support Sharon.

The Likud ministers and Knesset members
behave like soldiers of a defeated army
after the cry "sauve qui peut" is sounded.

That is not the end of it.

On the contrary, we are facing a hard year.

Sharon will try to freeze everything,
except the building of the Fence and
the enlarging of the settlements.

The pretext will be the need to wait
for the results of the Palestinian
elections, in January 2006,

in order to know "with whom we are dealing".

After that,
the Israeli election will take place,
probably in November 2006, and

"nobody can expect Sharon to take
unpopular steps before elections".

President Bush,
who is also a political animal,
will surely understand that.

The prolonged freeze may cause new disasters.

In spite of this,
the long march towards
peace has taken another step.

A small step, but an important one.

And that in the Likud Central Committee,
of all places. Who would have believed it.

Uri Avnery is an Israeli writer and
peace activist with Gush Shalom.

He is one of the writers featured in
The Other Israel: Voices of Dissent and Refusal.

He is also a contributor to CounterPunch's
hot new book The Politics of Anti-Semitism.

He can be reached at: avnery@counterpunch.org.