| Topic: |
Politics > Politics-USA |
| User: |
"---= Ö§âmâ ßíñ Këñ0ßí =---" |
| Date: |
30 May 2004 05:59:59 AM |
| Object: |
Netanyahu Vs. Sharon, AKA Asmodeus vs. Beelzebub |
I hope that fat murderous ***** swallows Netanyahu whole and chokes on
him...
Sharon condemns ‘extortion and threats’ as Netanyahu stalls key vote
Sunday Herald Online
Today, the Israeli prime minister was due to confront Cabinet foes over his
plan to pull out from Gaza … but then he backed down. Was this a fatal sign
of weakness? Robert Tait reports from Jerusalem
FOR a man who has built his political career on a carefully honed
reputation as a strongman, Ariel Sharon is showing uncharacteristic – and
perhaps fatal – symptoms of weakness.
Today, Israel’s prime minister is expected to shy away from a previously
declared determination to force a confrontation with the Israeli Cabinet
over what has become his flagship policy – his plan to withdraw troops and
evacuate Jewish settlers from the Gaza Strip.
Despite vigorous opposition within the right-wing coalition government and
from his own Likud Party, Sharon had initially been preparing to put his
full plan for dismantling 21 Gaza settlements, home to 7500 Jews, to a full
Cabinet vote after right-wing ministers said last week they would reject a
watered-down version.
A change of heart, intimated by sources close to the prime minister late on
Friday night, appears to have been prompted by the sinking realisation that
he could not have won the vote. A defeat in Cabinet on an issue upon which
he has staked his personal prestige would have sounded the death-knell not
only of the policy, but of Sharon’s premiership.
The latest twist in what is an inimitably Israeli political drama comes
after weeks of manoeuvring and horse-trading within the 23-member Cabinet
following the rejection of the disengagement plan by the membership of
Likud Party in an internal referendum four weeks ago.
Absorbing that defeat, Sharon reaffirmed his determination to press ahead
with a policy that had the explicit backing of the Bush White House as well
as an emphatic majority of the Israeli public.
He set about constructing a revised plan that emerged in the form of a
phased pull-out – as opposed to withdrawal in one large spectacular step –
the details of which were distributed to Cabinet ministers last week.
Under the revised proposal, withdrawal would take place in four stages –
starting with the three Gaza settlements of Netzarim, Rafah Yam and Morag.
Trying to keep his policy intact, Sharon intended to ask his ministers to
back that initial pullout while “taking note” that it was part of the
larger overall withdrawal plan.
His strategy unravelled in the face of opposition from three right-wing
Likud ministers, led by Sharon’s rival, the former prime minister and
current finance minister, Benjamin Netanyahu.
Indeed, the tense and sometimes poisonous atmosphere between Sharon and
Netanyahu has become pivotal to the survival of the disengagement plan,
which the prime minister first announced in the town of Herzliya last
December in the face of a breakdown in negotiations with the Palestinians
over the internationally backed “road map” peace proposal.
Netanyahu, styling himself as the champion of the Gaza settlers and Likud
hardliners, rejected Sharon’s compromise. Arguing that the verdict of the
party referendum should be honoured, he said he could vote only for
withdrawal from the three Gaza settlements as a one-off gesture, but would
not support a further pullout. Unilateral disengagement, say Sharon’s
critics, would amount to a reward for Palestinian “terrorists”, despite
repeated Israeli raids on Gaza in recent weeks that have cost dozens of
Palestinian lives.
The extent to which the impasse has degenerated into a contest of wills
between two men who heartily dislike each other became clear as Sharon
aides told Israeli newspaper Maariv that he was considering sacking
Netanyahu for his intransigence.
Briefing furiously against Netanyahu, Sharon’s allies have accused him of
being motivated by political ambition. Limiting a pullout to the three
settlements would paralyse the government, they say; the two right-wing
parties in the coalition, the National Religious Party and the National
Union, would quit, while Labour – which under Shimon Peres’s leadership,
has supported Sharon’s plan – would refuse to join.
In carefully coded comments to Israel Radio yesterday, Sharon took aim at
his finance minister, accusing Netanyahu, without naming him, of “extortion
and threats”.
“In a democratic state such as Israel, in which the majority of the
population supports disengagement, extortion and threats must not influence
decision-making, and a situation in which a personal struggle for
leadership threatens the state’s interests is unacceptable,” he was quoted
as saying.
Strong words, but the upshot is that today’s Cabinet session will not be
the make-or-break event vote over Sharon’s plan that he originally
threatened after his compromise offer was rebuffed. “Sharon will only
present his plan on Sunday and will start the debate,” a Cabinet source
said.
In his battle for political survival, Sharon is now pledging to continue
the fight and to submit the plan to a Cabinet vote in the coming weeks. In
one sense, the endless dodging and resort to political U-turns is
characteristic Sharon behaviour. For all his reputation as a “bulldozer”,
the prime minister is renowned for political zig- zagging and sending mixed
signals.
Yet it is hard not to conclude that his present behaviour derives from
anything other than weakness. Having returned from Washington six weeks ago
armed with Bush’s endorsement, Sharon has been forced to put his plan on
ice to avoid his second humiliating defeat in the space of a month.
The rejection of his plan in Cabinet would leave Sharon with a number of
choices, none of them edifying. He could resign, thus prompting new
elections or leaving Netanyahu to form a government; he could shelve the
plan – provoking US anger; or he could sack Netanyahu and other
recalcitrant ministers and invite Labour into the government, prompting a
backlash within his own party.
Having shrunk from all of them, Sharon’s critics in the Israeli media are
suggesting that he is finished, while his political enemies, scenting
blood, are circling in the water.
In a commentary in Maariv, Ben Caspit described Sharon last week as “tired,
confused and emptied-out”. “As it looks now, Ariel Sharon is at a dead
end,” Caspit wrote.
“It could also be the end of his road. The great plan failed, the smaller
plan is stalled, the smallest plan is limping along. Today Sharon is not
capable of getting anything passed anywhere. The bulldozer is turned off.
The train ran over the engine. Ariel Sharon has gone off the rails
exhausted, without energy, without hope. His plan has failed enormously. He
is dizzy, digging in, the roar of his engines covering the simple,
penetrating fact that he is going nowhere.”
It would not be the first political obituary of Sharon to prove premature.
But the longer his latest, and possibly last, political vision awaits
fruition, the more Israelis are likely to wonder just what a government
headed by Ariel Sharon is for.
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