GLOBE EDITORIAL
Sharon's half-stepWITH MINISTERS leaving the government of Israel's Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, the Cabinet approving a diluted version of his Gaza disengagement plan, and Egypt discussing Gaza's future with Israel and with leading Palestinian figures, it should be clear that key players in the Mideast realize that the status quo has become too dangerous.
It is less clear what will emerge from Sharon's maneuvering and the tangle of rivalries in his own Likud Party, the far-right parties, or a fractured Labor Party. For now, Sharon has prevented Finance Minister Benyamin Netanyahu from exploiting the withdrawal plan to supplant Sharon. But the price paid for sustaining his government is an amended Gaza plan that postpones the dismantling of settlements until March 2005. Some on the Israeli left warn that Sharon only wants to placate President Bush and postpone indefinitely any relinquishment of land or settlements. In this view, the leopard cannot change its spots: Sharon will always be a hard-line defender of settler interests. These doubters might turn out to be right. But one need only listen to the plaints of betrayal from far right settler leaders to realize that Sharon has broken new ground. Whether he is sincere or not, whether he has broached the abandonment of settlements reluctantly or willingly, the politician known as the father of the settler movement, the ultimate security hawk, has validated the premises of the Israeli peace camp. Sharon has taken risks to advance his Gaza disengagement plan, which is rooted in a recognition that settlements may endanger Israel's security; that settlements will have to be dismantled for the sake of security; that Israel cannot expect to impose the designs of extremist settlers on the Palestinians; and that reasons of state, not the delusions of demagogues, must shape Israeli policy.
The Egyptian effort to prevent Gaza from becoming a haven for Hamas and other Islamist groups after an Israeli withdrawal also opens new vistas for the region. Ultimately, though, a US president will have to shepherd Israel and the Palestinians into negotiations that can usher in a resolution of their conflict. © Copyright 2004 Globe Newspaper Company.
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