Sharon Translates His Plan
Maher Othman Al-Hayat 2005/05/7
The date of the Israeli withdrawal from Gaza strip, according to Ariel Sharon's unilateral disengagement plan (he has suggested to his people, party and government) is forthcoming. Hence, Sharon started to reveal the hidden side of the plan, i.e. the continuous Israeli annexation of West Bank territories. The separation wall, under construction, is seen as a dagger dividing the West Bank in order to seize it.
The Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas successed in convincing the Palestinian factions to agree to the ceasefire. However, Sharon and Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz sharply attacked and accused him of "supporting terrorism." Mofaz declared that Israel will not hand over "the security responsibility" in the West Bank cities to the Palestinian Authority until its disarms the Palestinian resistance "gunmen". Sharon is implicitly declaring that the relatively calm situation prevailing on the Palestinian side, is not enough. He does not show any concern about what might happen to the Palestinians, even in case of a civil war, since he is inciting the Palestinian Authority against the factions of the resistance.
It is obvious that Sharon and Mofaz's accusations and demands addressed to the Palestinian president, are serving their own ambitions, since the unwritten part of the disengagement plan is intended to spur the settlement and takeover activities in the West Bank in exchange for pulling out from Gaza strip.
Sharon and the members of his cabinet interpret the implicit yet openly declared part of the disengagement plan, the separation wall and the reluctance to withdraw from the Palestinian territories by other means. Granting a faculty in the huge settlement of Ariel in the West Bank the status of a university falls within these means. The measure was contested by both Israeli professors and students who raised the slogan "Ariel is not Israel."
According to Mahmoud Abbas, the Israeli withdrawal from the West Bank might not be "clean." It would only be complete if it includes the withdrawal of both settlers and occupying forces, and the dismantling of all the settlements from the entire Strip, including the borderline territories with Egypt, known as Salah Eddine Gate or the Philadelphia route. When Egypt agreed to deploy 800 soldiers in these areas, many members of the Likud party, including minister of Finance Benjamin Netanyahu, warned of the dangers of deploying Egyptian troops in the region, based on the strategic scope of the issue. Instead of appreciating the Egyptian peaceful role, those peace-reluctant Likud members are doubting the Egyptian intentions and seeking to maintain IDF in this axis. Should this become a reality, no one will be able to claim that the Israeli occupation of Gaza has completely ended. In parallel, if Israel continues to control the Rafah border crossing, Gaza will remain a huge Palestinian prison.
What mostly infuriated the Arab circle in Israel was the fact that three Arab mayors, within the green line, praised in the Israeli press Ariel's conversion from the status of faculty into university. A rather shameful stance. It is both unfortunate and confusing for the government of Mauritania to disregard the Israeli violations of UN resolutions and the verdicts of the International Court of Justice (with regards to the separation wall), and welcome the Israeli foreign minister Sylvan Shalom, who praised himself for achieving a "diplomatic incursion" in the Arab world.
With the cooperation of all Palestinian factions, the Palestinian Authority, did all what was expected from it, toward putting an end to hostilities and violence. Still, Israel should fulfill its part of the commitments, as stipulated in the road map and the Sharm Al Sheik understandings, agreed upon by Sharon and Abbas over issues related to the Israeli withdrawal from the reoccupied West Bank, the Palestinian prisoners and the removing of military checkpoints between West Bank cities and villages. Will the U.S. be able to convince its small, yet powerful ally, that might is limited and peace has other courses?
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