Throughout
his long military and political career, Prime Minister of Israel Ariel Sharon
has had a one-track mind. He has wanted the people of Israel to live
normal, placid lives, without the fear (and reality) of suicide bombers, random
murders, kidnappings, rocket shellings, military
invasion and other violent acts.
As a
soldier, when he rose through the ranks to become a general, he fought to
protect his fellow countrymen from outside invaders. As a politician, whether on
the back-benches of the Likud Party or in the office
of Prime Minister, he supported actions he believed would strengthen Israel
militarily and weaken its enemies. At all times, he focused like a lightening
bolt on Israel's
security. His single-mindedness about this one concern explains nearly all key
decisions of his military and political career.
Despite the
accolades since his collapse from a massive stroke in early January, Ariel
Sharon was not a peace-maker. He never developed policies to make peace with
the Palestinians. Although he paid lip-service to the Bush Administration's
"Roadmap for Peace," he met none of its deadlines, undertook none of
its confidence-building measures, and participated in none of its intended
negotiations. His courageous withdrawal of the Israeli army and civilian
settlements from the Gaza Strip last summer was done for security reasons, not
to bring about peace.
Sharon acted on an insight that no previous Israeli Prime
Minister had credited, namely, that peace negotiations -- even successful ones
-- brought few benefits for Israel.
They certainly did not bring security. The peace with Egypt was a
"Cold Peace"; it brought only slight cooperation and no friendship.
The same
was true for the peace with Jordan.
The Oslo Peace Accords from the early 1990s turned out to be empty promises
with no lasting solutions. During the same period, relationships between Israel
and the Palestinians deteriorated, terrorist acts against Israelis increased, and law-and-order in the occupied territories
broke down (due in part to Israeli military operations to be sure). Security
actually worsened.
So rather
than try to provide security through peace agreements, Prime Minister Sharon
decided to act to achieve security as his primary goal. If peace came, that
would be good as well. The key to security in his mind was the separation of
the two parties to the conflict. Sharon
did not negotiate a separation; he simply imposed one unilaterally, forcing it
on both the Palestinians and his own political party.
In the Gaza
Strip, Sharon
simply withdrew all Israelis, both civilian and military. This left the
Palestinians to fend for themselves, by themselves, in their own territory. For
the West Bank, Sharon
decided to build a security wall all along its borders. As the wall went up, it
became clear that it constitutes a de facto border, imposed without any
consultation or negotiation.
Ariel
Sharon's main strength as prime minister was that he had a workable plan. It
could stop the suicide bombers and, most importantly, it could be implemented
because Sharon
would simply impose it. It was not subject to the incessant infighting that
characterizes Israeli politics and it was not dependent on approval by the
Palestinians who, since the Oslo Accords of the early 1990s, have shown
themselves to be unable to agree with the Israelis on anything of significance.
It gave hope to a hopeless situation because it broke the logjam that had been
in place since the assassination of Prime Minister Israel Rabin.
Whether the
new party Sharon was forming, Qadima, can continue Sharon's
plans now that his health problems have forced him out of the picture remains
to be seen. Sharon's plan for after the March elections was apparently to
remove the Israeli settlements on the Palestinian side of the wall and again
let the Palestinians fend for themselves, by themselves, in a place where they
could not reach Israeli citizens. He favored an independent Palestinian State
not because it was the right thing to do, but because he believed it would
bring Israel
security. Only time will tell whether any of this is now achievable.