It has been one year since Ariel Sharon rode to a landslide victory as Israel’s prime minister, promising conflict-weary voters he would deliver “quiet, security and peace.”
A year later, Israelis have neither peace nor security. There is no quiet. The worst fighting in a generation is escalating as Palestinians wage war against Israel’s occupation of land in the Gaza Strip and West Bank. More than 200 Israelis and 500 Palestinians have been killed in the year since Sharon took office–more than 1,200 in all have died since the intifada began 17 months ago.
Now Sharon has the opportunity to do the unexpected: Negotiate for peace. Much as fellow Likud leader Menachem Begin made peace with Egypt, Sharon has a chance to surprise the world and grab a chance offered by, of all places, Saudi Arabia.
The kingdom’s Crown Prince Abdullah has suggested that in return for a full Israeli withdrawal from occupied lands and establishment of a Palestinian state, much of the Arab world would sign a peace treaty with Israel and restore normal diplomatic and commercial ties.
The plan may have started off as a public relations gesture. But it is being entertained now by Sharon, the Palestinians, Arab states and the U.S. as a possible way to break the logjam.
The hawkish Sharon is, of course, skeptical about Arab overtures. But this one comes as political pressure on him is escalating from the right and left. A recent newspaper poll found that 49 percent of Israelis believe the government has lost control of the security situation.
“From his first day in office,” Israeli columnist Yoel Marcus wrote last week in the daily newspaper Haaretz, “he’s done nothing but fight Palestinian terror and violence. The harder he strikes, the more terror we get in return. More Israelis have been killed under Sharon than in the days of any other prime minister.”
Former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, another Likud Party member, has gained a slight edge in opinion polls by calling for an even tougher military response than Sharon has provided. Some hard-line critics on the Right are demanding Sharon re-occupy lands Israel already turned over to Palestinian self-rule.
Sharon has desperately sought a new way to find security. Last week he announced that Israel would establish buffer zones along its borders. Some Israelis were pleased. But the security measure is unlikely to produce the long-term change in direction needed to end this conflict.
Maybe the Saudis have the answer.
The Saudi plan offers the Jewish state two things it sorely desires: the possibility of acceptance by most moderate Arab states and a chance to move beyond its frustrating dealings with Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat.
For the Palestinians, there is a chance to add the weight of the most conservative, respected Arab power to their cause. Arafat wants precisely what the Saudis are suggesting: a return to the pre-1967 borders existing before the Six Day War broke out. That would include sovereignty over disputed East Jerusalem, claimed by both sides as their capital.
There are obstacles. There always are in the Mideast.
There will be argument over just where the border should be drawn. A peace agreement will not necessarily stall terrorist groups such as Hamas that want the Israeli state to cease to exist. It will fall to Arab participants to lean on states such as Iran, which has given support to violent Islamic extremists fighting Israel, to shackle those extremists.
President Bush reached out Tuesday to Crown Prince Abdullah, a very hopeful sign. The U.S. can encourage the Saudis to lobby Arab states to line up behind it. Arafat needs their support, and their political cover, to make the final difficult commitments for peace.
These are difficult times for Ariel Sharon, who has seen his efforts to provide a secure state rocked by near-constant mayhem. Perhaps, in his darkest days, Sharon will seize opportunity.
