Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon suffered a politically humiliating defeat Sunday when the hard-line leadership of his own Likud Party sided with Sharon’s rival, Benjamin Netanyahu, and voted to oppose absolutely the creation of a Palestinian state.
Sharon had argued that such a vote by the party’s central committee was dangerous and would complicate his diplomatic efforts internationally and with the Palestinians. Though not binding on the government, the vote confirmed Netanyahu’s strength within the hawkish core of the Likud, a major partner in Sharon’s coalition government. Netanyahu is expected to challenge Sharon in next year’s general election.
Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat denounced the Likud vote.
“This is the destruction of the Oslo agreement,” he said before leaving Ramallah, West Bank, early Monday for the first time since being confined there by Israel six months ago.
Delegates at the emotionally charged session rejected Sharon’s plea even as tensions between Israel and the Palestinians scaled down a notch. Early Sunday, the Israeli army demobilized some reservists when the government postponed an expected offensive in the Gaza Strip to retaliate for last week’s suicide bombing at a pool and gambling hall outside Tel Aviv.
For the first time Sunday in more than a month, the public on Sunday attended services at the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, where a standoff between Palestinian militants and the Israeli army ended peacefully last week.
Sharon has only recently and reluctantly acknowledged a position–also held by the United States–that a Palestinian state would be the natural outcome of successful negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians. The Likud, however, has historically opposed creation of such a state next to Israel.
Sunday’s resolution, backed by Netanyahu, stated unequivocally: “No Palestinian state will be created west of the Jordan [River],” referring to land that includes the West Bank, Israel and the Gaza Strip.
Vote dangerous, Erekat says
Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said the vote endangered hopes of an agreement. He said it would increase frustrations among Palestinians in their struggle against Israel.
“How many Palestinians will wake up tomorrow to say, `We have nothing to lose’?” he told CNN. “I hope it will be an eye-opener to President Bush.”
Sharon, under pressure from the United States to work with Arafat, told a raucous crowd of delegates that Likud should not tie his hands as prime minister in what would be a highly provocative statement.
Both men made the vote personal, each taking jabs at the other in speeches to the convention. When the results were announced, Sharon stepped up quickly to accept defeat and then walked out.
“I will continue to lead the state of Israel and the people of Israel according to the same considerations that have guided me always: security for the state of Israel and its citizens, and our united aspirations for true peace,” he said in a brief comment.
The vote came as the peace process edged forward on other fronts, with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Abdullah wrapping up talks Sunday in the Egyptian Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheik. The meeting followed another one Saturday that included Syrian President Bashar Assad and Palestinian Cabinet minister Nabil Shaath at which the leaders affirmed their commitment to peace in exchange for occupied Arab land. They did not rule out a multinational peace conference proposed by Washington but did not offer their support.
At the helipad in his West Bank headquarters, Arafat climbed into a Jordanian air force helicopter Monday that was to fly him to three of the hardest-hit areas in Israel’s six-week military offensive–Bethlehem, the battle-scarred Jenin refugee camp and the city of Nablus.
Arafat last left the Palestinian territories on Nov. 25. In early December, his helicopters were destroyed in Israeli air strikes, leaving him effectively grounded. Israel gradually tightened the confinement, and for 34 days, starting March 29, restricted him to a few rooms in his headquarters, while soldiers besieged the compound.
Israel lifted the travel restrictions on Arafat as part of a U.S.-brokered agreement that freed him from confinement at his headquarters.
Sharon fate with public
Sharon, commentators said, left the hall knowing his political fortunes would rest with an Israeli public that has shown him increasing support. The Likud central committee is perceived as more right-wing than the party itself and, certainly, more right-wing than the Israeli public.
The debate, on the surface, was an internal party affair, but the outcome could weaken Sharon at a crucial time in his political career and in his overseas diplomatic efforts to generate support for Israel. In recent months, the United States as well as the United Nations have stated clear support for the creation of a Palestinian state.
Both Netanyahu and Sharon bore ahead with intense arguments aimed at appealing not just to their party but also to a country hardened by 19 months of Palestinian terrorist attacks and violence as well as military retaliations by Israeli forces.
“We cannot promise Palestinian terror the biggest prize of all: the creation of a Palestinian state of its own,” said Netanyahu, a former Likud chairman. “The creation of state under Arafat’s rule will bring a fortress of terror that aims at destroying us.”
Sharon rebutted: “Any decision taken today on [the proposal to reject a Palestinian state] is dangerous to the state of Israel and will only intensify pressure on us.”
Reservists recalled
Sharon has championed the use of military force as the best insurance for Israeli peace and had been preparing to spread the offensive to the Gaza Strip last week in retaliation for the suicide bombing near Tel Aviv that killed 15 Israelis.
The Gaza attack was scrapped, and reservists were recalled from duty amid concerns expressed by the West. Israeli military commanders also worried about the prospects for a successful campaign against Palestinian targets in the densely populated area.
Netanyahu, who criticized the release of Arafat, said Israel had to pursue its own agenda.
“The last couple of weeks have proven to the world that it is in our power to unite against danger and overcome our enemies,” he said. “We refuse to accept the foolish talk that there is no military solution to terror. This is the only solution.”
