You know the world of Middle East politics is changing when Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon bolts the right-wing Likud bloc to launch a centrist party.
Sharon’s action, coupled with the ascension of Amir Peretz to lead the Labor Party, signals an upheaval that could give new impetus to U.S.-backed road map for peace.
We like Sharon’s maneuver because it gives the broad Israeli public a chance to guide the country’s peace policy rather than have it decided in a brawl between conservative factions of Likud.
Sharon, whose daring armored raid across the Suez Canal recouped Israel’s fortunes in the 1973 Arab-Israeli war, was long regarded as an obdurate hawk. But in the past two years he has embraced a policy of trading land for peace that led to his pulling Israels out of the Gaza Strip and dismantling Jewish settlements in the area that was returned to Palestinian control.
Polls show about two-thirds of Israeli voters support a two-state solution with the Palestinians, but Sharon’s policies are bitterly opposed by a hard-line Likud faction led by former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. So, the 77-year-old Sharon is forming a new party so he would be free to pursue new peace efforts. Sharon seeks to dissolve the Israeli parliament, the Knesset, and move up elections up to March from their scheduled date next November.
Sharon said the pullout from Gaza created a “historic opportunity” for peace and told a televised news conference, “I will not allow anyone to squander it.”
Israeli pollsters said Sharon’s new party could win as many as 28 seats in the upcoming elections, while Likud could drop to 20 seats. In his peace policy, at least, Sharon would probably enjoy the support of Peretz’s Labor party, which is also predicted to win about 28 seats.
Sharon’s new party, Labor’s new leadership and the efforts of Mahmoud Abbas as leader of the Palestinians may be a rare triple conjunction of the political planets in support of peace efforts. Abbas faces his own challenge in Jan. 25 elections when the militant group Hamas is competing against Abbas’ candidates for parliamentary seats.
Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat compared Sharon’s decision to the eruption of a volcano, adding, “I hope that when the dust settles, we will have a partner in Israel to go to the endgame, toward the end of conflict, toward a final agreement.” Men and women of good will the world over join in that hope.
