This Week

PALESTINIAN MANDATE

The New Face Of Israel

from page 18

The best we can hope for is some sort of
pragmatic peace where the Arab side
concludes that they cannot destroy
Israel, but that for their own purposes
they have to come to terms with the fact
that Israel exists."
The question is whether the
Palestinians, after four months of violent
confrontation, are ready to settle for so
much less than they rejected from
Barak.
The Labor prime minister offered
them 95 percent of the West Bank and
Gaza Strip. Sharon is offering 42 per-
cent, the area they already hold under
the 1993 Oslo accords. Barak was ready
to evacuate dozens of Jewish settlements.
Sharon says not one will be uprooted.
Barak was ready to share control of
Jerusalem. Sharon says all of the holy
city will remain under Israeli sovereignty.
Arafat reacted diplomatically to
Sharon's election victory, which Israeli

commentators labeled a "knock-out"
rather than a landslide. "We respect the
choice of the Israeli people," Arafat said
with an eye to world opinion, "and hope
to move forward in the peace process."
His information minister, Yasser
Abed-Rabbo, was less tactful. "This is
the stupidest event in the history of the
State of Israel," he fumed. "Sharon's
policies will destroy the peace process."
Saeb Erakat, a senior Palestinian nego-
tiator, insisted that the talks had to
resume at the point where they left off
under Barak. It was, he said, impossible
to ignore previous understandings.
Erakat added, "If Sharon wants to pre-
serve the settlements and continue to
repress the Palestinians, only God can
help the Palestinians and the Israelis."
Ominously, Hussein al-Sheikh, who
commands Arafat's Fatah militia on the
West Bank, vowed to continue the
armed struggle

.

As far as Sharon is concerned, that
would spell the end of any peacemaking.
"We are not going to negotiate while
violence is still going on with the bless-
ing of Yasser Arafat," Shoval retorted.
"Nor will we allow ourselves to be pre-
vented from looking at other ways, mili-
tary and so forth, to fight terror."

With Both Hands

Sharon's gory reputation, as a general
and defense minister, precedes him.
Palestinians still remember the 1982
massacre by Israel's Lebanese Christian
allies of hundreds of Palestinians in the
Sabra and Shatilla refugee camps. So
what would his response be to an escala-
tion. of the intifada, if the Palestinians
decided now that they had nothing to
lose?
Shoval claimed that Sharon was more
mellow these days. He was not interest-
ed in escalating the conflict. "He does

not want to fight fire with fire," he
added, "but there are more effective
ways of dealing with violence than the
ones that have been adopted so far. It is
not necessarily a question of shooting
back at the one who shoots at you."
Pressed on what he had in mind, he
suggested a campaign to destroy the
infrastructure of Palestinian organiza-
tions that promote violence. "I'm not
talking about assassinations, but you can
make it more difficult for the organisa-
tions to operate."
Avigdor Lieberman, leader of the
Yisrael Beteinu ("Israel is our Home")
Russian immigrants' party and one of of
Sharon's prospective coalition partners,
threatened during the election campaign
that Israel would reconquer Beit Jalla if
Palestinian gunmen continued using
that West Bank town as a base for firing

PALESTINIAN MANDATE

on page 24

Following is a timeline of key dates in the life of Ariel Sharon:

1928 — Born Ariel Sheinerman in Kfar Malal, near

Tel Aviv.

1942-48 — Member of the Haganah, the Jewish

fighting force in prestate Israel.
1948 — Wounded while serving as an infantry
commander in Israel's War of Independence.
1952-53 — Studies history and Oriental studies at
Hebrew University.
1953 — Founder and commander of the "Unit 101"
anti-terror force, which carries out retaliatory raids
against Arab terrorists.
1954-67 — Commander of a paratroop brigade that
captures the strategic Mitla Pass during the 1956
Sinai War with Egypt.
1967 — Attends Camberley Staff College in Great
Britain.
1958-62 — Studies law at Tel Aviv University.

O

2/9
2001

20

ing maneuverithat led to the encirclement of
Egypt's Third Army and Israel's military victory,
returning home a national hero.

1973-74 — Elected to Israel's

eighth Knesset, under the
Likud banner.
1974 — Proposes that Israel
negotiate with Palestinians
toward the establishment of a
Palestinian state in Jordan.

1984 — Files a libel suit against Time magazine

over article on Sharon's role in the Lebanon war. A
New York jury eventually rules that the article was
defamatory, but did not have malicious intent.

1984-90 — Minister for industry and trade in

national unity government.
1990-92 — Named minister for construction
and housing in a Likud-based government
formed by Yitzhak Shamir. Continues to
encourage development of settlements in ter-
ritories and oversees vast construction effort
1975-76 — Appointed special
to
create housing for massive wave of immi-
defense adviser to Prime
Israeli Knesset member
gration
from former Soviet Union.
Minister Yitzhak Rabin.
Sharon points to the West
Objects to Madrid peace conference
1991—
1976 — Forms the Shlomzion
Bank Jewish settlement
under
Shamir.
Party. The party wins two
Beit .Arieh Nov. 16,
Knesset seats, but soon
1995 — a cluster he said 1996 — Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu
creates national infrastructure portfolio for
merges into the Likud.
he'd never cede to
Sharon in new Likud-led government.
1977-81— Minister Palestinian control.
1964-66 — Israel
1998 — Becomes foreign minister following
2 for agriculture and
Defense Force chief of
resignation of David Levy; helps negotiate Wye
. - chairman of a ministerial committee for
staff Yitzhak Rabin
River accord.
settlement under Prime Minister
appoints him to be chief
Menachem Begin. Considered a patron
1999 — Netanyahu resigns as Likud Party leader
of staff for the Northern
of the Gush Emunim settlement move-
and appoints Sharon as caretaker. Sharon later
Command.
ment, Sharon advocates establishing a
wins the position outright in a party vote.
1967 — During the Six-
network of Jewish settlements.
July 2000 — Prime Minister Ehud Barak is left with-
Day War, commands an
1981-83 — Appointed minister of
out a parliamentary majority when the Shas,
Brig. Gen. Sharon with filtue Prime
armored division in the
defense by Begin.
National Religious and Yisrael Ba'Aliyah parties
Minister
Menahem
Begin
on
the
Sinai Desert and directs
leave the government over the Camp David summit.
Apri11982 — Carries out last phase of
Southern
Front
of
the
Six-Day
War
in
a battle that successfully
Israeli evacuation from northern Sinai
Sept. 28, 2000 — Palestinian riots erupt following
the Sinai Desert on June 16, 1967.
recPotures the Mitla
as part of peace agreement with Egypt.
Sharon's visit to the Temple Mount in Jerusalem.
Pass and the corridor to the Suez Canal.
1982 — Under Sharon's command, Israel invades
December
2000 — Barak's resignation forces new
1969-73 — Heads the IDF's Southern Command.
Lebanon, code-named Operation Peace for Galilee.
elections
for
prime minister. Sharon becomes the
After August 1970, focuses on fighting Palestinian
Likud
Party
candidate.
ReSigns
as
defense
minister
but
1983-84
—
terrorism in the Gaza Strip.
remains as minister without portfolio after a govern-
2001 — Sharon, who is widowed and has two sons,
1973 — Retires from the military to pursue political
ment commission finds Sharon indirectly responsi-
attended a bris for his twin grandsons on Election
career, and works at establishing the Likud Party.
ble for the September 1982 massacre of
Day. EJ
With outbreak of Yom Kippur War, returns to active
Palestinians at the Sabra and Shatila refugee
military service to command an armored division
camps in Beirut by Lebanese Christians.
— Naomi Segal/JD
that crosses the Suez Canal. He organized a dar-