Week
Half A Wall
Governator
With simple decision on security fence, Sharon takes boldest step of career.
California's Jews sort out
new political realities.
"Sharon is not to blame for the ter-
ror," he declared at the scene of the
carnage. "But he is responsible for pro-
Jerusalem
viding security for Israel's citizens."
srael Prime Minister Ariel
.Sharon's creative solution was to
Sharon's decision in early
route the fence around the large settle-
October to complete the securi-
ments but, for the time being, not to
ty fence between Israel and the
join up the parts deep in Palestinian
West Bank may have seemed like a for- territory with the main fence running
mality. But it may well turn out to be
more or less along the Green Line.
the most important decision
The plan is to erect horse-
of his 30-year political career.
shoe-shaped fences around
Saturday's deadly suicide
the settlements and then —
bombing in Haifa — which
unless the Palestinians have
left 19 Israelis dead —
had a radical change of heart
showed why Sharon could not
and abandoned terrorism —
have continued procrastinat-
link them to the main fence
ing.
in six months to a year.
Though he continues to
Clearly, Sharon hopes the
insist that the fence is just a
decision to include large
Sharon
security barrier against
Jewish settlements inside the
Palestinian terrorists, Sharon
fence will silence the right
knows that the monumental construc-
wing. In addition, the fact that the
tion could have major implications for
horseshoe perimeter fences will not
future political arrangements between
immediately be connected to the main
Israel and the Palestinians: It could
fence will buy him some time from the
dictate future borders or, at the very
Bush administration.
least, serve as a starting point for nego-
According to some analysts, Sharon
tiations on their demarcation.
is banking on the American position
Sharon had been caught on the
on the fence route softening over time,
horns of a dilemma: If he routed the
the way it did on the Israel Defense
fence along the pre-1967 border,
Forces' reoccupation of Palestinian
known as the Green Line, he risked
cities after waves of suicide bombings.
paving the way for a Palestinian state
Sharon's longer-term strategy is to
in all of the West Bank and Gaza
use the fence to contain Palestinian
Strip. That would antagonize the set-
terrorism until a Palestinian leadership
tler movement, cause considerable
emerges that is sincerely interested in a
unrest in Sharon's own Likud Party
peace deal. He also is confident that,
and return Israel's densely populated
when the chips are down, the
coastal plain to dimensions so narrow
Americans will back him.
that former Foreign Minister Abba
Eban once labeled them "Auschwitz
Critics On Left
borders."
On the other hand, if the fence cut
Domestically, the most vehement criti-
deeply into the West Bank to encircle
cism of the fence route comes from the
cities such as Ariel, Sharon risked con-
Israeli left. Labor legislator Matan
frontation with the Bush administra-
Vilnai says that building a fence with
tion and deductions from $9 billion in
gaps left by the unconnected horse-
promised U.S. loan guarantees.
shoes is absurd and will leave central
Until his decision in early October,
Israel vulnerable to terrorism.
Sharon had been playing for time —
Moreover, opposition members
but Saturday's suicide bombing con-
charge, the added length of the fence
firmed that that was no longer an
means that more soldiers will be need-
option.
ed to defend it, it will take longer to
build and it will cost about four times
Horseshoes
as much.
Former Labor Party leader Amram
There also is the question of Israel's
Mitzna, a former mayor of Haifa, put
image. Chemi Shalev of the Ma'ariv
his finger on the public pulse.
newspaper says the longer route will
LESLIE SUSSER
Jewish Telegraphic Agency
I
prove to be a huge public relations
gaffe, creating an image of Israel "as
annexationist, unilateralist, imprison-
ing thousands of Palestinians behind
walls of concrete."
Worse, Shalev says; the route isolates
an estimated 75,000 Palestinians in
enclaves on the Israeli side of the
fence, and clouds future peace talks
with the Palestinians.
It's ironic that by building the fence
— even along the longer route —
Sharon's right-wing government is car-
rying out the policies of Israel's left-
wing: dividing the Land of Israel along
the lines of former Prime Minister
Ehud Barak's proposals for territorial
compromise with the Palestinians, later
endorsed in the "Clinton parameters"
of December 2000.
Those proposals recommended that
Israel annex land belonging to about
80 percent of settlers — in effect,
drawing the border to encompass them
— and removing Israeli settlements on
the other side.
Some analysts go further, predicting
that the fence inevitably will lead to
the establishment of a Palestinian state.
They paint the following scenario: The
fence succeeds as a security barrier,
making attacks inside Israel difficult to
carry out. The Palestinians turn against
the settlers outside the fence, and the
Israeli soldiers defending them.
Pressure mounts in Israel for the sol-
diers to be withdrawn and the settle-
ments evacuated, as it did in the last
years of Israel's occupation of its south-
ern Lebanon security zone.
The international community pres-
sures Israel to withdraw, asking what
the army is doing in the West Bank
now that terrorist attacks on Israel
proper have ceased.
Under enormous domestic and
international pressure, the IDF rede-
ploys behind the fence, the govern-
ment dismantles all the settlements on
the other side and the Palestinians
establish an independent state. The
two sides then enter negotiations over
residual Palestinian demands.
In other words, according to this
scenario, Sharon's fence could bring
the parties back to the parameters of
the Oslo process — even though
Sharon rejects that deal as a historical
blunder. ❑
TOM TUGEND
Jewish Telegraphic Agency
Los Angeles
hat's a Jew to do when
the Republican son of a
Nazi Party member
defeats the Democratic
incumbent to become governor of the
nation's most populous state?
If you can't beat 'em, join 'em, say
jubilant Republicans, hoping that
California Jews will flock to support the
state's new governor-elect, Arnold
Schwarzenegger.
"It used to be in California that we
were afraid to speak out in a roomful of
Jews, but now we're standing up and
speaking up," the ecstatic chairman of
the Southern California chapter of the
Republican Jewish Coalition, Bruce
Bialosky, said at Schwarzenegger's victo-
ry party Tuesday night, Oct. 7. "Why,
even the rabbis are changing their ser-
mons!"
Bialosky's enthusiasm was shared by
Jewish Republicans across the state
Tuesday night, minutes after Gov. Gray
Davis, a Democrat, conceded his loss in
the recall election, and the Republican
action-movie star was chosen as his suc-
cessor.
"This is akin to the Reagan revolu-
tion," proclaimed attorney Sheldon
Sloan, one of Schwarzenegger's earliest
Jewish backers. "We're going to make
big inroads into the Democratic hold
on Jewish voters."
That analysis was not shared by most
Democrats or political analysts, howev-
er, who predicted that there would not
be any fundamental changes in the
state's political culture — or in the
Jewish tendency to vote Democratic.
Davis assiduously cultivated
California's 1 million strong Jewish
community during his five years as gov-
ernor. In a quick, informal election-
night survey, experts and party activists
weighed in on whether Jewish influence
in Sacramento would wane under the
new governor.
"I doubt it," Republican pollster
Arnold Steinberg said. "There are so
many Jews in the entertainment indus-
try and on the west side" of Los Angeles
GOVERNATOR on page 20
10/10
2003
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