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SPECIAL

REPORT

Photo by Brian Hendler/JT,A
.

Palestinian boys walk near anti-

Sharon graffiti on the Israeli
security barrier in Bethlehem.

Uncertainty over Sharon's
condition leaves Palestinians
in state of limbo.

I

Gil Sedan
Jewish Telegraphic Agency

Jerusalem

yen the Palestinian
Kassam rocket launchers
took time out when Israeli
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon was
hospitalized: Either they were
preparing for the Muslim holiday
of Id al-Adha, or they were saying,
let's wait and see.
The Kassam rockets were back
in action this week. They didn't hit
anyone, but they did indicate that
Sharon's absence from the deci-
sion-making process has not
changed the patterns of conflict —
at least not until Jan. 25 elections
for the Palestinian legislature.
In any case, Palestinian society
appears too consumed by its own

E

36

January 12 2006

internal problems to worry too
much about Sharon's condition,
and what will come next.
Most Arab reaction to the debili-
tating stroke Sharon suffered Jan. 4
has referred to his bloody past,
underplaying his historic with-
' drawal of Jewish settlements from
the Gaza Strip last summer.
Even the Web page of Al Jazeera
— which, like all major Arab tele-
vision networks, has been broad-
casting live reports from the
Jerusalem hospital where Sharon is
hospitalized — contained an arti-
cle saying Sharon "the butcher,
sometimes the Butcher of Beirut,
sometimes the Butcher of
Palestine, is rarely mentioned
without listing the dozens of
crimes he committed and the
thousands of Arabs he killed."
Palestinians remember Sharon
foremost for the 1953 anti-terror

reprisal he led in the West Bank
village of Kibya in which 69
Palestinians, including many civil-
ians, were killed; for having
orchestrated the 1982 Lebanon
War to destroy the PLO's terror
enclave in southern Lebanon; for
having failed to prevent the
Christian massacre of Palestinians
in the Sabra and Shatila refugee
camps in Beirut; and for his role as
the architect of the Israeli settle-
ment movement in the territories.
One of the few public voices to
criticize Sharon's demonization
was Knesset Member Abdulmalik
Dehamshe of the Islamic-oriented
United Arab List.
"I have opposed Sharon for
many years, and I have said harsh
things to him': Dehamshe told
Ha'aretz,"but who would have
thought that this man would with-
draw from Gaza?"
Another local voice of sympathy
was that of Talal al-Krinawi, mayor
of the Bedouin town of Rahat,
which is located close to Sharon's
Sycamore Farm in the Negev. "If
you had told me to vote Sharon
before 2001, I would have preferred
to amputate my arm; ) Krinawi
said.
Ahead of the March 28 elec-

tions, however, "I would have
proudly urged everyone to vote for
him in the elections," he said. "I
and many other Arabs love him
very much. We had hopes that he
would lead us to peace!'
Indeed, some Israeli Arabs inter-
viewed in the Israeli press shortly
after Sharon's stroke said that
despite the public Arab criticism of
Sharon, many Israeli Arabs pri-
vately believed that Sharon was "a
real man',' whose word could be
trusted.
The conspicuous element in
Arab reaction over the past few
days has been the absence of pub-
lic rejoicing over Sharon's ailment,
unlike after Sharon's first stroke in
December.

P.A. Thoughts
Official Palestinian Authority reac-
tions were restrained, reflecting
puzzlement. The P.A:s deputy
prime minister, Nabil Sha'ath, said
it was too early to tell whether
Israelis "would return to the right!'
"We are interested in the peace
process',' said Prime Minister
Ahmad Qurei, but Sharon's ailment
"will affect not only Israel but the
entire region!"
The Arab confusion is genuine.

Despite frequent criticism of
Sharon, many Arabs believe he has
two advantages: He broke the
taboo over evacuating settlements,
and he is a known entity.
Ehud Olmert, Israel's acting
prime minister, is still an enigma
in a national leadership role,
despite his comments in favor of
further \Vest Bank withdrawals.
Will Sharon's Kadima Party win
the elections if it is led by Olmert?
Will it be strong enough to push
through withdrawals from the
West Bank?
"There is widespread concern
among Palestinians that with this
sudden absence of Sharon from
political life, newly emerging
Israeli leaders \\rill simply rush to
compete with each other over who
can be tougher with the
Palestinians, to boost their popu-
larity ahead of the upcoming
Israeli elections in March," Hisham
Ahmed, a political science profes-
sor at Bir-Zeit University near
Ramallah, wrote on the joint
Palestinian-Israeli Web page
Bitterlemons.
With Sharon "it was bad, and
with other" Israeli prime minis-
ters "it will be bad;' said Dr.
Mustafa Barghouti, a human
rights activist running for the
Palestinian Legislative Council.
Israeli security experts warned
this week that the various
Palestinian terrorist groups
might try to provoke Israel to see
how Olmert reacts. Defense
Minister Shaul Mofaz told the
Cabinet on Sundays the army
was on high alert in case
Hezbollah tried to attack north-
ern Israel.
Former Mossad head Ephraim
Haley said an interview that
Olmert would react "strongly" to
any attack in order to stabilize
his image in the Arab world.
On the other hand, now that
the issue of voting in eastern
Jerusalem seems to have been
resolved — Mofaz declared
Tuesday that Palestinians in east-
ern Jerusalem would be allowed
to vote, just as they had in past
Palestinian elections — some
analysts believed that none of the
major political powers in the
Palestinian territories would risk
an escalation. I]

