Washington — Who’d-a-thunk-it?
Ariel Sharon, once a hawk’s hawk, has become a dove, an old soldier gone soft with battle fatigue and guilt from the Sabra-Chatilla massacre, a puppet dancing on strings held by Foreign Minister Shimon Peres, a “gutless wimp” intimidated and outmaneuvered by the wise and wily U.S. President George W. Bush.
Sharon, who is used to hearing the Arabs curse him, now hears such attacks from many of his old allies on the right. Their problem: he rejects their demands for all-out war to destroy Yasser Arafat and the Palestinian Authority he heads.
The news media have been brimming with reports of secret plans for a lighting strike taking only 30 days, 168 hours or 48 hours, depending on the source. Calls are coming from American jingoists as well as Israeli military figures, rival politicians and even Sharon’s own cabinet ministers.
American armchair generals — safely entrenched behind their computers at their command posts in such strategic vantage points as Chicago, Philadelphia, Washington and Brooklyn — are bravely prepared to fight to the last Israeli.
One particularly strident American polemicist portrays Sharon as a Samson whose hair has been shorn by a coven of Delilahs that includes a U.S. State Department “dedicated to the phased elimination of the Jewish state,” Jew-hating Europeans, Bush and “his father’s advisors.”
In Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu is leading the attack from the right so he can replace Sharon. “When I was prime minister … we put the brakes on terrorism” and now is the time to “paralyze the P.A.” In calling for military action, he is not only covering his own right flank but positioning himself to take credit if and when Sharon does attack.
Hard-line ministers of Sharon’s unity government, including from his own Likud party, are rattling the loudest sabers. They’re telling him to “militarily topple” the P.A., “wipe out” its military, “destroy” Arafat, round up and deport West Bank Palestinians and reoccupy parts or all of the territories.
Attack and don’t fret over foreign reaction, advises Labor Minister Shlomo Benizri, because “it doesn’t matter what the goyim think.”
Settlers most scared
Peres comes in for the greatest scorn after Arafat because as angry as most of the right-wing warriors may be, they are reluctant to attack Sharon head on.
The settlers are the most outspoken. They have good reason to believe reports that Arafat has declared open season on them. Shootings at unarmed civilians are commonplace and frequent, and the toll is rising. They are increasingly militant and insecure — and fearful Sharon will sell them out.
“The fix is in,” declared a sympathetic American website. Sharon and Peres are conspiring with Arafat, and their “aim is painfully clear: Perpetuate the situation to the point where most of the settlers … will give in and pull out.”
The accusations of weakness by the war lobby have infuriated Sharon. “You’re all big heroes with all your advice. At the end of the day, the responsibility is mine. This region is not going to war. There won’t be a war,” he said.
Peres delivered that message personally to Arafat and Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak in Cairo Sunday. Sharon also sent his son, Omri, to assure Arafat, but also to warn him there could be no progress until the violence ends.
Sharon has told it to Bush and his senior advisors. Israeli diplomats around the world are relaying the message to their host governments.
Does Sharon object to all the war talk? Probably not. Among Arabs who are prepared to believe the worst about Sharon, the psychological pressure can have some value. It also lets Arafat better understand the forces confronting the prime minister if the violence continues or, worse, if another terror bombing in Israel’s heartland takes a large civilian toll.
Harsh retaliation in such an event will find understanding in Washington and other Western capitals, Israeli officials say they’ve been assured — so long as it is not excessive. Translation: don’t use it as an excuse to destroy the P.A. and drive out Arafat.
Sharon, who once advocated destroying the P.A. and reoccupying the territories, no longer harbors that intention, said Israeli officials. He understands war will only destabilize the region and spark a Vietnam-like war of attrition.
Sharon’s restraint has produced political benefits at home and abroad.
Those who call for driving out the P.A. and rounding up its troops don’t talk about how they plan to control huge detention camps or deal with an even angrier and more hostile civilian population or a certain upsurge in terrorism worldwide.
The new super-hawks seem to have forgotten what it was like when the Israel Defense Force was the local police in Palestinian cities and towns, and was responsible for the mundane services now handled by the P.A.
There may be some short-term psychic satisfaction in smashing the P.A. and driving Arafat and his crooked cronies back into exile — but at what price?
Nearly 20 years ago, some of his far-right supporters were disappointed that Ronald Reagan was not the ultra-conservative ideologue they had hoped for. It couldn’t be their idol’s fault, so they blamed everyone else and demanded those bad influences step aside and “Let Reagan be Reagan.”
Now it is the turn for those who still remember all the harsh rhetoric and threats of Sharon the outsider, and they can’t believe he has changed just because he is prime minister.
It must be someone else’s fault — Peres, the Labor Party, Bush, the State Department, Iranian and Iraqi nuclear threats, old age or even fear. Let loose the dogs of war, they cry, and let Sharon be Sharon.
It appears that’s just what he’s doing — keeping his Palestinian adversaries guessing and his political opponents off balance.
Douglas M. Bloomfield is a Washington, D.C.-based syndicated columnist and a former chief lobbyist for AIPAC.
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