My take, at the moment, it's that Sharon is trying to (a) derail the meager talks between Israeli and Palestinian offices which were underway; (b) trying to derail the internal Palestinian moves to undermine Arafat by reinvoking the notion that political enemies of Arafat must be friends of Israelis; (c) something like Serge Schenemann wrote in the Times, that it was simply Sharon's deep seated hatred for Arafat that lead him to do dumb things now and again or (d) all of the above.
This is journalist silliness. What Sharon is doing is not hard to figure. There will be no movement forward while Arafat and his chief gunmen are still in place, so Sharon is working to get rid of them. It's a process. Sharon gets some room to maneuver, then he pushes until the US pushes back. Then Sharon stops, and maneuvers for room again. It's been going on for over a year and a half. All this foolishness about deals or talks or cease-fires which would have miraculously come into being if only Sharon had not done what he did, are piffle. Likewise psychobabble theories about Sharon's hatred for Arafat. Sure, Sharon hates Arafat, so do 80% of Israelis! But if his hatred were uncontrollable, Arafat would have been dead for some time now. Sharon has been proceeding in a very calculated manner.
Even now, on the Lehrer report, I hear Schmemann of the NY Times babbling how Sharon has set back efforts at Palestinian reform. What a crock. The big setback to Palestinian reform is the continued existence of Yasser Arafat. If he goes, and his vicious henchmen like Tirawi go with him, then hey presto!, you will see reform come into being. This is just like all those fools who told us that Israel's actions last spring would only serve to strengthen Arafat. Well, time for a reality check. Is Arafat stronger now than he was then? Nope. |
