May. 4, 2004. 01:00 AM
Likud challenges Bush
The Israeli media called it a "crushing defeat." It was also a defiant farce. Prime Minister Ariel Sharon was humiliated Sunday by his own Likud party. Most rejected his proposal to withdraw from Gaza next year.
But Sharon's pratfall is also a challenge to U.S. President George Bush.
The obduracy of Israel's ruling party is a slap in the face. It makes Bush look gullible and weak across the Arab and Muslim world.
Not three weeks ago, Bush "rewarded" Sharon — in advance — for the Gaza pullout. Reversing U.S. policy, Bush endorsed the idea that Israel should keep major West Bank settlements, and not repatriate Palestinian refugees, in any final peace deal.
American officials did their best to justify this tilt to Israel, which shattered all pretence that the U.S. can be an honest broker. They painted it as a necessary gesture to reassure Israelis, to boost Sharon in the Gaza vote and to nudge peace forward.
But Likud didn't think much of Bush and his carrots. On Sunday, 60 per cent rejected the pullout.
They cast their ballots as Palestinian gunmen murdered an Israeli woman settler and her four helpless children, in an act of bestial savagery. But even before the murders, Sharon was headed to defeat.
Yesterday, more settlers moved into Arab East Jerusalem, and Gaza settlers poured more concrete.
Sharon now promises to "come up with a plan that will get wider support." Good luck. He will have a difficult time convincing hardliners to endorse anything short of an expansion of the Gaza settlements.
But that is not what most Israelis want. They want to get out of Gaza after a 37-year occupation.
Knowing that, Bush wasn't wrong to endorse the Gaza pullout. But he could have supported Sharon without shrugging off Palestinian claims to the West Bank, and to a refugee return. It was the latest miscalculation by a president who has badly bungled the Mideast file.
Bush is now tied to a scandal-beclouded Israeli leader who heads a party that is blocking what most Israelis want. Bush is also offside with Arabs and Muslims whose support he needs to bail him out in Iraq and Afghanistan, and to suppress terror.
Palestinians and Israelis alike are exhausted after 3,600 deaths. Calm can be restored. But the U.S. must exert persistent, balanced pressure.
For all his talk of peace, Sharon has put forward no credible plan to trade most of the West Bank, as well as Gaza, for genuine peace. And Palestinians have not begun disarming their extremists and suppressing terror. The U.S. must prod both sides.
Likud's obstinacy over Gaza challenges Washington to reclaim the middle ground, and to push both parties to compromise.
That is, unless Bush is prepared to wear Sharon's humiliation as his own.
thestar.com |
