Sharon Goes Step Further in Peace Plan

Aides to Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon disclosed the existence of a plan to dismantle some Jewish settlements in an attempt to jump-start the peace process. But Sharon’s political foes, Palestinian officials and the Israeli public responded Sunday with a considerable show of skepticism.

Sharon told his Cabinet on Sunday that a plan for “unilateral” Israeli steps in the West Bank and Gaza Strip -- details of which had been printed in all the major Israeli newspapers that morning, after a series of well-orchestrated leaks by senior members of Sharon’s staff -- is under consideration. He did not discuss the details or specifically confirm the content of the Israeli media reports.

Israel’s dismantling of so-called settlement outposts -- that is, small offshoots of existing Jewish settlements in the West Bank built in the last two years -- is mandated under the U.S.-backed “road map,” the implementation of which collapsed over the summer amid a flurry of attacks and recriminations.

But Sharon’s plan -- even if it only exists, for now, in the form of a carefully floated trial balloon -- marks the first time his government has raised the possibility of dismantling Jewish settlements in the absence of Palestinian concessions.

Critics were quick to point out that Sharon spoke only of relinquishing increasingly difficult-to-defend settlements in the Gaza Strip, and a few of the more isolated Jewish communities in the West Bank. Other observers saw it as a potentially significant step -- if the Israeli leader follows through.

After a seven-month roller-coaster ride of heightened hopes and bitter disappointments over the “road map” -- and the grinding day-to-day reality of more than three years of conflict -- Israelis and Palestinians alike are inclined these days to look for action rather than words on the peace front.

“Anybody who is not skeptical has been on a different planet these last three years,” said Gadi Wolfsfeld, a professor of political science and communications at Hebrew University. “Whether Sharon is serious or not is very hard for anybody to tell -- and until the first settlement is actually evacuated, I don’t think anyone can know for certain.”

One key indicator of whether Sharon is prepared to take the measures outlined in the plan will be whether he chooses in coming weeks to openly defy his right-wing coalition partners, who flatly rule out giving up any settlements.

On Sunday, Sharon struck a conciliatory stance toward the hard-liners in his government, telling ministers that no new measures had been decided upon, and assuring them that any new plan would be put to a Cabinet vote.

Even so, the prime minister’s rightist allies threatened to bolt if the proposal goes forward -- a move that would bring down Sharon’s ruling coalition and force him to seek new governing partners.

“The removal of even one settlement automatically places us outside the government,” said Transportation Minister Avigdor Lieberman of the hawkish National Union party.

The opposition Labor Party said, in effect, that when it came to Sharon giving up settlements, it would believe it when it saw it.

“Sharon’s under pressure, he knows that his government is failing -- this isn’t serious,” said a leading Labor lawmaker, Ophir Pines-Paz. “The fact is that not one settlement has been removed, construction hasn’t been frozen, and he’s barely removed a token illegal outpost or two.”

But Pines-Paz added: “If he does follow through and implement these difficult, even painful moves, he would find a partner in Labor.”

In recent weeks, both Israel and the Palestinians have been working to position themselves for an expected meeting of Sharon and Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Ahmed Korei.

But the process has been moving slowly, and the two men’s first talks as leaders are now unlikely to take place until after a three-day Muslim festival marking the end of the holy month of Ramadan. The start of the holiday, Eid al-Fitr, is determined by the sighting of the new moon, and will probably begin Tuesday.

Palestinians dismissed the reported Sharon proposal as mere jockeying in advance of those talks.

“These are public relations moves only,” scoffed Palestinian Cabinet minister Saeb Erekat.

Even some of Sharon’s own comments appeared to support the thesis that he was searching for ways to shore up his domestic support.

Sharon’s popularity has plummeted recently, amid the release of several alternative peace plans by leading Israeli and Palestinian political figures, and stinging high-profile criticism from four ex-domestic intelligence chiefs over Israel’s strategy during the course of the current 38-month-old Palestinian uprising, or intifada.

“I just wanted the Israeli public to know that its prime minister has not stopped thinking about how to get out of the impasse with the Palestinians,” Sharon told the Yediot Aharonot daily.

According to accounts published in Sunday’s editions of all major Israeli newspapers, the plan is a contingency one, to be put into effect if no other means of restarting the peace process is found.

Sharon’s government stressed, however, that it remains committed to the “road map” as the peace plan of choice.

Under the Sharon plan’s reported terms, Israel would move some Gaza settlers to the Negev Desert and transplant others to larger settlement blocs in the West Bank.

Successive Israeli governments have demonstrated an aversion to giving up territory under fire, and even some of Sharon’s more moderate allies were dismayed at the idea of pulling out of Jewish settlements while fighting continued.

The settlement most prominently mentioned in reports about the plan is the community of Netzarim in the Gaza Strip, which is the target of near-constant attacks by Palestinian militants.

“Evacuating a settlement like Netzarim is a symbol, and will encourage those who want to drive us out of here,” said Science Minister Eliezer Zandberg of the centrist Shinui party, Sharon’s most important coalition partner. “I hope it doesn’t happen.”

But illustrating the internal divisions so characteristic of Israeli politics, the leader of Zandberg’s party, Justice Minister Tommy Lapid, has advocated giving up Netzarim.

Israelis are reminded almost daily of the cost in young soldiers’ lives of defending the settlements, particularly in Gaza.

Israel Radio reported Sunday that an army unit that last month lost three of its soldiers guarding Netzarim, two of them women, had been returned to duty at the settlement. The unit had been temporarily replaced by military reservists after the soldiers’ deaths, which came in a predawn Palestinian infiltration.