BY MARGARET ALLUM
"In his attempt at reinventing himself, Ariel Sharon is claiming supernatural powers — i.e. the ability to accomplish the impossible", wrote Hanan Ashrawi, Palestinian parliamentarian and professor at Birzeit University, in January. "On the one hand, Sharon claims to be able to deliver 'peace' with the Palestinians and with the Arab world, while promising, on the other hand, to annex Palestinian territory, maintain all Israeli settlements, impose Israeli sovereignty over Jerusalem, totally negate the Palestinian refugees' right of return and wreak havoc among the Palestinians should they dare protest."
Sharon, leader of the far right-wing Likud party, was elected prime minister in the February 6 Israel election. Few mainstream political analysts gave the reason for Sharon's overwhelming victory over Labour Prime Minister Ehud Barak as being Sharon's less than convincing"peace" rhetoric.
For all his declarations of historic concessions to the Palestinian people, Barak in his 18 months in power did not dismantle one Jewish settlement on Palestinian land. In fact, the number of settlements increased. Barak's government made no progress in resolving the issues that stand in the way of a real peace in the region.
The official "peace process" begun in Oslo had become even more of a sham in the past few years, with its broad rhetoric of "peace" but narrow definition of justice.
The left-wing, Tel Aviv-based the Other Israel magazine on February 6 wrote that Barak had "failed to build trust with the Palestinians (or for that matter, with many sections of the Israeli society)". After Sharon's provocative September visit to the Temple Mount/Haram Al-Sharif resulted in Palestinian anger, Barak reacted with what the UN Security Council condemned as an excessive use of force, though Barak himself termed it "a policy of restraint". This "restraint" has left around 400 dead and thousands injured, the vast majority Palestinians.
Arab Israeli citizens, who had supported Barak overwhelmingly in 1999, boycotted the vote. The shrinkage of the Arab vote sealed defeat for the Barak camp, despite Barak's last-minute pleas for Arabs to turn out and save him.
Comments such as "Sharon is better for the Arabs and Palestinians because he says what the Israelis really think" and "at least now there will be a real war, not this false peace", indicate the frustration and despair that is felt by a people who are no closer to sovereignty over their land after years of "peace talks".
Likud's 'peace'
This is not the first time that Sharon has dressed violent repression of Palestinian rights in the garb of "peace" for electoral consumption. During the 1996 election campaign, before he took over the leadership of Likud, he detailed that party's no-concession approach to peace negotiations with the Palestinians. It included giving absolutely no ground on the presence of Jewish settlements in Palestinian areas and on the division of Jerusalem, as well as banning the Palestinian Authority from operating in the capital.
"For those of you who worry about Israel's security and existence: before confusion turns you into floating voters, this, in simple language is the Likud's plan. Through it, peace with security can be achieved. That is, if the Arabs want peace at all. Which is still an unknown", Sharon stated.
Sharon's concept of peace is a peace based on the total suppression of Palestinian rights, enforced by the might of the US-backed Israeli military.
Despite the vastly superior military force Israel possesses and utilises in its decades-long conflict with the people of Palestine and the disproportionately small number of Israeli casualties compared to those of its Arab neighbours, Sharon is sure to escalate the violence against Palestinians.
On September 28, Barak's government authorised the visit by Sharon (with 1000 police) to the Al-Aqsa mosque at the Haram Al-Sharif Muslim religious site (known as the Temple Mount to adherents of the Jewish religion) that sparked the latest Palestinian intifada (uprising). Palestinians also cited as another cause the massive and intimidating military and police presence that Barak introduced on the following day, when thousands of people visited the mosque to pray.
Sharon's record
Sharon's presence at the Al-Aqsa was not an innocent religious visit. His stated aim was to demonstrate "Jewish sovereignty" over the site.
Sharon's murderous assertion of "Jewish sovereignty" and commitment to the Zionist project goes back to his youth when at the age of 14, he joined the Haganah, the largest of the Zionist groups that fought to seize Palestine in 1948 for the state of Israel, dispossessing the native Palestinians. By 1950, he was leading commando units that forced Palestinians to flee their homes.
In the 1950s, Sharon formed the "anti-terrorist" group called Unit 101 (nicknamed "the Avengers") to counter Palestinian resistance actions with terror. Raids were conducted across Israel's borders, into refugee camps and villages. One of the most notorious attacks, in 1953, resulted in the slaughter of 69 women, men and children in Jordan, when Unit 101 blew up homes in Qibia village. Two years later Sharon was a lieutenant colonel in the Israeli army.
During the 1956 Suez war against Egypt, Sharon embarked on a series of moves which cost Israeli military lives and lost him support among the officialdom. His military career was revived in 1964 by the military chief of staff Yitzhak Rabin.
Sharon served Israel well again in the 1967 war and afterward was given the job of "pacifying" the Palestinian resistance in the occupied Gaza Strip, which he did with brutal efficiency.
A Zionist military hero, Sharon was elected in 1973 as a member of the Likud bloc in Menachem Begin's government and became minister of agriculture and settlements. In that position, he concentrated on constructing many Israeli settlements in the West Bank to create a permanent Israeli presence in the territory illegally seized in 1967. With the Likud-led government's reelection in 1981, Sharon was rewarded with the ministry of defence.
Sabra and Shatila massacres
The following year, Israel's invasion of Lebanon was planned and executed by Sharon. He believed that the demoralisation of the Palestinians would be complete if he inflicted a crushing military defeat on the Palestine Liberation Organisation in Lebanon.
Israel's aim was to establish a fascist Phalangist party government in Lebanon which would then make a treaty with Israel. Phalange leader Bashir Gemayel said that his party wanted every Palestinian civilian out of Lebanon, and Israel wanted them scattered among the other Arab countries. In order to rationalise the invasion and the bombing of civilians, the Israeli government and Sharon went to great lengths to dehumanise the Palestinians. Sharon described Palestinians as "bugs" while their refugee camps were "tourist camps".
The horrific invasion of Lebanon left tens of thousands killed (most civilians), nearly half a million people homeless, refugee camps totally destroyed and Beirut bombed and devastated. At the end of two months, the PLO agreed to pull out of Beirut after the US promised that the Palestinian and Lebanese civilian population would be protected and that the Israeli military would not enter the city.
However, Sharon claimed that Palestinian "terrorists" remained in the refugee camps of Sabra and Shatila. In an operation that had Sharon's full approval, the Phalangists were allowed to enter the camps to murder, rape and torture Palestinian and Lebanese civilians. While the exact toll will never be known, it was estimated that at least 2000 people were killed.
An Israeli inquiry, forced by the international outcry that followed, condemned Sharon and a number of his colleagues as being instrumental in the massacres.
Resigning from his post in 1983, Sharon remained a minister without portfolio until 1984 when Shimon Peres appointed him minister of trade and industry. He took over the ministry for construction and housing in 1990 and embarked on a settlement-building frenzy until Likud lost office in 1992. With Binyamin Netanyahu's 1996 election victory Sharon became minister of national infrastructure, then foreign affairs in 1998.
Elected as chairperson of Likud in September 1999, he built support for his taking Israel's top job during Barak's rule.
US Secretary of State Colin Powell urged Israelis and Palestinians to "give Mr Sharon time to form a government and determine his negotiating position on peace before making judgements about his political intentions".
As far as the Palestinian and Arab Israeli peoples are concerned, Sharon's reactionary and brutal "negotiating position" is all too clear.