Sharon Plans Alternative to Arafat

Opinion by Richard Johnson, Contributor

Anybody who said Ariel Sharon never had a plan should take a long hard look at the Israeli Prime Minister�s recent visit to Washington. His fourth visit stateside in exactly one year in office is nothing to scoff at: most congressmen don�t meet the President so often. This time Sharon had a revolutionary agenda to present to his patrons: the �Alternative to Arafat� plan, one put into high gear with the recent swing of events.

One reason Sharon met with Bush & Co. recently was to confirm to himself that America�s taciturn reaction to Israel�s aggressive retaliatory methodology of the last months is not just a fa�ade. After encouraging his estranged foreign minister, Shimon Peres�the old warhorse of peace (pardon the paradox)�to meet with second-tier Palestinian leaders over the past few weeks, Sharon himself broke a personal barrier last week by meeting with Abu Mazen and Ahmed Queria, as well as others. Far from a coincidental set of events, Sharon can now present to his patrons in Washington his theory that there is an alternative to Arafat. Sharon�s plan, it seems, is not only to spark a revolution among the Palestinian leadership but also to carry it out himself on their behalf.

But if it�s revolution Sharon is looking for, he needs to take care that he�s not crushing the black kettle and overlooking the pot. There�s no denying that if either of the two neighboring societies is in unexpected turmoil, it�s the Israeli side. Overlapping Sharon in Washington was his Defense Minister Benjamin Ben-Eliezer, and the two party leaders are not even on speaking terms. Instead they send terse messages to each other via secretaries. Ben-Eliezer held separate meetings with Dick Cheney and Condoleeza Rice, and then proceeded to publicize their biting criticism of Arafat to the media in a quest for his own headlines ahead of the Sharon-Bush summit. Meanwhile, there has never been harmony between Sharon and Peres, and the only reason the latter hasn�t bolted the coalition government is because it would mean the end of his long political career.

Israel is reeling from a huge economic crisis that has seen the shekel plummet 10 percent against the dollar in six months and sent unemployment skyrocketing. The Israeli peace camp, until recently paralyzed by popular support for the retaliation against Palestinian suicide attacks, finds itself reinvigorated by the rash of Israeli house demolitions in Palestinian refugee camps and by the recent petition, now signed by more than 200 reserve soldiers, of officers refusing to serve in the occupation army in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

There is also another element Sharon is apparently too blind to see: a Palestinian population not about to turn its back on its frail leader. The isolation of Arafat has certainly not convinced Palestinians that Israel is interested in a diplomatic solution. The mass public will not accept the dethroning of Arafat as anything but a Sharonian coup. Anarchy will lead to the hegemonic ascendancy of the strongest, most radical person, not the one with the best ideas for a free and democratic Palestine. The people could never respect such a government anyway; a regime whose existence was procured by the Israeli colonial power will always have a crippled dependence on Israel, thereby delegitimating its supposed mandated powers from the people.

Yasser Arafat, whether he stays or goes, is not the question here. It is ridiculous to think that there can be a casual transition of power leading to a cessation of the Palestinian Intifada against oppression while the occupation persists. There can be no trust in an Israel that dictates a leader unto its colonial subjects. Then again, Sharon�s resume is complete with ridiculous ideas. He will have his victory: the demise of his longtime nemesis, the man whom he regrets not killing twenty years ago in Beirut. The occupation and the Israeli repression will go on. Who says Sharon is looking for anything more than that?

Richard Johnson is an English language teacher and policy issues researcher living in Ramallah in the West Bank.