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An end to `Greater Israel'?

Israeli politics has been thrown into turmoil with Prime Minister Ariel Sharon resigning from the Likud party and asking President Moshe Katsav to dissolve parliament. Mr. Sharon was one of the founders of the party that has been the leading right-wing force for almost 30 years. For most of that period, he was also considered the country's leading hawk, although as a Minister he had supervised the dismantling of Zionist settlements in the Sinai Peninsula following the 1978 Camp David Agreement with Egypt. This was mainly because Mr. Sharon was an ardent advocate of the `Greater Israel' policy that successive Likud Governments tried to implement. This was a project for the permanent annexation of all the territory between the Jordan river and the Mediterranean. Had it fructified, the Palestinians could at best have aspired to a measure of autonomy in civic and social affairs. The `bulldozer' of Zionist politics has now signalled a decisive break with the `Greater Israel' lobby. While announcing his plans to form a new party, Mr. Sharon let it be known that he intends finally to settle his country's borders if returned to power. This is code for a territorial settlement with the Palestinians. Public pronouncements about such a change have been rare, although the withdrawal from the Gaza Strip earlier this year indicated as much. It would be unrealistic to think that the hawk has shed its talons. There is no sign that the unilateralist effort to dictate the terms and extent of any withdrawal from the occupied territory will be abandoned if a Sharon-led formation returns to power. For all that, the parting of ways between centrist Likudniks and the zealots and opportunists in the party is a positive development.

While Mr. Sharon has tried to portray his decision to break with the Likud as one based on principle, raw politics appears to have as much to do with it. The writing was on the wall once the newly installed leader of the Labour Party, Amir Peretz, asked his Ministers to resign from the Sharon cabinet. Likud `rebels', who oppose even the withdrawal from the Gaza Strip and four isolated enclaves in the West Bank, command a majority in the party's central committee. With Mr. Sharon no longer in a position to claim that he was the sole Likudnik who could draw support from other political formations, there was no place for him in the party leadership. Other party heavyweights, such as former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, appear to have realised that they cannot rig up another coalition in the Knesset as it is currently composed. The parties of religious extremists apparently do not have strength sufficient to prop up a government. With Likud and Labour representatives already engaged in talks to settle the date for the next election to the Knesset, Israeli voters might soon have an opportunity to reorient their country's policies. The fervent hope is that they will vote for peace and justice.

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