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Jerusalem is ours, and ours only, says Sharon
©Washington Post © St. Petersburg Times, published February 8, 2001 JERUSALEM -- A day after his crushing electoral victory, Prime Minister-elect Ariel Sharon donned a black velvet skullcap, murmurred a prayer before the hulking, ancient stones of Jerusalem's Western Wall and sent an unmistakeable signal that on his watch there will be no more offers of Jewish concessions to the Palestinians on control of the contested city. "I am visiting Jerusalem, the capital of the Jewish people for the past 3,000 years and the united and indivisible capital of Israel -- with the Temple Mount at its center -- for all eternity," Sharon told reporters at the Wall. With that, Sharon served notice that the offer by his defeated opponent, outgoing Prime Minister Ehud Barak, to share sovereignty over the sacred city with Yasser Arafat's Palestinian Authority is henceforth null and void. In symbols and words, Sharon, who trounced Barak by 62.5 percent to 37.4 in Tuesday's election, spent much of his first day as leader-in-waiting spreading the news that the end has come for the search launched seven years ago in Oslo for a comprehensive peace to end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. He was decidedly less clear about what will take its place. Even as Sharon's aides released a letter from Arafat congratulating him on his triumph and expressing hope the sides will "continue to build a peace of the brave," they reiterated his message that the Palestinians can forget about negotiations until the 4-month-old revolt against Israel's occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip ceases. And they made clear that even when talks do resume, there will be no attempt to reach a comprehensive peace along the lines Barak had in mind. Instead, Sharon is expected to propose a more modest interim deal, trading some small amount of land or economic measures for Palestinian non-belligerency. "Oslo as we know it is over," said Yossi Alpher, an Israeli strategic analyst. "Something in the spirit of Oslo on an interim level is what Sharon has in mind . . . but based on conditions I think Arafat will find unacceptable." "The mandate he got from Israeli voters in an overwhelming way is to take a different approach," said Raanan Gissin, Sharon's spokesman. "The Israeli people are fed up with being suckers." As for the territorial concessions in the West Bank and Jerusalem offered by Barak to Arafat last summer in Camp David, Md., in negotiations brokered by former President Bill Clinton, Gissin added: "Everything in Camp David is null and void unless it was signed, and nothing was signed." Gissin also spoke in general terms about a need to take more effective military steps to put down the Palestinian uprising. "If hostilities continue, you have to take certain measures that'd take the enemy off balance," he said. "It's like pacification in Vietnam. You must separate civilian and terrorist populations." As Sharon and his aides laid out their stands, the Palestinian Authority, Arafat's government in land handed over since the Oslo agreements, issued a statement declaring the election "an internal Israeli matter" and called on the new government to resume negotiations. But elsewhere, Sharon's tough talk was met with talk at least as tough. Fatah, Arafat's political movement within the Palestine Liberation Organization, issued a statement pledging to intensify the revolt against Israel's occupation of Palestinian land in response to the election of a man it called "the butcher Sharon." "If Israelis think that Sharon will make security for them, we say loudly that Israel will never have security at all," the statement said. Jibril al-Rajoub, the Palestinian security chief in the West Bank, amplified the message. Sharon "and his policies and the statements he has made that he wants to dictate peace and dictate terms on the Palestinian people and the Arab world is craziness that will drag us into bloodshed," Rajoub said, speaking to Israel Radio. Looking abroad, however, Sharon tried to send soothing signals. He was reported ready to send three of his Likud Party's top foreign policy hands to Washington next week to ensure smooth relations with the Bush administration. The three -- Moshe Arens, a former defense minister; Zalman Shoval, former ambassador to the United States; and Dore Gold, former ambassador to the United Nations -- were expected to discuss the Palestinian problem, but not at the exclusion of other issues. Mindful that the Bush administration is seeking to lower the level of its engagement as a mediator between Israel and the Palestinians, Sharon has instructed his envoys to raise with Washington the threat of missile proliferation in Iran and Iraq and Russian transfers of military technology to Iran. Sharon is also sending envoys to Europe, where the Palestinians enjoy public sympathy and the incoming Israeli leader is regarded in some capitals with suspicion bordering on dread. "There's no doubt there's an image problem (for Sharon) in the West," said Gissin. "He's a big target. . . . When it comes to policy, he ignores image." Sharon's closest advisers also tried to calm Israelis about the new leader's intentions. Hours after his victory became apparent Tuesday night, his son Omri assured Israeli television viewers that it would be a kinder and gentler Sharon who would lead Israel. "I think when Ariel Sharon speaks it will be a soothing message, and I think many people still do not appreciate just how soothing it will be," said Omri Sharon. Nonetheless, the shape of Sharon's government, policies and possibly even his political survival remained an open question. He has until March 30 to form a government and until March 31 to get a budget passed. His chances of success hinge largely on the question of whether he will be able to make good on his repeated pledge to forge an alliance with Barak's left-leaning Labor Party.
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