MIDDLE EAST

The Gamble of a Lifetime

Ariel Sharon is risking it all on his plan to give up the Gaza Strip settlements

By Romesh Ratnesar and Matt Rees

When Israel's Prime Minister Ariel Sharon speaks, you sometimes get the sense that he wishes he were somewhere else—away from the grinding pressures of a job that in recent months has left him vilified by even some of his staunchest supporters in Israel. Yet after more than a half-century as one of the most polarizing figures in the Middle East, Sharon, 77, possesses a near inexhaustible reservoir of stubborn self-belief.

After winning election in 2001, Sharon's first years in office were dominated by the Palestinian intifadeh, which killed 1,058 Israelis. In response, Sharon sent Israeli troops into Palestinian towns and erected a fence along much of the length of the West Bank. Although the terrorist attacks subsided, Sharon rejected the idea of resuming peace talks with Arafat. Instead, he argued, Israel needed to withdraw to a defensible line and wait for a more moderate Palestinian leader to emerge. In the fall of 2003, Deputy Prime Minister Ehud Olmert gave an interview in which he suggested a unilateral withdrawal from much of the occupied territories. Soon after, they met at Sharon's office for Olmert to lay out his plan.

Sharon intends to pull all 8,500 Israeli settlers out of the 17 Gaza Strip settlements, as well as an additional 1,500 from four locations in the northern West Bank. He has insisted repeatedly that Israel will never abandon the large West Bank settlement blocs that the Palestinians most despise. But Sharon's decision to withdraw from Gaza represents a personal acknowledgment that Israel cannot remain in the Palestinian territories indefinitely. Backed by the U.S. as well as a majority of both Israelis and Palestinians, the disengagement plan has stirred hopes for a breakthrough in the moribund peace process—an optimism that gained fresh momentum after the death of Sharon's nemesis, Yasser Arafat, last November.

But progress rarely comes easily in this part of the world. With the evacuation of the settlements set to take place in August, Sharon faces howling doubts—from across Israel's political spectrum—about disengagement and what comes after it. Critics on the left accuse Sharon of giving up Gaza as a ploy to hold on to the larger settlements in the West Bank and put further agreements with the Palestinians on ice. But the strongest condemnations have come from Sharon's former right-wing allies, who view the Prime Minister as a sellout who abandoned his historic support for the settlements. Sharon is the target of assassination threats from Jewish extremists, and some members of his Likud Party privately doubt he will be the party's candidate for Prime Minister in next year's elections.

While preserving the long-term viability of the Jewish state may require giving up some territory, to Sharon it does not mean giving ground. "I was badly injured twice," Sharon recalled. "I lost my friends. I had to make decisions of life and death, for others and myself. I understand the importance of peace better than many of the politicians who speak of peace but never had the experience I had. For me, peace should provide security to the Jewish people and Israeli citizens. If it doesn't provide that, what kind of peace is that?" Sharon is determined never to find out. —from TIME, May 23, 2005

Questions

1. What is Sharon's plan for withdrawal from Palestinian territory?

2. Who is the most critical of Sharon's peace plan?