The Pressure On Sharon

Ariel Sharon sat at the pine dining table in the big kitchen of Sycamore Farm, his sprawling cattle ranch in the Negev Desert, early last week. Dressed in casual khakis and a white shirt with sleeves rolled up, the Israeli Prime Minister dug in to a lunch of roast chicken with a friend who came to visit. The violence of the Aqsa intifadeh had interrupted Sharon's brief vacation, and the conversation turned to the wars that had threatened the country's existence, right back to the 1948 battle to establish the state, when Sharon first saw military action. "This now is a continuation of our War of Independence," he said.

As Sharon surveys the burning Palestinian territories and Israel's simmering border with Lebanon, every conflict looks existential. Sharon had a hand in each of Israel's wars, from the wound he received in the Battle of Latrun in 1948 through his controversial role as Defense Minister during the Lebanon War of 1982. In this decisive chapter of his life, the 73-year-old former general has to prepare for a kind of war and a kind of peace at the same time. The army, the right wing and his own Likud Party all want to hit the Palestinians harder; the few doves in his coalition, led by Foreign Minister Shimon Peres, are desperately trying to steer Sharon away from military action. The Prime Minister himself is performing a balancing act in keeping his "national unity government" together. So far, he has fought hard and yet maintained the contacts that could lead to real negotiations; the combination has earned him a 70% approval rating. Driving it all, people close to him say, is Sharon's appreciation of the enormous challenges facing Israel.

Sharon may be overseeing a far-reaching review of Israel's entire defense policy. Sources close to the top-secret Knesset Subcommittee on Defense Planning and Policy tell TIME that plans are being considered to change Israel's defense structure in response to the intifadeh. One proposal would see the formation of something like a citizens' army--locally based reserve units, manned by townspeople who would quickly counter the threat of Palestinian guerrilla incursions inside Israel. At present, reserve soldiers report to units in bases distant from their homes. In the event of a war, small guerrilla attacks by Palestinians in the center of Israel, where the country is just eight miles wide, could prevent many soldiers from reaching their units for days. As the intifadeh rolls on, the Palestinian fighters who shoot guns and mortars across the Green Line have highlighted this very scenario. Lawmakers on the subcommittee are barred from commenting on the proposed reforms, but its chairman, Yuval Steinitz of the Likud Party, confirms that the intifadeh has forced a rethink. "When we see what the Palestinians have done in the last year, we see that it's an actual threat," says Steinitz. "We have to make preparations that are completely different."