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Welcome to USAGOLD's "Gilded
Opinion" pages.
We invite you to browse our index
of outstanding gold-based commentary.
(Back to Holger Jensen Index)
While we find Mr. Jensen's columns particularly informative with respect to foreign affairs, his opinions do not necessarily represent those of Centennial Precious Metals, USAGOLD, its management and clientele.
INSIDE FOREIGN AFFAIRS
Sharon's defiance of Bush
is clear -- so is the danger
by Holger Jensen, International Editor
A British Cabinet minister has warned Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon that he is "playing a dangerous game" by defying President Bush's repeated requests to end his West Bank offensive.
Which may explain why Sharon has adopted the dual strategy of withdrawing from two Palestinians cities while pushing deeper into others. So far it has paid off in short-term political gain, but it could cost him in the long term, not only in relations with Israel's chief benefactor but with the Israeli electorate as well.
For now, Israelis, terrorized and outraged by repeated Palestinian suicide bombings, support "Operation Defensive Shield" -- 72 percent in a Jerusalem Post poll and 62 percent in Yedioth Ahronot. Sharon's personal approval rating also has shot up.
This has led two right-wing parties to join his coalition government: the Gesher Party led by former Foreign Minister David Levy and the extremist National Religious Party whose leader, Ephraim Eitam, openly advocates the expulsion of 3.2 million Palestinians.
Their support gives Sharon a majority of 90 seats in the 120-seat Knesset. But, in the words of Israeli political analyst Hanan Crystal, this "wartime luxury" may dissipate once Secretary of State Colin Powell arrives in the region this week.
If Sharon succumbs to diplomatic pressure and enters into peace talks with the Palestinians, the right-wingers could bolt. Already, former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is a strong challenger for leadership of the Likud Party, which opposes Palestinian statehood and advocates ousting Yasser Arafat.
If Sharon rebuffs U.S. peace efforts, Labor could bolt. Its leader, Defense Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer, and former leader, Foreign Minister Shimon Peres, are under pressure from party moderates to quit the "unity government," and Israeli newspapers are already speculating as to who will replace them.
Either way, Sharon has some tough choices to make. And, while a majority of Israelis support his military tactics, they disagree with his long-range vision of continued occupation and settlement building on Palestinian land. The same Yedioth poll that showed a rise in Sharon's popularity indicated that 73 percent of those polled support the establishment of a Palestinian state "if the terrorism will stop."
Sharon is used to playing dangerous games with Washington.
When Bush's father was president, Sharon, then Netanyahu's housing minister, infuriated Secretary of State James Baker with his "Baker Settlements," announcing a new one every time Baker visited the region to try to get Arab-Israeli peace talks under way. This prompted Bush Sr. to withhold $10 billion in U.S. loan guarantees for Israel.
But the suspension was brief, relations improved under President Clinton and, while Secretary of State Madeleine Albright once asked Netanyahu for a "timeout" on settlement building, he ignored her. In fact, the United States has consistently voted against U.N. resolutions condemning Israel's settlement policy, and the Bush administration has done nothing to stop Sharon from building 34 new ones since he took office last year.
However, Bush's call for an immediate withdrawal of Israeli forces from Palestinian cities was unequivocal. He used the word "now" several times and National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice underlined the point that he meant "not tomorrow, not when Secretary Powell gets to the region (Thursday), but now."
Sharon's open defiance and even escalation of the offensive -- underlined by an Israeli Cabinet decision to push ahead even at the risk of angering the Americans -- makes Bush look ineffectual again while undermining Powell's efforts to convince Arab leaders that the United States has adopted a more even-handed approach to the conflict.
The entire Islamic world is in an uproar over U.S. support for what Muslims see as a genocidal Israeli war against the Palestinians. Even Morocco's King Mohammed, who has not allowed an anti-American demonstration in two years, was forced to give in to a million marchers carrying signs reading "Sharon assassin. Bush his dog."
All the region's pro-American rulers feel universally threatened by their anti-American subjects. Unless Bush reins in Sharon, they warn, the "Bulldozer" will succeed where Osama bin Laden failed: forcing us into a war of civilizations against 1.2 billion Muslims.
A dangerous game indeed.
April 9, 2002
Send your questions to international editor Holger Jensen, who will answer one each day. E-mail: hjens@aol.com
Copyright © 2002 The E.W. Scripps Co. All Rights Reserved.
Reprinted by USAGOLD with permission of Mr. Jensen. No further reproduction without permission.
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