Prime Minister Ariel Sharon wants to advance the election so he can return to power and decide where Israel's final borders are going to be, his advisers told The Jerusalem Post on Tuesday.
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon on the job.
Photo: GPO [file]
They said that although Sharon was currently saying that, after disengagement, the internationally brokered road map was the only diplomatic plan on the table, he had not ruled out a unilateral withdrawal from the West Bank in the long run.
"There is no doubt that Sharon wants to draw the borders," one adviser said. "Sharon thinks that only he can do it because he knows the land and this is his historic mission. He looks around and sees no other potential Israeli leader who can do it. It will be difficult, but it's what the nation wants and it's what the world wants."
Another adviser said that if the Palestinian Authority does not fulfill the road map and all diplomatic talks on a bilateral agreement with the PA fail, "he is not ruling out deciding the borders in the future without the Palestinians."
Sharon's spokesman Assaf Shariv said in response that "the only diplomatic plan for drawing Israel's final border is the road map, under which the border issue will be considered only if the Palestinian Authority keeps its commitments and the third stage of the plan is reached. Sharon has said that there will not be more unilateral withdrawals."
Shariv also denied a Channel 1 report that Sharon has already decided to leave the Likud and form a new party. According to the report, the party will adopt the name Ein Li Eretz Aheret (I have no other land), from a popular Ehud Manor song, and several Likud ministers and former Shin Bet chief Avi Dichter will join its ranks.
* Readers' talkbacks appear at the end of the article
"Does anyone really believe that Sharon would adopt a song that was written about the Lebanon War or that he would form a party that has the same initials as a fictitious non-profit organization that was investigated called Citizens for Ehud Barak?" a Sharon adviser said.
But Sharon's advisers confirmed that after eight Likud MKs defeated the ministerial appointments of Roni Bar-On and Ze'ev Boim, the prime minister is seriously considering forming a new party. Sharon's son, MK Omri Sharon, who was always the adviser most in favor of remaining in the Likud, has reportedly joined the advisers recommending that his father jump ship.
"The prime minister would be happy to run in the Likud, but the faction has lost its mind," a Sharon associate said. "The vote was another step on the way to the breakup of the Likud, which has become like the house of a couple who are living in separate rooms but haven't yet finalized their divorce."
Sharon's associates said that if Shimon Peres is reelected Labor Party chairman, Sharon can reach an agreement with Labor and Shas on a date for the election some time in May. That would allow all three parties to prepare for the election.
If such a deal was not reached, Sharon's associates speculated that the best time for him to initiate an early election would be immediately after the final passage of the 2006 state budget some time in December. They said that the ideal situation for Sharon would be if the budget passed without the support of Binyamin Netanyahu and the Likud rebels, so he could pin the blame for the government falling on them.
Netanyahu's spokesman responded that "he won't fall into Sharon's trap by opposing the budget." He said that he would support the budget as long as Finance Minister Ehud Olmert does not break the budget framework.
Rebel leader Uzi Landau said he had three conditions for supporting the budget: added funding for building in Judea and Samaria, additional support for Gaza Strip evacuees and help for the poor. Landau said the rebels would raise their demands in negotiations with Olmert.
Sharon's associates called the rebels "stupid" for "playing into Sharon's hands."
Send us your comments >>
Johanes Franzen, Stockholm, Sweden: "An end to the occupation that started in 1967", that is what the Road Map states and adds the UNSCR 242 to it, a resolution that clearly states: "Emphasizing the inadmissibility of the acquisition of territory by war". Does anybody in Israel, let alone in the entire world, think that this is Sharon's plan for the future? The "seven enclaves", with travel restrictions, is rather the disasterous vision and that one will be implemented unilaterally, thus giving and not getting anything in return but certain pain for future Israeli generations.
SusZanne Ellison, USA: I want to add my exhortation to the people of Israel to accept nothing less than the land clearly given to the people of Israel according to the Word of God, the Bible. Though I am not Jewish and a Christian believer and follower of Jesus Christ I want to add my support and prayers for the Peace of Jerusalem and all those of Jewish faith and heritage, and clearly Jersualem belongs to the Jews according to God's word and the boundaries established therein. Let no man or leader compromise that, please! Forgive those in America who pressure such a thing.
Shnayer Lewis, Havre de Grace, MD USA: The clear fallacy in Sharon's thinking, and the clarity of reasoning of the Arabs mesh totally. Our claim to any part of the land is based on the Bible, the "bris"- contractual obligation- between the Jewish people and G-d.
