The reason for Disengagement: Sharon wished to avoid jail

The answer is that it had nothing to do with peace or war.

By YITZHAK HEIMOWITZ
PRIME MINISTER Ariel Sharon in 2006. (photo credit: FLASH90)
PRIME MINISTER Ariel Sharon in 2006.
(photo credit: FLASH90)
The anniversary of the Disengagement from Gaza has just passed (Jerusalem Post Magazine, July 31, by Michael Freund). With the advantage of hindsight, how could Ariel Sharon’s vaunted military mind be so mistaken as to believe that it would bring peace closer when Hamas has bombarded Israel with thousands of missiles and several extended military actions in Gaza, with many dead soldiers from each one.
The answer is that it had nothing to do with peace or war. It was done because Sharon did not want to go to jail.
Ehud Olmert said that after Sharon had his first stroke (and Olmert was acting prime minister), he informed Sharon that he was leaving for the United States and wanted to present to the Americans a plan for a further disengagement from numerous additional settlements on the West Bank, as a further step toward peace. He said that Sharon agreed.
Luckily, the Arabs made clear that they did not agree to a negotiated peace, but insisted on getting back every inch of territory they lost in the Six Day War plus half of Jerusalem, and for Israel to accept millions of Arab “refugees.” These have always been their conditions and they still are.
So why did Sharon push so hard? What was his real reason? He wanted to stay out of jail. The legal authorities were working on charges against him and his sons of corruption regarding real estate abroad. The proof that this was a real danger was that one of his sons was convicted and sat in jail. Unfortunately it is no longer a surprise that a prime minister can sit in jail. So can a president. This may be becoming the rule rather than the exception.
Sharon looked back at precedents and saw that when a leader tried to put through a left-wing policy, he got total support from the press and media. He needed to do the most left-wing thing he could, so he decided to give the Arabs a large tract of land improved by a double-digit number of settlements and to drive out more than 8,000 Israeli men, women and children from their homes and agriculture. He asked nothing from the Arabs in return. It was to be a free gift to them. This was the disengagement.
As long as Sharon pushed for it he had the full support of the Israeli left-wing media, which means virtually the entire Israel media. As the famous journalist Amnon Abramovitch put it, the media wrapped Sharon in cotton wool, the way we protect an etrog during Sukkot, as long as he pushed for the Disengagement until he forced it down the throats of the Israeli public.
Many of those forced out of their homes in those 21 settlements are still homeless refugees in their own country. Negev towns are in constant danger of rockets, but Ariel Sharon stayed out of jail.
The writer is a retired Tel Aviv lawyer.


Related Tags
Ehud Olmert
disengagement