Fri, Feb. 13, 2004
FOCUS
ON ISRAEL
Sharon's way to save himself from scandal?
JERUSALEM -- How many times has it happened to you -- instead of saying No you found yourself saying Yes, and then you were led to do something you really didn't want to do? It happened to me this Wednesday, when instead of declining, I agreed to go to a radio station and talk about a book that one of my friends has just published. The problem was, I didn't like the book. On the other hand, he's a good friend. What could I do?
As I sat there, waiting for the show to begin, agonizing over my awkward situation, it dawned on me: There was one way out -- force majeure. This is something that the insurance companies invented to avoid paying when they should. They define it as ''an event that is unforeseen or, if foreseen, unavoidable.'' Earthquake, world war, lightning, etc. That's what I needed.
Then, just minutes before the show started, the earth shook, glasses rocked on the table, a book fell from the shelf. Earthquake! Evacuate the building!
The show, of course, was canceled. I was off the hook.
Honni soit qui mal y pense (damned be he who thinks evil), but when Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon generated a political earthquake recently, by declaring that Israeli settlers should be evacuated from the Gaza Strip, many here believed that he had pulled this trick to rescue himself from another disaster: a police investigation about his campaign financing and, worse still, an alleged bribery.
The media pundits insinuated that Sharon, great tactician that he is, unleashed the Mother of all Spins by diverting public opinion from his own scandal to the issue of the settlements in Gaza. They even invented a slogan for this move: ``The closer the investigation -- the larger the evacuation.''
Let me hasten to say that I fully support Israel pulling out of Gaza. For years I have advocated such an action, preferably through an agreement with the Palestinians, and, if that were impossible, then unilaterally. But to have Sharon, of all people, come up with this notion, leaves me puzzled. Had a Labor government suggested such a bold move, Sharon would have taken to the city square, given a vehement speech against giving in to pressure and attacked a ''weak'' government that rewarded terrorism. Is this the same Sharon we know?
Patron of settlements
Furthermore, the whole idea of Jewish settlement in Gaza was the brainchild of no other than Sharon himself. He used to take visitors to the area, point to detailed maps and boast about how he planned to slice the Gaza Strip with clusters of Jewish settlements and break the Palestinian continuity -- ''like fingers in dough'' was his lively expression. And now, out of the blue, he makes such a turnabout?
If Sharon created the recent political earthquake only to drive attention away from the police investigation, then he is in for a bitter surprise. When earthquakes subside, and the media cacophony following them dies out, the old problems surface again. Look at me. I thought I was saved from the radio show. I wasn't. Hardly did I get back to my office, when the producer called to reschedule.
Uri Dromi is the director of International Outreach at the Israel Democracy Institute in Jerusalem.