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April 30, 2004/Iyar 9 5764, Vol. 56, No. 32
Jerusalem is dancing alone
GARY ROSENBLATT
New York Jewish Week
Ariel Sharon has taken the lead in Mideast maneuverings of late, launching a plan to withdraw Israeli troops and settlers from Gaza and stepping up military efforts to destroy the leadership of Hamas while continuing to construct a security barrier to separate from the Palestinians.
It is understandable that the Jerusalem government has opted for a long-term interim arrangement rather than the sweeping, quick-fix solution that was tried at Camp David almost four years ago. The result then, after Arafat rejected Ehud Barak's overly generous offer, was a suicide war that continues to this day.
But Bill Clinton, the architect of Camp David, thinks it would be a mistake for Israel to hunker down and wait for the Palestinians to come to their senses. Speaking at a Middle East seminar in New York on April 19, sponsored by Tel Aviv University, New York University, Columbia University and the Center for Middle East Peace and Economic Cooperation, the former president said he supported Sharon's plan to disengage from Gaza.
But Clinton cautioned that it would only be successful if it leads to re-engaging the Palestinians and other Arabs in a peace process. Otherwise, he said, Israel will have adopted a position that will guarantee "a long, cold, grim winter of discontent" in which the state "will survive but more of its children will die" in a protracted war of terror.
Expressing sympathy and support for Israel, Clinton asserted - perhaps unfairly - that it is up to the Jewish state to take steps to break the logjam since it is "the main player on stage."
"Israel and the Palestinians are a prime example of the interdependence that embraces us all" after 9/11, Clinton said. "If you live in a world where you can't kill all your adversaries, sooner or later you have to make a deal." That's politics, and reality, he noted, adding that a glass-half-full philosophy can lead to prodding the Palestinians into some kind of partnership, while the glass-half-empty approach brings only continued terror and death.
Clinton insisted that the underlying principle he applied to the Mideast equation during his White House tenure - that the parties need each other - still holds. Even with Israel's unilateral withdrawal from Gaza, Jerusalem "will still be dancing alone," he said, unless it can find a way to provide the Palestinians incentives to make peace. "Plan for the best and guard against the worst," he advised, insisting that come what may, the United States "will be there with Israel, regardless."
Ariel Sharon has taken the matter of Israeli security into his own hands for now, making moves he believes will better protect his people until the Palestinians opt in, if ever. Time is on no one's side in this conflict, though. That's why Sharon appears to be taking Clinton's advice about planning for the best and preparing for the worst.
Gary Rosenblatt is publisher of The New York Jewish Week. The full text of this commentary is at www.thejewishweek.com.
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