A clandestine undertaking on behalf of Israel, the Jets and the Jews.

 
Sharon and Oslo

In Friday's Jerusalem Post, Yossi Klein Halevi has an excellent column about the irreversible damages the Oslo process caused to Israel. In Halevi's analysis, Prime Minister's Sharon's willingness to make "painful concessions" represents not so much an ideological shift, but a sober understanding that Israel cannot get out of the mess caused by Oslo, which granted international legitimacy to the notion that terrorist thugs must be given a state.

As Halevi concludes:

"What about Sharon? Hasn't he validated Oslo? The other week I covered the Likud's central committee meeting in Jerusalem, where outraged Likudniks heckled the prime minister while others sang, 'Arik, King of Israel.' I watched Sharon as he read his prepared speech reiterating the need for 'painful concessions,' oblivious to the jeers and cheers that have accompanied his entire career.

"What, I wondered, was he thinking?

"Perhaps something like this: For the past 50 years I've been trying to bail out the people of Israel. Sometimes I got carried away, and you never forgave me for my excesses. But whenever you got into really serious trouble - whether overwhelmed by terrorism in the 1950s or by invading armies in 1973 - I'm the one you called on to save you. Now, in my old age, you've turned to me to rescue you from the worst mess you've ever gotten yourselves into, a disaster I warned you for decades to avoid.

"I'm trying my best, but this time you've really done it. There's only so much room you've left me to maneuver in. And no one in my place would do any better.

"And so, one last tragedy of Oslo: that even Ariel Sharon can't save us from its curse."
posted on 6/19/2003