Sharon hits deadly

Before departing for the USA on April 13, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon made public his plan of separating Israel from Palestine.
Ariel Sharon made a statement that Israel will preserve the 6 big enclaves on the Western bank of the Jordan river (in Judea and Samaria) in exchange of withdrawing its troops and dismantling Israeli settlements in Gaza.

Mignews reported that Prime Minister Sharon called his plan “deadly blow” for Palestinians because they would face the challenge of fighting terrorists after the plan implementation. “When they see that their dreams will never come true, they will probably be forced to fight terrorism”, said the Prime Minister.

Palestinians immediately demonstrated their reaction to Sharon’s statement. Saib Erikat, Palestinian Minister in charge of negotiations with Israel, said that Sharon’s plan “is destroying” the process of settling the conflict in Israel. Saib Erikat said that “if Israel tries to annex a part of Judea and Samaria, there will never be peace in the Middle East”.

Meanwhile, in Israel itself, there is a big opposition to the plans of dismantling the settlements in Gaza. If Sharon’s plan is not supported by Likud party referendum on April 29, Ariel Sharon may be requested to resign.

For this reason the support of President Bush is extremely important for Prime Minister Sharon. To secure this support, he went to the USA. The Head of Israeli government can receive Washington’s approval for dismantling Israeli settlements in Gaza. On April 12 George Bush said at the meeting with Egyptian President Mubarak that “Israel’s withdrawal from Gaza will contribute to the positive outcome of the situation”.

According to the experts, Sharon’s plan of preserving the settlements in Samaria and Judea can be questioned. If Washington supports these plans, it will be the violation of the “Road Map” plan, its point on having negotiations for marking the borders between Israel and Palestine in particular. Currently there are neither negotiations nor the signs that they can be ever conducted.

Ariel Sharon has a chance to receive US support for his plans of preserving the Israeli enclaves in Judea and Samaria. The officials can express concerns on violating the “Road Map” peace plan. However, this plan was violated so many times that it can be completely abandoned. Otherwise, Ariel Sharon would not promote his idea of separating Israel from Palestine so persistently.