Gaza Plan Needs Friends

After wielding a tough political hand for years, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon is blundering from one debacle to another.

It began several weeks ago when the Likud Party unexpectedly rebuffed his call for a unilateral withdrawal from Gaza. Then Sharon sent the Israeli army bulldozing through the Rafah refugee camp, which abuts Egypt. Now Sharon could face a fresh Cabinet defeat for the revised four-stage Gaza pullout he is introducing today.

Sharon may have lost his bearings, but giving up on his Gaza plan would only multiply Israel’s difficulties.

British Prime Minister Tony Blair rightly said Tuesday that it was imperative for Sharon’s disengagement plan to go forward, and President Bush should publicly second the call. Polls show that up to two-thirds of the Israeli electorate recognizes that continuing to build settlements in Gaza is an exercise in futility. Only two days ago, Israeli Vice Premier Ehud Olmert declared that a one-vote majority in favor of the new Gaza plan was emerging. But Likud members have again turned recalcitrant.

Even a staged pullout would be difficult to carry out against the settlers’ will, but if conducted in cooperation with the Palestinian Authority’s Yasser Arafat and Prime Minister Ahmed Korei, it could help prevent the terrorist group Hamas from filling the power vacuum left by a withdrawal.

Bush and Blair must support Egypt’s attempt to negotiate a deal between Sharon and Arafat on a pullout. Egyptian intelligence chief Omar Suleiman met with both men Monday and declared that Egypt was prepared to help ensure security in Gaza. Arafat, in turn, has stated he will produce a Gaza security plan by June 15, though his record hardly induces much optimism about any effort to crack down on violence and corruption. Arafat’s failure has provided Israel with a standing invitation to enter the West Bank and Gaza in the name of crushing terrorist activities.

Israel would be far better off if it relied on an active Egyptian presence in Gaza rather than its own brute force to quash arms smuggling and terrorist attacks. The United Nations says that in the last three years Israel has destroyed well over 1,000 buildings in Rafah, leaving thousands of Palestinians homeless. Far from stopping terrorism, such destruction helps to promote it. The Palestinian Authority has done next to nothing to stop terrorism, but an Egyptian presence in Gaza might help to stem the violence.

If Sharon’s staged pullout plan fails, he can still survive politically by forming a national unity government with Labor. That would provide a firm basis for negotiations that represent the Israeli mainstream, not the fringes that have stymied any progress.

If Israelis and Palestinians can begin to discuss a pullout and security, something will have been salvaged from the senseless destruction and killing in Rafah.