Volume 49, Number 9 · May 23, 2002
No Exit
By Amos Elon
For all his destructiveness, Ariel Sharon has been losing his war but Yasser Arafat is not winning his either. The increasingly aggressive rhetoric of both men—notwithstanding Arafat's intermittent condemnations of violence—suggests that they must be aware of this. From his first day in office, Sharon's strategy has been to scuttle the Oslo agreement and confine Palestinian autonomy to a few isolated enclaves—surrounded by armed Israeli encampments—on about 50 (some say 30) percent of the occupied West Bank, or perhaps only in the Gaza Strip. Both sides have explicitly withdrawn the possible concessions they discussed at Taba in Egypt in January 2001 on borders, refugees, and Jerusalem; such concessions had in any case been strictly 'informal' and subject to further approval, which became impossible after Sharon took office.
Feature, 5609 words
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