West of Eden: R.I.P. ex-king of Israel

Ariel Sharon, as depicted in Ari Folman's 2008 Waltz with Bashir. Image via Haaretz.

Larry Derfner at +972, normally a really valuable and informative writer, eulogizes Ariel Sharon for the almost last act of his long and evil life, the 2005 disengagement from Gaza:

"For all of Gaza’s horrible problems, it does not have Israeli soldiers and settlers on its land anymore. For Israel, it showed that the settler movement could be defeated, that settlements could be evacuated and occupied land relinquished, and the world wouldn’t end. If Israel ever does take down the occupation and make peace with the Palestinians, the disengagement from Gaza will stand as a crucial stepping stone on the way."

I'm not buying that. What the Gaza disengagement demonstrated to conventional opinion in Israel and around with world was that there was no point in negotiating with [jump]
Palestinians: that's why they always emphasize that it was "unilateral": it set the precedent for Israeli governments refusing to engage, continuing to treat Arabs as irresponsible children, and acting defiantly on their own.

Meanwhile Gaza continues to be a prison camp, except that the guards have moved to the border, leaving the territory in the hands of the Hamas party and inflicting a possibly mortal wound on secular Palestinian politics. Gazans are unable to build a house or export a tomato without Israeli permission. It's true that 7000 Israeli settlers were evicted, but that's while half a million remain in the still occupied territories, and more every day.

I'm not saying that's how Sharon intended it*, but that's how it always is with Sharon: the most logical explanation is too ugly to contemplate. Did he really mean to start the Second Intifada with his march up the Haram al-Sharif so he could frighten the Israeli public (always with a boner for a big-ass bully) into making him prime minister? Did he really vacate the Israeli settlers from Gaza to teach the international community the lesson that Israel couldn't give up occupied territory? Who knows?

He was a bad man, a hater of democracy (remember the thug supporters chanting "Arik, King of Israel"?), and a prime architect of Israel's move from socialism to rampant social inequality. At least he always showed more courage and intelligence than his sometimes ally and permanent rival Binyamin Netanyahu has ever displayed. Netanyahu or his henchmen surfaced on New Year's Day with a novel twist on his technique of wrecking US-led negotiations by announcing new settlement construction plans: instead of making the announcement, the government announced that they would postpone the announcement as long as John Kerry was in the region:

“We will respect John Kerry and not act to spite him,” the Israeli official said, adding that there was an understanding between the office of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the Housing Ministry that no bids would be published until Mr. Kerry had gone.

Right: "We're totally going to make this announcement that always torpedos the talks, but we promise not to make it just now." Thus torpedoing the talks as usual, but in a way that appears to be sticking to the rules, after the fashion of a naughty eight-year-old. "What do you mean, you're always yelling at me for announcing it, so I'm not announcing it." There are some signs, even from within his grotesque coalition, that he might not get away with this—

These projects send  “a message from Netanyahu to Kerry not to come back to the region to continue his efforts,” chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat reportedly told Agence France-Presse. Israeli politicians also criticized the move. Opposition leader Isaac Herzog said this harms the negotiations, while Finance Minister Yair Lapid, a member of Netanyahu’s cabinet, called the plans “a bad idea” and vowed to prevent them from going through

—but I don't think you want to put any money on it. I'm honestly moved by Kerry's continued hope and the energy he's been putting into this thing (impressed, too, by the quality of his work on Iran and Syria), but he's fighting zombies here. And the real lesson we learn from Sharon is that their being dead just doesn't make them any easier to work with.

*The esteemed Oui, in comments at the Frogpond, suggests the Gaza pullout was the fruit of a deal with G.W. Bush: IDF and the settlers would leave the tiny strip in return for a kind of permanent immunity in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

From Didi Lubetzky's Poisoned, 2011, via Mansplat:
“What makes this night different from all nights? On this night, the army really marches on its stomach! Passover at the base can be a real blow. Especially if you are a custodian stuck with a psychopathic commander, your high school crush has suddenly arrived, and all the soldiers have become flesh-eating zombies. But whose not used to suffering at the Seder?”