Barak's last trump
By Ariel Sharon

(September 22) - In the Sidney Olympics, world records
are being broken in virtually every branch of sport. At
home, Prime Minister Ehud Barak is busy breaking new
records with his concessions on Jerusalem, with breaking
his promises to his electors, and with his marathon to
achieve an agreement at almost any price before US
President Clinton steps down. 

Barak is declaring all understandings reached at Camp
David null and void, while simultaneously, the US
Ambassador to Israel, Martin Indyk, has stated "there is
no other solution but to share the Holy City." 

Barak's envoys are feverishly discussing "creative
solutions on the Temple Mount" in an attempt to get the
negotiations going again. 

"Israel," say the prime minister's sources, "is positively
considering" the latest American proposal to transfer
sovereignty of the Temple Mount to the UN Security
Council, with responsibility for maintaining order being
entrusted to soldiers from those countries on the council. 

Barak, of course, denies this. 

Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat is sure that
in the process Barak will be pressured, and agree to
further concessions before the new target date - the
dissolution of the US Congress in October. 

It is obvious that Palestinians refuse to recognize the
legitimacy of Jewish historical claims and rights to the
State of Israel, with regard to Jerusalem and the Temple
Mount. 

Barak, however, has already hastily recognized
Palestinian claims. 

Among the "creative solutions" stands out the
Palestinian-backed attempt to revive, by degrees, UN
Resolution 181: the partition plan of November 29,
1947, the internationalization of Jerusalem. 

Barak, according to his confidants, is "positively
considering the American proposal." 

Arafat is prepared only for "Islamic internationalization"
of the Temple Mount, under the control of the Supreme
Jerusalem Committee (a.k.a. Palestinian sovereignty). 

Barak's latest concessions regarding the Temple Mount
lead to implicit agreement with UN Resolution 181: the
partition plan. This decision is null and void from every
aspect: It was rejected by the Arabs in 1947 when Israel
agreed to it. Instead, the Arab countries invaded Israel in
1948. All Israeli governments have rejected it out of hand. 

There is no legal international basis for the peace
agreements associated with the Madrid Conference of
1991. The sole valid decisions which form a basis for the
entire peace process are UN Security Council
Resolutions 242 and 338. 

Acceptance of clauses in UN Resolution 181 would
represent a dangerous precedent, leading to demands for
additional concessions with which Israel cannot comply. 

In my conversation with Barak when he was at the
Millennium Summit, I warned Barak that he was about to
make historical mistakes that the Jewish people would
neither accept nor forgive. 

I told him that he could still extricate himself from this
trap. 

I am now afraid that in his efforts to achieve an
agreement, he is ready to stake everything on his last
trump: recognition of a Palestinian state without receiving
Palestinian agreement to end the conflict, after having
relinquished most of Israel's strategic and historical
assets. 

The Americans are hurriedly composing a document to
include all agreements and understandings achieved at
Camp David, and all issues still in dispute. 

This is in order to cash in all the IOUs Barak has already
signed. After Barak gave up the Jordan Valley and the
security zones; he agreed to return more than 90% of
Judea and Samaria; he agreed to uproot settlements, and
to the return of Palestinian refugees to the region. 

A leader must be capable of making a historical
distinction between compromise proposals which the
Jewish people and the State of Israel can tolerate, and
"creative" proposals that David Ben-Gurion in his time,
and all subsequent prime ministers, threw into the
garbage can of history. 

I have already warned many times that all these
"creative" proposals will result in the partition of
Jerusalem, in its division into ghettos, and in constant
friction between Jewish neighborhoods under Israeli rule,
and Arab neighborhoods under Palestinian rule. 

There are moreover no guarantees of law enforcement,
preservation of security, protection of traffic routes, and
prevention of potential confrontation. 

We have already learned from history the lessons of
Belfast, Beirut, and Berlin. We must not repeat them. 

A unified Jerusalem under Israeli sovereignty will be safer
and more stable than any "creative solution" of partition.
Consequently, the sole "creative" solution to the trap of
Jerusalem and the Temple Mount is early elections and
the creation of a government that will act in order to
bring real peace for generations. 

The head of our present government has already raised
his hand against the holy places of Israel. Lasting peace
with a united Jerusalem, and the Temple Mount forever
in our possession is in our hands. 

The writer is chairman of the Likud.