Two articles about Ariel Sharon by William Safire
--------------------
The 'New' Sharon?

February 8, 2001
NY Times - Essay
By William Safire

WASHINGTON — Strange, how conservative hawks — Churchill, 
de Gaulle, Nixon, now Ariel Sharon — can survive years in 
the political wilderness until warlike circumstances impel 
their nations to turn to them.

 This week's 2-to-1 landslide in Israel was not an election 
that hinged on a sudden popularity of Sharon, or the collapse 
of support for Ehud Barak after Palestinians would not accept 
his virtual surrender at Camp David. This election marked a 
reinvigoration of Zionism. 

 Though many Israelis had flirted with "post-Zionism," 
evidently a strong majority of Jews in Israel awakened to 
realize that a secular triumph at home and a dreamy belief 
in the good will of implacable enemies on their borders 
would lead to the doom of a Jewish state. 

 "We need to raise a Zionist flag," Sharon told me from a 
car phone on the way home after his first day as prime 
minister-elect, "to reinstill national pride, to stimulate 
immigration to Israel. The nation is completely torn and 
has more doubts, and a lack of national pride weakens us. 
I'll put the portfolio of education in Likud hands to give 
our young people the Zionist education we didn't have for 
many years. We must strengthen their roots in our land."

 He had promised, back when he was nobody, to return my 
call the first day he won the top job, and Arik, unlike 
some politicians, is a man of his word. "I'm going to form 
a new economic committee, headed by me, to prepare for a new, 
free economy. I'll propose immediate reduction of taxes, 
like you in America."

 The Knesset is still split to smithereens and the defeated 
Labor party, with Barak suddenly quitting its leadership, is 
in disarray. Can Sharon form a government that will last at 
least until the next parliamentary elections in two years?

 "I will have a national unity government," he says 
confidently. He's been reaching out to his friendly rival 
Shimon Peres, to Labor's Avraham Burg and Haim Ramon. 
"Burg called me today and said they would like to have it." 

 But Arik — if you bring in the left that vilified you as a
warmonger, what about your base on the right that fears you 
may be co-opted by unrealistic peacemongers?

 "I can talk to all of them, the secular and religious, the
Orthodox. I'll make an effort to create a different atmosphere 
with the Arab public." Though he cautions, "Look, it's not 
only hard to get elected, it's also hard to be prime minister," 
he is delighted by the sudden realization of his lifelong dream. 

 Will he enlist former Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu in his
government? Sharon did not sound enthusiastic: "I will 
approach him, of course, but I think that his answer will be 
negative." He thinks that Bibi thinks Sharon's administration 
will fall in a few months, opening the chance for Bibi to run 
for prime minister, with a more stable Knesset. 

 Sharon's assessment of Bibi's view is accurate, which is too 
bad; Bibi, a generation younger than Arik, would be well 
advised to pitch in now, when Israel needs articulate hard-line 
voices, and make his move later. One comeback at a time. Both 
Labor on the left and Shas on the right would lose seats to 
Likud if they forced an early election; that gives Sharon's 
government a strange stability.

 "I have friends who are Palestinians, too, among Arafat's 
closest people." What about the virulent attacks from Arabs 
about his election? "You don't hear those attacks from the 
close-in circle. We have been in communication for weeks."

 Will there be a "new Sharon," as doves hope and realists 
fear? "I learned one thing over many years: to listen to 
people who talk to me, but not to listen to things said about 
me. I have my red lines. Maybe that's why I'll be able to 
conduct negotiations with the Palestinians, because yes is 
yes and no is no, though in other conditions yes might become 
no and no might become yes. 

 "They know I will guard a united and undivided Jerusalem 
and other areas crucial to the security of Israel. They 
understand they can negotiate with me but not as long as 
the terror doesn't stop.
Excuse me, I have a call from the White House coming in. Did 
I tell you Tony Blair called from London, and the prime 
minister of Canada? Reach me at home tonight."

I did; more next time.  

--------------------

Sharon the Unifier

February 12, 2001
ESSAY
By WILLIAM SAFIRE

WASHINGTON

 "The Israeli nation needs unity," said Prime Minister-elect Ariel
Sharon, continuing our phone conversation, "to try to overcome all
the hatred and the unbelievable splits. Arguments have always been
part of political life here, but never as bad as this.

 "It's not only that the parties are splintered between each
other," the last of the warrior-patriarchs went on, "but now they
are splintered from inside. The good thing is that I can talk to
all of them."

 His job is not merely to cobble together a national-unity
government with a majority in the Knesset. (Natan Sharansky as
foreign minister? The slot may not be open.) Sharon's harder task,
after the exposure of the Oslo fraud, is to forge a sense of unity
and purpose among Jewish and Arab Israelis at home and among Israel
supporters abroad.

 The Labor Party, his first choice for coalition partner, is a
prime example of splinter stress. The appeasement scales seem to
have fallen from the eyes of Shimon Peres after last month's public
humiliation by Yasir Arafat at Davos. If the arch-appeaser Yossi
Beilin marches his discredited faction off to the ultra-left,
that's one internal split to be desired. It would permit the
saddened center of Labor to join a government of national realism. 

 Will Sharon, to attract the eyes- opened left, adopt any of the
sweeping concessions made vainly by Ehud Barak, his naïve
predecessor? "The Palestinians know there will not be any
negotiations as long as the terror doesn't stop. They know I'll
prevent entrance of Palestinian refugees, which would be a disaster
to Israel. They know I will guard an undivided Jerusalem, with the
Temple Mount the holiest place of the Jewish people." 

 And yet, Sharon is asking himself: What action can he take to show
the world that he "really, seriously" means to negotiate with the
Palestinians? "We will have to go a different way, with a different
plan, because Barak's plan failed." 

 Anyone who has been schlepped by Sharon around Judea and Samaria
in a helicopter knows that this former general has his specific
plan. 

 For years, on a settlement hilltop, he would hang a map on a fence
and show to visitors (including George W. Bush two years ago) his
concept of a defensible Israel next to a contiguous state including
virtually all the Palestinians on about half the West Bank.
Sharon's potential proposal is not as dreamily self-defeating as
the Clinton- Barak bridge to nowhere, but has this practical
advantage the other never did: Sharon in power can now deliver what
he promises. 

 He is more of a diplomat than his "bulldozer" image suggests.
Since the unity of Jerusalem is central to his Zionist
reaffirmation, did Sharon ask President Bush, in their recent phone
call, about moving the U.S. Embassy there? "It's very important,
but was not suitable in this conversation." 

 He dispatched Avi Posner, Israel's most persuasive multilingual
diplomat, to European leaders; this week, his three wise men (Moshe
Arens, Zalman Shoval, Dore Gold) will arrive in Washington. They
will not be talking just about Palestinian rejectionism; strategy
in the Middle East involves a broad range of mutual interests. 

 For example, in a breakfast talk with Sharon a few days before his
reassertion of sovereignty at the Temple Mount, I asked about Iraq.
"Not a backward people, but an insane country," he remarked. With
plutonium from Russia and uninspected by the U.N., Saddam's
scientists could have a nuclear bomb next year; that would
profoundly affect strategy both in the U.S. and Israel. 

 I suspect former Defense Minister Arens will be discussing global
missile defense this week at the Pentagon. Arafat's intifada may be
a migraine headache but Saddam's bomb would be an existential
threat. Sharon, who speaks fluent Russian, is aware of Iran's tacit
agreement with Russia not to supply Islamic Chechen rebels even as
Vladimir Putin pays off by advancing Iran's nuclear development.
Though Sharon would like to provide the U.S. an economic and
technological bridge to Russia, "Israel will remain Western and
American in orientation. We have to take into consideration
President Bush's policy about Russia." 

 Arik Sharon, the hardliner, has always surprised friends with his
combination of cunning and openness, familial constancy and
political resilience, sense of mission and sense of humor. What
greater surprise than Sharon, the unifier?    
 
Copyright 2001 The New York Times Company