Global Policy Forum

By Joel Greenberg

The top adviser to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said in an interview published Wednesday that Sharon's plan to withdraw from the Gaza Strip is meant to freeze peace efforts and prevent the establishment of a Palestinian state. "The meaning of the disengagement plan is freezing the political process," the adviser, Dov Weisglass, told the Haaretz newspaper. "The plan supplies the amount of formaldehyde necessary so that there will not be a political process with the Palestinians."

The unusually frank comments appeared to be an attempt to appeal to hard-line critics of Sharon's plan. The remarks contradicted Sharon's assurances that Israel remains committed to the U.S.-backed "road map" to peace and its vision of Palestinian statehood, and would be ready to resume peace negotiations once there is a change in the Palestinian leadership. Sharon's office later issued a statement saying the prime minister supports the road map.

However, Weisglass, formerly Sharon's chief of staff and a key architect of the withdrawal plan, told Haaretz that the plan froze the peace effort "in a legitimate way," with the blessing of President Bush, who has backed the initiative. "When you freeze the political process, you prevent the establishment of a Palestinian state and you prevent a discussion of the issues of the [Palestinian] refugees, the borders and Jerusalem," Weisglass added. "Actually this whole package called the Palestinian state has been indefinitely removed from our agenda," Weisglass said. "And all this with authority and permission. All with a presidential blessing and the ratification of both houses of Congress." In Washington, State Department spokesman Adam Ereli said Washington expressed concern to Israeli officials over Weisglass' statements.

The road map, drafted by the United States, the United Nations, the European Union and Russia, outlines steps to resume negotiations leading to a Palestinian state and a final peace agreement. It has stalled amid continuing violence, with neither Israel nor the Palestinians carrying out its provisions. Sharon has said there is no credible Palestinian partner for peace talks and that he must act unilaterally to disengage from the Palestinians, a step he says will improve Israeli security.

His plan calls for a withdrawal next year of all the Israeli settlers and the troops protecting them from the Gaza Strip, and the evacuation of four isolated settlements in the West Bank. Sharon has argued that the plan will enable him to consolidate Israel's hold on large settlements in the West Bank while warding off peace initiatives that could compel Israel to surrender more territory. Weisglass said Bush administration officials support Sharon's plan to keep large West Bank settlements.

"What I effectively agreed to with the Americans was that part of the settlements would not be dealt with at all, and the rest will not be dealt with until the Palestinians turn into Finns," he was quoted as saying. Weisglass said that under Sharon's plan, the majority of Jewish settlers in the West Bank would be allowed to stay. "Out of 240,000 settlers, 190,000 will not be moved from their place," Haaretz quoted him as saying.

Commenting on the interview on Israel Radio, Weisglass said that only part of his remarks appeared in Haaretz, which printed excerpts before publication of the full interview Friday. Weisglass said Israel is still committed to the road map, but the peace effort is being suspended for an interim period until the emergence of a reformed Palestinian leadership that would halt anti-Israeli violence and could serve as a partner for negotiations. "There is no intention, in and of itself, of freezing the political process," Weisglass said. "There is certainly an intention not to pursue a political process with the Palestinian Authority in its situation today . . . with Palestinians who deal in terror."

Critics of Sharon said the newspaper interview unmasked the true intentions behind the Gaza withdrawal plan. "Actually Dov Weisglass is saying that there is no partner for peace in Israel," said Yossi Beilin, head of the leftist Yahad party. Yuli Tamir, a lawmaker from the opposition Labor Party, told Israel Radio: "This government is not interested in a political process, it is not interested in ending the occupation--it wants to tighten the occupation. It wants to get out of Gaza in order to freeze the situation."

The debate over Weisglass' remarks came as Israel pursued its campaign in the northern Gaza Strip against Palestinian militants who have fired rockets into southern Israel. At least 75 Palestinians have been killed in the weeklong offensive, more than a third of them civilians, including women and children. In fighting Wednesday, tanks fired several shells toward the Jabaliya refugee camp, and one hit a house, killing a man, 55, and his son, 25, and wounding eight members of the family, a Palestinian hospital official said. The army said troops fired after an anti-tank shell was launched from the house. Also Wednesday, a 15-year-old boy died after being shot in the head by troops as he stood on the balcony of his home outside Jabaliya, doctors said. In a news conference, members of the Hamas military wing posed with a Qassam rocket and other weapons and dared Israel to move deeper into Jabaliya. "If the Zionist enemy tries to move into the camp, it will sink into the mud of Jabaliya," said a Hamas gunman. Shortly after the news conference, militants fired another rocket from nearby.

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