Ariel Sharon yesterday virtually ruled out the creation of a Palestinian state under his hawkish new government just a day after President Bush pledged to broker a peace deal once he has dealt with Iraq.
Hours before his cabinet was sworn in, the prime minister revealed to the knesset that he has backed away from his commitment to the Palestinian state envisioned by Washington’s ”road map” for a settlement, as part of the deal to put together his government.
Sharon told the knesset that the road map is ”a matter of controversy in the coalition” and had been dropped from the written agreement which drew far right, pro-settler and anti-religious parties into the administration.
The prime minister will also have frustrated his American friends by promising to expand Jewish settlements in the occupied territories.
A Palestinian cabinet minister, Saeb Erekat, said Sharon’s speech killed any prospect of a peace process under the new government.
”He is saying there is no road map, no peace process. It’s a government for the settlers, from the settlers and by the settlers,” he said. ”I think Sharon made it clear tonight that he wants the Palestinians to surrender to him. I hope President Bush will see the light.”
The leader of the Labour opposition, Amram Mitzna, told the knesset that the composition of the government meant there is little chance of a breakthrough toward a settlement with the Palestinians.
Foreign diplomats in Israel were no less pessimistic.One source said: ”Everything has been invested in keeping the road map alive and Sharon pledged his support for it even if he wasn’t particularly sincere. That illusion is crumbling away even though I suppose he will continue paying lip service to it for the sake of relations with the US. The best hope is that this government will not survive for long.”
Although Sharon would clearly have preferred to avoid undermining Bush, he appears to believe he had little choice if he was to put together a coalition.
Sharon indicated that talks might still take place with the Palestinians once a series of conditions have been met, including removing Yasser Arafat from power. However, he revealed that any agreements will be hostage to a vote by a cabinet whose ministers come from parties hostile to a Palestinian state and some of whom advocate ethnic cleansing of Palestinians.
The prime minister repeated his mantra that he is ready to make ”painful compromises” for peace. ”We will always live alongside each other. The conflict hurts us all, and I intend to open a new chapter of Israeli relations with its Arab citizens,” he said.
But the speech made clear that he has paid a higher price than was previously known for the support of the far right National Union, which advocates the ”transfer” of Palestinians from the West Bank, and the pro-settler National Religious Party.
But it is now clear that the prime minister brought the NRP into the government with a commitment to continue expanding Jewish settlements in the occupied territories, even though they are seen the single largest obstacle to a settlement with the Palestinians.
The coalition agreement commits the government to the continued ”development of existing Jewish settlements” in the occupied territories in place of Sharon’s more circumscribed pledge to permit only ”natural growth”.
Ultra-orthodox knesset members shouted down Sharon when he hinted that he would scrap the exemption from military service for ultra-religious men and promised to end the effective ban on inter-religious marriage.
”I don’t think any state in particularly a Jewish state can accept a situation when some of its citizens are unable to get married in their country,” Sharon said.
Hours earlier, Benjamin Netanyahu reversed his refusal of the finance portfolio the day after he was sacked as foreign minister. He finally agreed after Sharon agreed to give him a free hand on key economic issues dear to Netanyahu, particularly privatisation and other Thatcherite policies. – Guardian Unlimited Â