Sharon has carefully prepared to the future he has in mind. For weeks now various personalities, including Shimon Peres for reasons of his own and some in the U.S. Government for reasons of their own -- all having little to do with actually helping the Palestinian people whose standard of living and freedoms have streadily shrunk since the Arafat "Authority" was imposed on them -- have attempted to put restraints in Sharon's way. But Sharon's has craftily positioned himself as this article in today's Guardian suggests; and he has done much to provoke the very Palestinian "outrages" ahead that are sooner or later inevitable under the conditions he has brought about.

[The Guardian, Saturday - 7 July] The Israeli Government coalition is in turmoil after a row over the previously unthinkable option of whether to launch a massive military strike to topple the Palestinian leader, Mr Yasser Arafat.

The decision has been put on hold, though the Prime Minister, Mr Ariel Sharon, is said to be in favour if there is further Palestinian "outrage" against Israel, the Hebrew press says.

Two right-wing ministers, pushing for the harder line against Mr Arafat, said they would boycott the Cabinet indefinitely because of its failure to agree to a military strike.

Labour's Foreign Minister, Mr Shimon Peres, detested by the Right for having signed the Oslo peace agreement with Mr Arafat eight years ago, resisted the move to escalate the military campaign.

But the Hebrew daily Ma'ariv said Mr Sharon favoured removing Mr Arafat, and quoted "confidants" of the prime minister as saying the Palestinian leader was more trouble than he was worth for Israel.

It said the confidants predicted a military strike would be launched in the event of another Palestinian outrage, and Mr Sharon had reached "the point of no return".

Questioned at a news conference in Berlin, on the first leg of a two-day trip to Germany and France, Mr Sharon denied the report.

"We don't involve ourselves in the question of who stands at the head of another authority," he said. However, he added that Israel did have a problem with Mr Arafat's pattern of behaviour.

The toppling of Mr Arafat could prove too big a gamble for Israel; the anger of both the Palestinians and the world would be enormous, and the chaos that would follow could benefit Islamic militant groups, such as Hamas.

In radio interviews on Thursday, Mr Peres ridiculed his right-wing colleagues.

"They [the ministers] have proposals, and afterwards air them on the radio, on how the uprising can be ended at the drop of a hat. I have the unpleasant duty to act as a brake."

Two right-wing politicians, the Infrastructure Minister, Mr Avigdor Lieberman, and the Tourism Minister, Mr Rehavam Ze'evi, plan to boycott the cabinet. The Labour and Social Affairs Minister, Mr Shlomo Benizri, was also reported to have pushed for military action, but did not join the boycott.

During Cabinet exchanges, one minister said: "Who could be worse than Arafat?" Mr Peres, who regards excessive military force as counter-productive, retorted: "Hamas."

But even the Defence Minister, Mr Binyamin Ben-Eliezer, Mr Peres's Labour Party colleague, said Mr Arafat had completed his role as a leader of peace.

There were Palestinians who were more pragmatic and with whom it would be possible to continue the peace process. He did not name names.

There is no obvious successor to Mr Arafat; the next leader could be one of his colleagues from his days in exile in Tunis and Beirut or, more likely, one of the younger generation born and brought up on the West Bank and Gaza.

Belgium says it opposes a war crimes investigation against Mr Sharonover his role in the 1982 massacre of Palestinian refugees by a Lebanese Christian militia allied to the Jewish state.

Brussels has been embarrassed by a lawsuit brought in Belgium last month by a group of Palestinian refugees demanding that Mr Sharon be prosecuted for acts of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes, The Daily Telegraph reported.

Mid-East Realities

www.middleeast.org

Source: http://www.middleeast.org/articles/2001/7/269.htm