Thank
You, Dubby
By Uri Avnery
18 October, 2004
Gush Shalom
What
really is important is not what he said or why he said it, but the world-view
that animates him.
By now, everybody
has had a go at analyzing the interview with Dov (Dubby)
Weisglass, Ariel Sharons most intimate confidant. But there is
precious little to analyze. His statement is crystal clear: the redeployment
plan was designed to freeze the peace process for
decades, to put all peace plans in formaldehyde, to put
an end to the possibility of a Palestinian state, once and for all.
A dozen small settlements
will be dismantled in order to keep practically all the 250,000 West
Bank settlers where they are. Israel will concede the Gaza
Strip, which constitutes 1.3% of pre-1948 Palestine, in order to take
permanent possession of the West Bank, which is 16 times larger. The
Gaza Strip will be cut off from the world on land, by sea and in the
air, as will the seven or eight similar Palestinian enclaves that will
come into being on the West Bank.
Why did Dubby
disclose this plan? After all, the disclosure was like spitting in the
face of the Labor Party, exactly when Sharon needed them most!
The answer is simple:
Sharon wants to convince the right and has only contempt for the left.
13 out of the 40 members of his Likud faction in the Knesset abstained
from voting for him this week, although the vote was about nothing more
then a resolution to take notice of an unimportant speech
of his. Sharon wants to explain to the extreme right wing of his own
party that disengagement is a war-plan rather than a peace-plan,
a plan to annex territories rather than a plan to give up
territories, a plan for the rapid expansion of the West Bank settlements
rather than a plan to dismantle the settlements in the Gaza Strip.
Sharon cannot say
so openly without making a fool of George W. Bush. Thats why he
sent his trusted lieutenant to say it instead of him. The settlers know,
of course, that Dubby is His Masters Voice.
Sharon can afford
to treat the left with disdain. Witness the farce with Shimon
Peres: he analyzed Weisglass statement in an uncompromising Knesset
speech and condemned Sharon acidly. Immediately afterwards he assembled
the Labor Knesset faction and asked them not to vote against Sharon.
But the Members were so convinced by his speech that they overruled
him, 10 to 9. I was too successful, Peres complained.
Thereafter, the
two leftist parties, Labor and Yakhad (formerly Meretz)
announced that they were going to vote for the disengagement plan when
Sharon submits it to the Knesset. No disclosures will cause them to
desist. Sharon knew that he could rely on their feebleness, and how
right he is.
Only Weisglass
himself may pay a price. It is difficult to believe that the beautiful
friendship between Dubby and Condy, between Weis and Rice, will hold
after Weisglass practically undressed her in public.
But that is not
what is really important. After all, Weisglass did not reveal anything
new to those who know Sharons intentions. And whoever wants to
deceive himself will continue to do so.
What is really
important is the Weltanschauung, the world-view of Sharon as it emerges
from Weisglass long interview. When he exposes Sharons ways
of thinking, this sheds light on the basic beliefs and perceptions of
his master.
Sharons world
is one-dimensional, as limited as the flat world before Galileo.
A world where brute
force, and only brute force, reigns supreme.
This is a world
where there are no past and no future, no lessons of history and no
foreseeing of things to come. Whatever exists now will exist forever.
This is a world
without moral constraints, where the opinions of mankind do not count.
The world of Stalin, who once asked contemptuously: How many divisions
has the pope?
His world looks
like this:
The only thing
that counts is the interest of Israel and the Jewish people (as seen
by Sharon).
Their interest
is to take possession of all of the territory between the Mediterranean
and the Jordan (at least).
The Palestinians
are powerless. Hence, they are nothing more than an object to be kicked
around as much as one pleases.
Europe is a pathetic
lot. To hell with Europe.
There is only one
real power in the world: The United States. They are the world
management.
All the power of
the US is concentrated in the White House. The President and a handful
of other people are the managers.
Thats how
it is now, and thats how it is going stay in future.
Therefore, all
we need is to maintain the power of the Israeli army and the alliance
with the White House. All the rest is nonsense, fantasies of eggheads.
The Israeli army
and the White House that is the winning combination. With it
we shall take complete possession of the whole country. There is no
need for a peace process, indeed, there is no need for peace. The Palestinians
are a negligible factor. Let them vegetate for the time being in their
ghettos. In due course, they will disappear from the country.
This is, in free
translation, the world of Sharon according to Weisglass.
On the face of
it, a realistic picture. Sharons thoughts are primitive, and perhaps
because of this, one might believe, he sees things as they really are.
Really? Is this
in truth the real picture? History shows that brute military power is
a blunt instrument that cannot solves complex problems. A leader who
puts his sole trust in it will discover that it is a broken reed which
wounds the hand that grasps it.
What Thomas Jefferson
wrote in the American Declaration of Independence about a decent
respect for the opinions of mankind, was not just an empty phrase.
It was a realistic appraisal: world public opinion influences in a thousand
ways the behavior of nations and governments. It can have far-reaching
effects. The pen is mightier than the sword, according to
a British poet. And the pope does indeed have divisions, even it they
dont march on the parade ground.
Military might
is but one of the forces active in the world. Economic forces do not
have a smaller impact; as a matter of fact, their impact may be much
bigger in the long run. Moral forces are invisible, but their impact
is immense. One of the greatest military leaders in history, Napoleon,
was well aware of this.
The human craving
for freedom is invincible, and so is the struggle of oppressed nations
for liberation. To ignore this is not realism, it is blindness.
Even George W.
Bush, himself no less primitive and brutal than Sharon, is learning
that the world management is subject to severe limitations,
as he slowly sinks into the morass of Iraq. The belief that Israels
problems can be solved solely by an alliance with the world managers
is an illusion.
The world is not
one-dimensional, even though one country has attained an impressive
military superiority. The world is a very complicated place; numberless
forces are at work, nothing stays in one place. Everything is
in flux, as the ancient Greek philosopher said.
One is tempted
to paraphrase Hamlet: There are more things in heaven and earth,
Arik, then are dreamt of in your philosophy.
The world-view
of Sharon, which at first appears so realistic, is the very opposite
of realism. It is a view that will lead us to disaster.
And to Dubby, who
disclosed it, whatever his motives, many thanks.