|
by Baruch Kimmerling 
One of Israel's well-known leftist academics, Kimmerling
trains his polemical sights here on Ariel Sharon. Israel's
prime minister, he argues, is pursuing "politicide," which he
defines as activities designed to "destroy the political
national existence of a whole community of people and thus
deny it the possibility of self-determination." This policy,
Kimmerling says, has long been Sharon's goal, whether as a
daring commander in retaliatory raids during the 1950s, in the
1982 Lebanon war or in his policies as prime minister. Sharon,
he argues, is using the latest peace plan-the Bush
administration-backed "road map"-as a pretext: he is counting
on the Palestinians to give him an excuse to further his aims.
The 1967 Six-Day War is the critical moment in Kimmerling's
analysis. Israel's victory in that war gave it control over
the West Bank and emboldened nationalists and messianists to
blind themselves to the Palestinians and their fundamental
rights. As a result, both sides have become locked into
mindsets that preclude a satisfactory peace treaty. These
sections are his most compelling: Kimmerling writes
persuasively and well, although some may wonder why he looks
at Sharon with a much more jaundiced eye than at Yasser
Arafat. But his analysis of Sharon's designs, while plausible,
are less convincing, and his description of Sharon's regime as
"semi-fascist" will antagonize many readers. Given the latest
events surrounding the "road map," only time will tell whether
Kimmerling's doomsday scenario-the destruction of both the
Palestinians and the Israelis-will come true.
|
