Maof

At first, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon was wary about his political opposition's idea of a security fence separating Israelis from Palestinian suicide bombers. "Not a magical solution," he told me when doves pushed a plan to create a border along the indefensible 1967 borders, freezing out all Israeli villages in the West Bank, including Jerusalem suburbs.
Since then, the idea of a wire fence with sensors and video cameras, making it possible to control entry into Israel, has been refined to encompass most of the close-in Israeli settlements. Now the fence, one-fourth completed, provides what Sharon sees as not only more security for all Israelis but also as an incentive to Palestinians to make peace.
"Tens of thousands of Arabs had been infiltrating illegally into Israel," he told me after his meeting with President Bush this week. "A minority are involved in terror. That's a dangerous development and has to be stopped."
Beyond the physical barrier is the chance to change the diplomatic dynamic: "Arafat's strategy is to make terror a part of political negotiation. When you don't get all you want, you use terror ? you start an intifada. The security fence, when it is finished, will close off this strategy. Losing this negotiating weapon bothers them."
Apparently it bothered some in our State Department as well, and President Bush took to adopting the Palestinian characterization of the barrier as "a wall." That word has echoes to Jews of a ghetto wall, and to Americans of Ronald Reagan's "tear down this wall!" Mr. Bush has since returned to using "the fence," and in his long-awaited news conference yesterday, he refrained from taking an opportunity to criticize it.
That makes sense. Robert Satloff, the most perceptive of the Middle East analysts, writes in The Baltimore Sun, "After having committed the prestige of his presidency on promoting Israeli-Palestinian peace, President Bush should not find himself on the wrong side of an initiative that may actually offer a chance to produce it."
Sharon does not see the defense-fence as a unilaterally decided border. "It's neither a political nor exactly a security border. If we decide a certain place will or will not be in our hands," he said, "the fact that there is a fence there will not affect the ultimate decision." After thus reassuring both settlers and to some extent Palestinians, the veteran leader added, "But it should be very clear we will not return to the '67 borders."
Sharon noted that "80 percent of Israelis fell in love with the fence, and about the same number don't trust the Palestinians." (I suspect Sharon is squarely amidst this majority, as am I.)
What about the new prime minister, Mahmoud Abbas (known to friends as Abu Mazen) ? is he delivering on his commitments? "Abu Mazen understands that Israel cannot be destroyed by terror, and he believes our problems can be solved by negotiation." That's the good part. "But he has not yet determined to disarm and dismantle the terror organizations. And Arafat is undermining him."
How best to strengthen Abu Mazen? "We're releasing prisoners and issuing 30,000 work permits. You should support economic projects that Abu Mazen gets credit for."
And what of the security chief Muhammad Dahlan, who has been passive in making arrests and has not tried to stop the manufacture of hundreds of rockets in Gaza? "He doesn't want to be stained" ? meaning, I presume, that Dahlan has political ambitions that preclude toughness on terror.
What's the greatest danger facing Israel now that Saddam is gone? "Libya is trying to get fissionable material, but the greatest danger now is Iran with its ballistic missiles of 1,300 kilometers. I spoke to Putin recently. The Russians understand that Iran is heading toward possessing nuclear weapons, and he will take some steps to be more careful now."
Does Saddam's ouster mean change throughout the Middle East? Sharon is cautious: "The U.S. won't be in our neighborhood forever. Israel will stay there, and I haven't seen a democratic Arab country yet."
But I've never seen him more optimistic: "There is a shift, a potential for even greater change. With all the criticism he gets, President Bush is a determined man. He has created an opportunity in the Middle East that nobody has done before. And that could make a great difference."?

NYT 31/07/2003