Sharon’s Likud bloc has fallen from power, but the former tank commander is far from done roving Israel’s occupied territories. Not surprisingly, the more than 100,000 Israelis who live on the West Bank are his most fervent supporters. An additional 40,000 will eventually live in homes, now under construction, which were approved by Sharon before the Labor Party of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin took over in June. Wherever on the West Bank Sharon stops, he receives a hero’s welcome. “He is like a father to me,” said Mark Asia in the settlement of Bet Ariah. Sharon is counting on such settlers to back him for the Likud leadership, a post Yitzhak Shamir is leaving. “We’ll reverse the last election,” said one woman. But Sharon knows well that before the next elections, Labor will put his original settlement strategy to the test.
The new Rabin government talks instead of granting Palestinians autonomy and of territorial compromise with Syria. “The Israeli public is being put to sleep by this talk,” says Sharon. He recalls “a lesson our parents and grandparents taught us-the main way to secure an area is to put civilians there. That creates national motivation to defend those areas.”
With an Uzi-toting bodyguard at his side, Sharon travels the territories rallying his faithful. Last week he took control of a committee to defend Golan Heights settlements from Rabin’s peace drive. Already, opposition to Rabin’s initiative is growing. As a sixth round of Middle East peace talks ended in Washington last week with modest progress, one opinion poll showed that only 34 percent of all Israelis were willing to barter a small part of the Golan for any peace with Syria, as Rabin has implicitly proposed. “Israel is being asked to return strategic assets in return for promises,” says Sharon. “The Syrians keep their word only where it is convenient for them.”
In Sharon’s view, no treaty can ever substitute for armed self-defense. “My mother, who died at 91, kept a gun under her bed up to her last day,” he said in the back seat of the Saab as it sped through quiet Arab villages. “To be independent, the Jews have to pay the price of security. I’m willing to pay this price. I’m not getting tired of it. “And the West Bank settlers, at least, show no sign of getting tired of Ariel Sharon.
