OCCUPIED JERUSALEM — Israel’s right-wing Likud party has no greater enemy than Yasser Arafat. And yet it has just done him a favor. Palestinians officials have long argued that, no matter what Israel’s spokesmen say to the outside world, the government of Ariel Sharon has no intention of allowing Palestinians to establish a state. Why else, they say, would Israel’s armed forces have done so much to destroy the fledgling institutions of statehood during their invasions into Palestinian towns?

Now the Likud — the most powerful party in government, which Sharon himself founded — has added weight to their case by passing a resolution saying that there should never be a Palestinian state west of the Jordan River — in other words, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, Gaza Strip and east Jerusalem.

Palestinians reacted with public outrage to the resolution, which was passed with overwhelming support in the early hours yesterday by Likud’s central committee in defiance of Sharon himself, who failed to secure a postponement and then — to booing from the rank-and-file — marched out of the Tel Aviv hall before the count.

It was, announced Mr Arafat, "the destruction of the Oslo agreement" — as if the accords have not already been ripped to pieces. But the Palestinians also know that it has helped prove their point, providing them with a helpful diplomatic victory abroad.

The Likud vote flies in the face of Sharon’s own public position, which is to present himself as a peacemaker whose only concern is to secure his nation’s security in the face of terrorists.... He has several times referred to the possibility of a Palestinian state although his critics treat this with skepticism and dismiss it as lip service, for the ears of the international community.

Even if Sharon does mean it, the evidence suggests that he envisages a far more limited and broken-up entity than anything the Palestinians have in mind, or would accept. In addition, he has made clear that conditions will have to be satisfied before he will enter interim negotiations, including sweeping reform of the Palestinian Authority.

The Likud resolution also jars with the policy of the United States, Israel’s closest ally. The Bush administration has made the two-state solution the theme song of its efforts to serenade the Middle East back toward calm, although its officials privately concede that there is little hope of this while Messers Arafat and Sharon are in power.

Under Sharon, Israel has launched an elaborate PR drive to win over US public opinion, and has done so successfully. It has worked hard to equate Palestinian violence with the terror attacks of Sept. 11. The Likud’s resolution has undermined these efforts.

It was a slap in the face from Sharon and his supporters. His close associate, Likud Cabinet Minister Limor Livnat, spelt out Sharon’s position after the vote: "The question is how Israel looks to the world. On the international front, Arafat, who in fact is behind inhuman acts of terrorism, will present, verbally, an atmosphere of moderation.

"We, who as a nation have worked tirelessly for peace, are putting forth a stance that is liable to put us out of the picture as a basis for all negotiations,"she said.

Shimon Peres, the foreign minister, summed up his view of the vote as "tragic". If opinion surveys are to be believed, it also goes against the wishes of the Israelis themselves. More than two-thirds continue to tell pollsters that they would agree to a Palestinian state as part of a peace agreement.

The Likud resolution is not Israeli government policy. It does not bind Sharon to any position, although it serves as a reminder of the internal pressure on him from his bedfellows on the ascendant right, especially from his younger archrival Benjamin Netanyahu — the driving force behind the resolution. The latter argues that the Palestinians should have autonomy, not statehood.

But the issue is all about power. Netanyahu has long felt that he should have won the party’s leadership before last year’s election — which delivered a landslide to Sharon. Having been crushed by Ehud Barak in 1999, it must have been hard for him to see Ariel Sharon roar into office at the age of 72, after a blotted career that most believed ruled the ex-general out of the highest office.

With an election slated for no later than next year, Netanyahu has thrown down his gauntlet — serving notice that the battle has begun to unseat Sharon. In the clash of these two draconian titans, any suggestion of support for Palestinian statehood will be used as a weapon. (The Independent)