Whoever thought Ariel Sharon was not serious about his announcement that he would unilaterally separate from the Palestinians should think again. The Israeli prime minister has already started phase one by appointing Maj. Gen. Giora Eiland to head a new national security council charged with implementing his disengagement plan. That Sharon has already taken the first step on this road is profoundly worrying. Whether by agreeing to an interim state or having it imposed by Israeli diktat, the most the Palestinians can look forward to in the foreseeable future is a truncated entity, divided into four cantons, on around 40 percent of the West Bank and parts of Gaza.

Of course, the plan has been in the works for a long time. On the ground, Israeli troops have been steadily putting it into action, imposing a military occupation whose every act is calculated to degrade, humiliate and imprison the Palestinian population. The occupation has cost thousands of lives.

All the while, Sharon has been waiting to abandon the road map. On the last day of the year 2003, Israel’s Interior Ministry released figures showing the settler population increased by 16 percent during Sharon’s three years as prime minister, compared to an average growth rate of 1.8 percent. This means there are now over 400,000 settlers in the occupied territories, with the fastest-growing settlements being not only the “consensus” settlements in and around East Jerusalem but also the “ideological” enclaves in Gaza and Hebron.

In spite of the intensity of this onslaught the Palestinians demonstrated an exemplary degree of responsibility, as was apparent in the truce agreement reached by the Palestinian factions under the Mahmoud Abbas government. But faced with Israel’s ongoing unilateralism and Washington’s indifference, the Palestinian Authority’s political options are shrinking as rapidly as its territory.

Now Sharon is determined to snuff out any new glimmer of hope. The plan is his answer to whatever drive there was to create a climate conducive to peace. The Palestinians have only one way out, according to Sharon: They must meet his demands for a new leadership and the dismantling of armed Palestinian factions. The offer is, needless to say, ludicrous. The Palestinians find themselves in a situation unique in modern politics — an occupied people held responsible for the security of its occupiers.

Sharon says he will give the Palestinians a few months to think about it. In the meantime he will tighten the stranglehold on the Palestinian people and attempt to ignite internecine strife by pushing for disarmament of militant factions. In 2004, his plan will progress in leaps and bounds.