A US election year can do wonders for Israel. Especially in this case when the race is tight and not too many weeks are left, it becomes a golden opportunity for Israel to extract almost anything it wishes from an incumbent who cannot afford to say no.
As a consequence of this situation that comes once every four years, Israel is reportedly pressing Washington to agree to a new plan to annex a huge swath of territory in the West Bank in return for its unilateral withdrawal from Gaza. Under the plan, recently endorsed by Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, Israel will annex the large settlements of Ariel in the northern West Bank, Maali Adomim east of Jerusalem and the Gush Etzion bloc north of Hebron. These areas are not part of the blockbuster agreement Bush and Sharon reached in April that allows Israel to keep large West Bank tracts.
Thus if Washington agrees to this new annexation, it will mean that Israel would eat up as much as a fourth of the total area of the West Bank and crush any possibility of creating a viable Palestinian state.
Again, to make the most of Washington’s magnanimity, Israel Foreign Minister Shalom is heading a diplomatic campaign to defend the wall of separation in the West Bank ahead of a UN General Assembly meeting. And of course, the United States heads the list of supporters.
Israel is calling on as many member states as possible not to support a possible General Assembly resolution calling on the Security Council to condemn Tel Aviv over the barrier and possibly impose sanctions. In July, the General Assembly overwhelmingly backed a World Court ruling calling on Israel to tear down part of the barrier, a ruling Israel vowed to ignore but cannot unless it has Washington on its side. To be sure, Israel will be seeking America’s help on these and other issues at any time but as a US presidential election nears, America’s helping hand appears to be working overtime.
So much so that Washington seems willing to bow to Sharon’s position of no longer abiding by the road map, the plan for Middle East peace that is America’s creation.
Sharon is now saying that Israel might stay in the West Bank for a long time after the planned pullout from Gaza by the end of next year. In fact, the road map has become a taboo word in Sharon’s presence; his ministers have been barred from even uttering the words. So now Washington is sanctioning Israeli action, unilateral and otherwise, rather than the road map.
Sharon is exploiting the political paralysis in Washington. He knows President Bush cannot afford to alienate voters, no matter how small in number. Every vote is crucial as the Florida experience of four years ago proves. Bush, who is marginally ahead of the Democratic challenger John
Kerry in the polls, is not about to lose even one vote if he can help it.
