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Sharon:
Past and future
by Gil Sedan
JERUSALEM (JTA)-Ariel
Sharon has officially relinquished
the post of defense minister but it is
too early to tell whether he will
emerge weaker or stronger from
this latest crisis in his flamboyant
and fiercely controversial career.
Judging from demonstrations in
his favor while the Cabinet
deliberated his fate last week after
the commission of inquiry into the
Beirut refugee camps massacre
Sharon
recommended his resignation or
dismissal, Sharon’s supporters
among rank-and-file Israelis are
legion. But public opinion polls
many peopk*3F¥wrySo ^iee\iim
g°-
When Sharon first ran for
political office on his own, the
independent Shlom Zion ticket in
the 1977 Knesset elections, his
faction won only two seats. But
that result is no measure of his
political^ power today, which
resides within the governing Likud
coalition.
Sharon's close supporters are
intensely loyal. His press adviser,
Uri Dan, expressed confidence
Sunday that the departing defense
minister eventually will achieve the
highest office. “Those who refused
to see Arik (Sharon's nickname) as
chief of staff, had to see him
become defense minister. Those
who refused to see him as minister
of defense will have to accept him
as prime minister,” Dan said.
But Sharon seems to have a
talent for creating enemies. His
uncompromising language and his
self-righteous defense of the
conduct for which he was
condemned by the inquiry
commission "They are spilling
my blood," he has proclaimed
repeatedly in recent days—have
been deplored by many. He has
succeeded in alienating former
army comrades. Few if any of his
opponents have been converted to
supporters.
Among his aides and
subordinates, few have managed
to work with him for very long.
Some of his closest advisers have
left, disenchanted. But within the
army where the hierarchy is clear
and unequivocal, Sharon still
commands considerable support.
Even his critics concede that he
is a man of action, an author of
events. The trouble, they say, is
• that he does the wrong things. The
highlights of his 19-month tenure
as defense minister were the war in
Lebanon and his unrelenting
campaign of massive Jewish
settlements in the occupied
territories.
Sharon is a career soldier. At the
age of 20, in Israel’s War of
Independence, he was wounded in
the battle for Latrun. While he was
hospitalized he abandoned the
idea of becoming a farmer and was
determined to rtfturn to the
battlefield.
Right now, he is determined to
remain in the Cabinet although a
majority of his fellow ministers—it
has been reported—would like to
see him out.
Sharon is honestly convinced
that he has been wronged by the
inquiry commission and intends to
fight its findings He disagreed
vehemently with its conclusions
that Israel was indirectly
responsible for the massacre and
that he was personally culpable for
not making an effort to avoid it.
Until now Sharon has won all of
his personal battles. He has known
a few setbacks but was always
triumphant in the end. One of the
few heroes to emerge from the
Yom Kippur War, he expected to
be appointed chief of staff. When
that post was denied him, he
entered the political arena. __
The Southern
Israelite
The Weekly Newspaper For Southern Jewr>
Vol. LVIII
'Since 1925'
Atlanta, Georgia, Friday, February 18, 1983
No. 7
Israel, U.S. speculate
on Arens appointment
by Joseph Polakoff
TSI’s Washington correspondent
WASHINGTON—After one
year and one week as Israel’s
seventh ambassador to the United
States, Moshe Arens is returning
to Jerusalem to become minister of
defense and enter center stage in
troubled American-Israeli
relations.
His appointment by Prime
Minister Menachem Begin in
succession to resigned Ariel
Sharon in the aftermath of the
commission of inquiry’s report on
the massacre by Christian militia
of Palestinians in Beirut, has
aroused intense speculation in
Washington and Jerusalem on its
effect.
While he himself in public
statements and on his record in
Arens
accords. Born in Romania in 1931,
he immigrated to Israel in 1944. He
earned a doctorate in international
law at the Sorbonne, and is a
senior lecturer on Hebrew
University’s law faculty.
tloWi
minister’s office when he was
named ambassador to Cairo.
Goldenberg, who is president of
the Israeli Bar Association, was a
key advocate for Yamit settlers in
their claims for compensation for
evacuating that town in
connection with Israel’s return of
the Sinai to Egypt. The liberal
party is looking for more positions
from Begin in return for political
support for him.
Israeli radio quoted Arens,
“Politically, 1 support the
government,” and reported him as
saying that the -fact Sharon
is remaining in the Cabinet as
minister without portfolio “does
not disturb me and will not make
things difficult for me."
Israeli television reported Arens
as saying he did “opt think there
tzatmfflniMi memmtlmnm (hat
Party and Herat which produced
first the Gahal faction and later
Likud. He joined Prime Minister
Menachem Begin’s first
government as minister of
agriculture. But he soon became a
key member of the coalition,
getting himself appointed
chairman of the ministerial
settlement committee from which
he pushed for massive Jewish
settlement in the territories.
When Defense Minister Ezer
Weizman resigned in 1981, Begin’s
reluctance to name Sharon his
successor was a bitter pill. But the
general swallowed it quietly.
After Begin’s re-election in June
1981, with a reduced Knesset
margin, Sharon presented him
with a virtual ultimatum and was
named minister of defense.
The war in Lebanon last
summer was the result of his own
long preparation. He was
determined from the outset not
only to destroy the Palestine
Liberation Organization but to
change the political infrastructure
of Lebanon.
During the war, he was accused
of presenting the Cabinet with faits
accomplis, but so far as is known,
none of his fellow ministers
rebelled. Nevertheless, as the
Israeli army pushed deeper into
Lebanon, disatisfaction within the
government and in the army grew.
When Sharon ordered the siege
of west Beirut—round-the-clock
heavy bombardment of the city
from land, sea and air—one young
See Sharon, page 25.
in New York had bannered when
he arrived as ambassador, to be “a
Hawk in defense of Israel,” views
are being expressed that his
diplomatic experience will alter the
deteriorated relationship for the
better. Among signs of this hope
was the large front page
photograph in The New York
Times showing him and Defense
Secretary Caspar Weinberger in a
friendly pose, after discussing U.S.
rejection of Israel’s conditions, for
sharing lessons learned in the
Lebanon war. The Pentagon made
it known that Weinberger, who is
almost held in as low esteem
among many Israelis as Sharon is
among many Americans, had
expressed regret that Arens is
leaving Washington. Israeli radio
said Weinberger was "manifestly
friendly."
Arens, an engineer who entered
politics in 1973 and is now 57 years
old, is expected to conclude his
affairs as ambassador in two
weeks. Meanwhil^, speculation
has put Meir Rosenne, Israel’s
ambassador to France; Dr. Eliahu
ben Elissar, Israel’s first
ambassador to Egypt, and Amnon
Goldenberg, a prominent warrior
who was a member of the
Independent Liberal Party, which
is an ingredient of Begin’s Likud
coalition, as leading candidates to
succeed Arens.
Rosenne, envoy in Paris since
1979, was Israel’s consul general in
New York in 1961-67, and is a
former legal adviser to the Foreign
Ministry. He was a principle
drafter of the Camp David
powerful foreign affairs and
security committee. Like Arens, he
is a member of Begin’s Herat
(Freedom) Party. Another facet of
his close ties with Begin is that he
was directive to the prime
(hat f am a comp
not made compromises
have
(with
Reagan administration officials)
during the period 1 have been
here.” Regarding Israeli
See Arens, page 24
Fortner Nazi Klaus Barbie—wrapped in a blanket to avoid
being photographed—Is led from a Jail in La Paz, Bolivia, to a
waiting car as police transferred bim to the airport for a flight to
France.
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