On the face of it, any plan to withdraw from any part of the occupied territories, sounds like a good idea and giving one's blessings to such a plan seems reasonable. But there is hardly anything new in this new proposal , which is completely in line with the old Likud ideology of never allowing the emergence of a truly independent Palestinian state on the occupied territories. Actually, under the guise of unilateral withdrawal, what Sharon is seeking is nothing less than American endorsement to his long-cherished colonial plan for the annexation of much of the West Bank as part of Greater Israel ,destruction of the Palestinian society and containment of the Palestinian population in isolated enclaves with no geographical contiguity on 40% of the occupied territories as virtual slaves. Sharon has already indicated that if the Palestinians "do not agree to call the fenced -in-enclave as a "state", within the framework of a new interim deal that ostensibly corresponds to the second phase of the peace plan known as the road map , then he will impose the new arrangement unilaterally." If he is allowed to implement this plan, that would mean a significant shift away from the much-publicised American-backed "road map", whose final objective was a negotiated two-state solution to the Israeli- Palestinian conflict. Under Sharon's plan Israel will retain effective control over all the Palestinians living in the West Bank and Gaza without taking any legal responsibility for their rights and well-being. After destroying the Palestinian Authority, what Sharon is after is to consolidate Israel's stranglehold over the fragmented Palestinian enclaves.

Actually, Sharon has been a remarkably consistent leader in the pursuit of this colonial policy . Just for example, in a couple of interviews to the Hebrew- language Ha'aretz and the French daily Le Figaro given in May 2001, when the second Intifada was already eight months old, he said,

1. "People today are not much excited by the idea of gaining a hectare and then another hectare for Israel but for me that's still exciting." 2. " Jerusalem is the heart of the Jewish people " and "no Israeli has the right to share Jerusalem". 3. A Palestinian state consisting of more or less the area currently under the control of the Palestinian Authority ( i.e., only about 40% of the West Bank ) can be established if the Palestinians cease violence. ( It means that the Palestinians will be allowed to live in the designated Bantustans.) Mr. Sharon graciously said , "if they want to call it" a "state" or "states", he would not mind. 4. No Israeli settlement will be evacuated. They are "important for Zionist reasons". " It is not an accident that the colonies are where they are. It is necessary to hold the security zones on the West Bank and the east, the routes between them." The Palestinian state will not be allowed to have an army. The frontiers will be under the control of Israeli armed forces. 6. The control of water supply to Palestine will continue in the hands of the Israelis. ( Mr. Sharon could have added that airspace, roads, communication and electricity will also be controlled by Israel.)

Only departure from these objectives as outlined by Sharon several years ago is that under the current plan ( first announced in December, 2003, later elaborated in an interview with the Haaretz on February 2nd , 2004) , for practical reasons, Mr.

Sharon is now willing to remove 17 of the 21 Israeli settlements in the Gaza strip, where 7500 Israelis live in heavily guarded settlements, occupying one fifth of the land and controlling an equally disproportionate amount of water, among 1.3 million impoverished Palestinian refugees, who live on the rest of the parched land behind high fences . This partial withdrawal, even if it takes place ( Sharon has a history of broken promises.) it will merely be a cosmetic exercise because according to the Israeli Defence Minister, Gaza will continue to remain under Israeli military control by sea and air. A large contingent of soldiers and armoured vehicles are at present deployed in Gaza to protect these settlers. It seems that the intention is to withdraw from most of Gaza and resettle the Gaza Israelis in the West Bank. Why?

Well, here lies the crunch of the issue. Mr. Sharon's intention is to concentrate all his resources on the West Bank settlements, with the final objective of annexing them as part of Greater Israel, hence the construction of the wall. Sharon has no intention of relinquishing these settlements in the West Bank , which house approximately 250,000 Israelis. In fact, on February 16th, ( two weeks after Sharon's speech proposing the withdrawal of most of the settlers from Gaza) his government approved almost $22 million for housing projects for Jewish settlements . The West Bank settlements, in the words of Prof. Newman of the Ben Gurion University " are not a few temporary outposts.... the settlement network is a collection of small towns, industrial and commercial areas, schools and colleges, roads and public services. When one travels around the settlements, it seems they have put down roots for good". In this context, it is relevant to mention that these settlements, although built on Palestinian land are connected to Israel by modern motorways on which Palestinians can not travel.

The wall, built on Palestinian territories, when finished, will be more than 650 kilometres long . It delves deep into Palestinian territories and snakes through the West Bank to include many Israel settlements. The Palestinian villages and farmlands falling between the Wall and the Green Line ( pre-1967 borders) will in effect be annexed. Therefore hundreds of thousands of Palestinians living in these towns and villages ( Qalquilia will be completely surrounded) will either be forced to move to the other side of the Wall ( Palestine) or live in virtual prison camps with high fences and Israeli military checkpoints, which would look more like cages. According to Prof. John Dugard of the University of Leiden, Netherlands, "it ( the Wall) is manifestly intended to create facts on the ground". No one believes that Israel is spending billions of dollars on a temporary security fence and that permanent borders will be negotiated later.

One may well ask: Why has Sharon chosen this moment to broach this idea? What is the rationale for the timing of this policy statement?

Demographic reasons have persuaded Sharon to initiate this process now. He has come to realise that the longer he waits, the more acute the demographic problem will become. Israel today has a population of a little over six million people of which 1,200,000 are Palestinians. In the occupied territories there are at least 3,500,000 Palestinians. Therefore, taking Israel proper and the occupied territories together, today, there are approximately 5,000,000 Jews and 5,000,000. Palestinians. Given the high fertility rate of the Palestinian mothers, according to most estimates, in a few years the Palestinian population will surpass the Jewish population in a significant manner. So, if Israel annexes the whole of the West Bank and Gaza, sooner or later, it will be forced to give citizenship to the Palestinians , if it wants to continue as a democratic state. As a result, in a few years' time it will cease to be a Jewish state. How can you disenfranchise the majority population of a country and still claim to be a democratic state? So what Sharon wants is to grab as much land as possible for Israel now and contain the Palestinian population in these enclaves without taking any legal responsibility for them because, in theory , they will become independent.

During the last few years, the evangelical Christian groups ( reborn Christians), -- who constitute a powerful voting bloc supporting Bush as president of the United States -- have become increasingly pro-Israel because they believe that promoting the establishment of Greater Israel on Palestinian land will expedite the process leading to the prophesied Judgement Day. Sharon is aware of the fact that , Bush will do anything to retain the votes of these religious groups in the forthcoming presidential elections, hence the rush to obtain Bush's endorsement to his plan.

Day by day, the economic situation in Israel is deteriorating , unemployment is rising , Jewish immigration is falling and popular support for Sharon is also declining. Sharon realises that time is running out for him.

No one is going to be fooled by Sharon's new tactic. It is not about peacemaking but about perpetuating the Israeli-Palestinian conflict for ever. However, if the withdrawal from Gaza is merely the first step in the implementation of a comprehensive plan to evacuate all the occupied territories , then it merits some consideration. Both Israel and the United States must understand that nothing short of a complete evacuation of the all the Palestinian territories and the establishment of an independent , economically viable Palestinian state with clear defendable boundaries will give peace and security to Israel.