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The Emergence of the Sharon Plan
(Haaretz) Ze'ev Schiff - Sharon does have a political plan to deal with the Palestinian question. The following are its main points: In the current state of affairs, Sharon does not want to conduct negotiations with the Palestinians on a permanent settlement to the conflict. It is possible that he doesn't believe such a settlement is feasible. The establishment of a Palestinian state -- even a political entity in a small area -- should be postponed for as long as possible. No settlements are to be dismantled, not even the most isolated of them. If Defense Minister Ben-Eliezer wants to remove a few "illegal" outposts, he can amuse himself by doing so. In any event, the settlers set up some of these outposts for the purpose of removing them, so that they will be able to maintain other, more important sites of this kind. The army should seize Palestinian areas for an extended period until the terrorism is brought to an end. Sharon is not talking about a fence, but about security zones -- in the east, the entire Jordan Rift Valley; and in the west, the entire "seam area," along a line that, in sections, runs far to the east of the 1967 Green Line. Concurrently, the Palestinians must be forced into a position in which they will consent to a long-term interim agreement.