MERIP Media Resource
List, January 6, 2006
AVAILABLE FOR INTERVIEWS on
the following topic:
- Ariel Sharon
ROBERT BLECHER
Robert Blecher is
director of scenario planning at Strategic Assessments Initiative,
where he directs a team of Israeli and Palestinian scholars
investigating unorthodox solutions to the Palestinian-Israeli
conflict. He is also a member of the editorial committee of
Middle East Report . He commented today: "Prime
Minister Ariel Sharon's absence leaves a gaping hole in the
Israeli political fabric. In part, his immense recent popularity
is due to his simultaneously grandfatherly and truculent persona.
At the same time, it stems from his policies -- Sharon rebuffed
negotiations and sought to impose a unilateral settlement
on the Palestinians, an approach that enjoys wide support
in Israel. Amir Peretz, the leader of the Labor Party, is
a confirmed negotiator, but his approach does not command
universal support within his own party, much less from the
Israeli public at large. Since Israel's next leader will not
have Sharon's personal cachet and political capital, we should
not expect him to move as rapidly as Sharon seemed poised
to. But by the same token, we should expect that unilateralism
will remain the reigning paradigm in Israeli politics."
PERETZ
KIDRON
Peretz
Kidron is an Israeli writer, journalist and translator. He
has long been active with Yesh Gvul and other Israeli peace
and human rights groups. He commented today: "In
any political grouping, removal of the leader comes as a shock. But
the apparently inevitable political demise of Ariel Sharon
is a double shock for his new Kadima party, which came
into being largely as Sharon's party. The almost blind belief in Sharon
as a man who 'can get things done,' shared by the political
elite and a large section of the Israeli public, may not pass
on to a successor."
JOEL
BEININ
Joel
Beinin teaches Middle East history at Stanford University
and is on the editorial committee of Middle East Report
. His research and writing focuses on the history of
the modern Middle East, especially Egypt, Israel, Palestine
and the Arab-Israeli conflict. He commented today: "Sharon's
departure from the Israeli political scene is not likely to
have much impact on Palestinian-Israeli peace. His disengagement
from the Gaza Strip was designed as a unilateral measure to
avoid negotiations with the Palestinians. The moves he was
planning for the West Bank had a similar objective. There
will be a much bigger impact on the Israeli domestic political
scene."
Background
on Sharon :
+
Gary Sussman, "Ariel Sharon and the Jordan Option,"
Middle East Report Online , March 2005
http://www.merip.org/mero/interventions/sussman_interv.html
+ Peretz Kidron, "Sharon's
Sights on Strategic Objective," Middle East Report
Online , April 14, 2004
http://www.merip.org/mero/mero041404.html
+
Joel Beinin, "Sharon's Unilateral Steps," Middle
East Report Online , December 31, 2003
http://www.merip.org/mero/mero123103.html
+ Rema Hammami, "Interregnum: Palestine After Operation
Defensive Shield," Middle East Report 223,
Summer 2002
http://www.merip.org/mer/mer223/223_hammami.html
+
Rebecca L. Stein, "Violence and its Rhetoric: Sharon
and the US," Middle East Report Online, March 28, 2001
http://www.merip.org/mero/mero032801.html
+ Many other relevant articles
are online and searchable here: www.merip.org
.
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