A step in the right direction

Say what you will about Ariel Sharon, but Israel's prime minister is at this moment one of the most honest and gutsy politicians in the world.

I know there are those who would see Sharon brought up on war crimes rather than let him finish his term as prime minister, but even if you do hold him accountable for war crime accusations, there is no denying that his total reversal of policy towards the settlements in Gaza is nothing less than a political miracle these days.

For those who don't know Sharon's background, as a right-wing politician he's made a career out of policies that called for Israeli expansion and new settlements in both Gaza and the West Bank, which both encroached on Palestinian land and escalated the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

But now, along with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, Sharon is coordinating a complete disengagement from Gaza and a partial withdrawal from the West Bank, which hopefully will lead to a complete withdrawal from the West Bank in the future after border negotiations and the creation of a Palestinian state.

Seven years ago when Sharon was the Israeli foreign minister, he said on Israeli radio that everyone should run to the territories to "grab more hills, expand the territory."

"Everything that's grabbed will be in our hands," he said. And there was a time in Israeli history when this made sense.

Unfortunately for Foreign Minister Sharon, that time passed many years ago. Gaza and the West Bank were acquired from Egypt and Jordan, respectively, in the 1967 Six-Day War, which for Israel was a defensive battle, and the decision to occupy the territories was a matter of the country's very survival.

We are not, however, in 1967 anymore, and Prime Minister Sharon knows this.

"If we are to reach a situation of true peace, real peace, peace for generations," Sharon said in 2003, "we will have to make painful concessions."

I do not know if Sharon has exactly come out and said he was wrong about expanding the settlements, but he doesn't need to. His actions, as they always have, say it all. And not only has Sharon made it a point to reverse his policy, but to ensure his vision becomes reality, Sharon has had to turn on his most loyal right-swingers, disband parts of his government coalition, stand against his country's Jewish extremists, rebuild a coalition from scratch, and play a dicey political game of the King of the Mountain.

If I sound like I am glorifying Sharon, I do not mean to. I know he is connected to massacres in Lebanon, among other accusations, and I am sure that at least some of the accusations are probably true. But the man finally has it right about the settlements. He took a major issue, contemplated it, and decided although he supported it for years, what he had been supporting was bad for his country.

Can you imagine an American politician like President Clinton giving second thought to his healthcare reform and doing a complete 180? Can you imagine President Bush reconsidering the privatization of social security because he realized it wasn't the good idea he originally thought it was? I'm sure, since it's only human, that Sharon still has grandiose visions of his legacy as the ultimate flip-flopper who brought peace to Israel and Palestine, but it still takes balls on a political stage to admit your mistakes and take action.

Israeli politicians who oppose what Sharon is doing have legitimate gripes when they say disengagement from Gaza will weaken Israel's security. History supports the need for Israel to always be stronger than those who seek its destruction.

But history also shows that chances for genuine peace in the Middle East must not be ignored for extremist illusions.

Yes, there are people out there who would love to see Israel destroyed, and many of them run terrorist organizations right on Israel's borders. But as much as I am pro-Israel, I am also pro-Palestinian, and it seems that now, with Abbas leading a new version of the Palestinian Authority, we have the best opportunity in decades to take the steps towards peace and a Palestinian state alongside Israel.