Politicide: The Real Legacy of Ariel Sharon
One of Israel's well-known leftist academics, Kimmerling trains his polemical sights here on Ariel Sharon. Israel's prime minister, he argues, is pursuing "politicide," which he defines as activities designed to "destroy the political national existence of a whole community of people and thus deny it the possibility of self-determination." This policy, Kimmerling says, has long been Sharon's goal, whether as a daring commander in retaliatory raids during the 1950s, in the 1982 Lebanon war or in his policies as prime minister. Sharon, he argues, is using the latest peace plan-the Bush administration-backed "road map"-as a pretext: he is counting on the Palestinians to give him an excuse to further his aims. The 1967 Six-Day War is the critical moment in Kimmerling's analysis. Israel's victory in that war gave it control over the West Bank and emboldened nationalists and messianists to blind themselves to the Palestinians and their fundamental rights. As a result, both sides have become locked into mindsets that preclude a satisfactory peace treaty. These sections are his most compelling: Kimmerling writes persuasively and well, although some may wonder why he looks at Sharon with a much more jaundiced eye than at Yasser Arafat. But his analysis of Sharon's designs, while plausible, are less convincing, and his description of Sharon's regime as "semi-fascist" will antagonize many readers. Given the latest events surrounding the "road map," only time will tell whether Kimmerling's doomsday scenario-the destruction of both the Palestinians and the Israelis-will come true.Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.