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Sharon will follow a Middle East peace plan known as the "road map," and abandon the principle of land for peace if re-elected prime minister, a senior advisor said. (AP)
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| By Israel Insider staff and partners November 23, 2005 |
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Ariel Sharon will offer the Palestinians independence in exchange for the guarantee of security for Israelis if he is re-elected prime minister, according to comments by a senior adviser published in a British daily Wednesday.
The aide, Eyal Arad, told The Guardian newspaper that Sharon would not operate on the principle of land for peace if he wins elections slated for March.
Arad did not answer phone calls requesting comment Wednesday.
Sharon left his Likud Party this week in an effort to gain a free hand to proceed in negotiations with the Palestinians. He called for the disbanding of parliament. Polls show he has the best chance at winning the next elections.
Sharon will follow a Middle East peace plan known as the "road map," and abandon the principle of land for peace, which failed with the Oslo accords with the Palestinians, Arad told the newspaper.
"The road map replaced the falsehood of [territories for peace] with a much more realistic formula - security for independence," Arad told the daily, according to the edition on its Web site. "The road map postulates ... total dismantling of all terrorist apparatus ... What the prime minister says and what the road map says is that before full compliance nothing will happen."
The Oslo accords of the mid-1990s cleared the way for Israeli withdrawals from many areas of the Gaza Strip and West Bank (Judea and Samaria), territories Israel captured in 1967 and the Palestinians want for a future state. The peace process has been largely stalled during more than five years of fighting between the sides.
The principle in Oslo that, if you remove Israeli occupation, Palestinians will stop attacking Israel is "both false philosophically and naive politically," Arad said.
The root of the conflict is based on the Palestinian quest for independence, Arad said.
Palestinians have reacted optimistically to Sharon's bold move to abandon the party he helped form 32 years ago, saying they hope he will progress in peace talks if he is elected.
The AP contributed to this report
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