Ariel Sharon has launched the kind of assault on the 200,000
Likud members only he knows how to lead, just like in the old
days when he was a part of Unit 101 or when he charged over
the Suez Canal decades ago. Now he is summoning all of his
tactical ability, all of his knowledge and experience, to win
the great battle before him. The battle for peace, the battle
to implement the disengagement plan.
Two hundred thousand Likud voters have now become the most
sought-after people in the country. Each of them has received
at least ten phone calls from both disengagement supporters
and opponents, as well as from reporters and pollsters
pouncing on every Likud member as if the nation's fate lay in
his hands.
By deciding to hold a referendum on the disengagement plan
among all Likud members Sharon transformed the party from a
regular ruling party to a party that sets the nation's agenda
and determines its future.
Suddenly Sharon is less interested in the urban upper-middle
class and more interested in Likud members from Dimona,
Mitzpeh Ramon and Kiryat Shemoneh, whose names he barely
recognizes and whose faces he certainly doesn't, because when
the polls are set up on May 2nd the vote of a minister or a
Knesset member will be worth exactly the same as the vote of
Mr. Amzaleg of Sderot or Tirat Hacarmel.
Sharon worked out his battle plan in fine detail in order to
win the war. He journeyed all the way to Washington, but
meanwhile his thoughts were on the Likud branches in Carmiel
and Acco, in Tzur Shalom and Ashkelon. Today the party
members belonging to these branches are even more important
to him than George Bush. But he had to travel across the
ocean to deliver the goods. The meeting with Bush and the
declarations he made were really intended to convince the
folks back in Rishon Letzion and Ashdod.
For two whole hours Sharon sat with the US President after
his assistants sat with US officials for dozens of hours over
the past few months. And all this was to induce Mr. Amzaleg
of Sderot to place a slip in favor of disengagement into the
ballot box on May 2nd.
Meanwhile he won the backing of the main Likud politicians,
including Netanyahu, Livnat, Shetreet and Shalom.
