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In fact, Israeli critics of the war, like Shuki Yeshev, a leader of
the recently organized Soldiers Against Silence, complain that what
is wrong with this war is that, alone of all Israel ' s wars , it was
launched to serve a political stratagem, and was unnecessary for mil–
itary security.
Clemenceau's advice, not to "leave war to the generals," is less
useful in a country like Israel, where generals retire early and enter
politics, and where an Arik Sharon, as ministe r of defense , is busy
directing the generals. (The minister of defense in Israel is infinitely
more powerful, relative to the system, than, say, his American coun–
terpart within his system.) Sharon's view, advocated by him at least
since September 1970, the "Black September " when King Hussein
threw the PLO out of Jordan, sending them on their way to
Lebanon, is that it is in Israel's interest to foster a Palestinian solu–
tion in Jordan, at the expense of the Hashemite Monarchy. H e
therefore opposed the massing of Israeli armor on the Jordan River
as a counterweight to the threatened Syrian invasion of Jordan on
behalf of the PLO. Israel actually helped Hussein send the PLO to
Lebanon then; Sharon wants to help them go back now . This view
informed his 1977 Shlomzion Party, later absorbed into Begin 's
Herut. He has continued to advocate it within Herut, and to per–
suade allies like Foreign Minister Shamir-who is probabl y
Sharon's number one obstacle in the war to succeed Begin, (if and)
when he retires.
Sharon's view of the PLO presence in Lebanon was that it con–
tinued to focus world attention on the West Bank and the Gaza strip,
and to divert it from its proper focus-(trans)Jordan . Sharon
alluded to this in aJune interview with a French newspaper in which
he reportedly said that, were he prime minister, he would give
"Hussein twenty-four hours to leave Amman. " He has not denied
the attribution. Presumably, with a new Palestinian leadership ,
PLO or otherwise, ensconsed in Amman , the world could be per–
suaded to "get off our backs" as regards the West Bank and the
Gaza strip. The question of Palestine would be answered, and the
way paved for a "Greater Israel," with the "territories" enjoying,
perhaps, a special status as autonomous regions within the enlarged
Jewish state.
It was this viewpoint that Labor Party leader Shimon Peres
attacked last year, but in an amusing switcheroo in which he tried to
label Sharon and Shamir more pro-PLO than Labor. Labor, Peres
