DAVID TWERSKY
581
insisted, alluding to his party's much maligned and ignored prefer–
ence for aJordanian option, is against a PLO solution on either side
of the Jordan River. He was trying , unsuccessfully, to turn back
against the Likud Begin's election theme, that a Labor victory
equals giving up most of the West Bank, equals a Soviet-puppet
PLO state, equals the destruction ofIsrael. The notion that, once in
power, radical guerrilla groups are likely to exercise restraint so as
not to jeopardize their gains, is unsound. For every Robert Mugabe
there are several Colonel Kadafis and Khmer Rouges.
So when the
New York Times,
in an editorial on July 11 , reminds
" Dear Menachem" that" the Palestinians deserve a homeland .. .
[and that
1
the West Bank and the Gaza strip are the only available
foundation for that home," it is only the second, geographical part
of the statement that is at odds with the prevailing Israeli doctrine.
Not to belittle the gap: given Arab moderation and a desire
to
live at
peace with Israel , it could be everything. Given Arab rejectionism,
it is a debater's point. Given the reality of a mixture of Arab extrem–
ism and moderation, it is a crucial question whether or not Israel
will close off the option-the very possibility-of trading territory on
the West Bank to some Arab authority in exchange for peace.
Sharon, though , is no Golda Meir, who used to insist , contemptu–
ously, that there " are no Palestinians ," and who helped drive Lyova
Eliav from the Labor Party for insisting that there were. Sharon is
both more forthcoming and more intractable than the Old Lady of
Blessed Memory.
Sharon has admitted in the Israeli press that he began planning
this operation a year ago, when he took office as minister of defense.
The attempted assassination of Israeli Ambassador Argov in
London-and we are still unsure which faction pulled the trigger
in that Sarajevo-type hit*-was the straw that broke the camel's
back, an image rather well suited to this part of the world.
We were called up on the first night , Saturday, June 5. A taxi
came into my kibbutz as we sat at the weekly "town hall" meeting.
Twenty hours later my artillery unit was rolling across the border.
• Despite Scotland Yard's confusion, and Nathan Glazer and Seymour Lipset's
assurance that the PLO probably did not do it, Itamar R abi nowich of Tel Aviv's
Shiloach Institute-no fan of the government , by the way-insists that "on the
basis of past ex perience we know that, despite disclaimers, such actions were
authorized by either the PLO leadership , Syria , or Iraq."
