Face-off: two old enemies, Ariel Sharon and Yasir Arafat, symbolize the reasons why it is so difficult for the Israelis and the Palestinians to make peace--and why so many on both sides see the use of force as the only hope of achieving their ends.

• Author: Schmemann, Serge
• Position: News Analysis - Cover Story

News Analysis

Jerusalem--Ariel Sharon was 14 when he joined the underground Jewish army, and he fought in the Arab-Israeli war that started the day after the creation of the Jewish state. Yasir Arafat was smuggling arms to Palestinians by 17, in an attempt to destroy the new nation that displaced so many of his people.

Enemies from the beginning, Sharon and Arafat--now the leaders of Israel and the Palestinians--in many ways represent the history of their respective struggles, and the reasons why it has been so difficult for the two sides to make peace and share the land where they live.

Some experts believe the two sides could already be drawing a border between Israel and a separate state of Palestine in a way that would be fair to both. The problem is how to get there through the deep-rooted ambitions, distrust, and grievances both sides hold.

WORST BLOODSHED IN THEIR HISTORY

In the last two years, the Israelis and Palestinians came closer than they had ever been to making peace--only to descend into the worst bloodshed in their long and complicated history. The fighting became especially brutal in March and April, when Sharon, infuriated by Palestinian suicide bombings that were killing many Israelis, ordered tanks and soldiers to invade Palestinian cities and towns, to uproot the "infrastructure of terrorism." But the civilian cost was enormous in lives, property, and anguish.

The current crisis is a sharp contrast to the hopes raised in 1993, when Yitzhak Rabin, then Prime Minister of Israel, signed a historic land-for-peace deal with Arafat. Under the agreement, which came to be known as the Oslo accords, for the Norwegian city where they were negotiated, Israel accepted in principle the creation of a Palestinian state in return for Palestinian recognition of the state of Israel, and a pledge by Arafat to stop violent action against it.

The agreement laid out a process of several stages, starting with Palestinian self-rule in major towns and villages, and ending with a full peace settlement. But a Jewish extremist assassinated Rabin in 1995. Under the subsequent government, the Oslo process became mired in bickering and outbreaks of violence until 1999, when Israelis elected Ehud Barak, a close associate of Rabin, as Prime Minister.

In August 2000, President Bill Clinton brought Barak and Arafat to Camp David, in the mountains of Maryland, to revive the talks. Barak offered concessions on key issues--the borders between Israel and the proposed nation of Palestine, the division of Jerusalem (claimed by both sides as their capital), and the fate of Palestinian refugees who seek to return to their former homes in Israel. Arafat turned them down.

A month later, Sharon, then a member of Israel's parliament, made a provocative visit to a sacred site in Jerusalem known to Jews as the Temple Mount, and to Muslims as Haram al-Sharif (Noble Sanctuary). The base of the plateau is Judaism's holiest site of worship, the remains of Solomon's Temple. The summit of the mount is the third-holiest site in Islam, revered as the place from which the Prophet Muhammad dreamed of ascending to heaven.

Sharon entered the walled-in summit with 1,000 security guards, enraging the Palestinians. Reports at the time said the visit was intended to build Sharon's standing among conservative Israelis. But he could have had no doubt that it would generate fierce and probably violent protests, setting back continuing efforts to negotiate a peace settlement.

Several Palestinian protesters were killed in clashes with Israeli security forces, prompting further protests in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. As the fighting escalated, many Israelis came to believe that Arafat, having rejected the Camp David offers, now wanted to use increasing street violence to put new pressure on Israel. Israelis reacted by voting overwhelmingly last year to elect the hawkish, conservative Sharon as their Prime Minister.

The Israelis turned to Sharon because he had a reputation as a tough, uncompromising general and politician. He had condemned the Oslo accords as dangerous, and had never ceased regarding Arafat and the Palestine Liberation Organization as terrorists.

Sharon is a member of the...