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Some hardliners (at times including Sharon) openly talked about either re-settling Palestinians to Jordan, or create conditions for mass economic emigration.

Sharon's said a lot of things. Just four years ago he was attacking those who called for a unilateral withdrawal from Gaza by saying that abandoning even the smallest, most isolated Gaza settlement is equivalent to abandoning Tel Aviv...

In the past couple years he has added dovish remarks to his standard repertoire of hawkish ones. His closest advisors have over the past year or two been talking openly to the press about evacuating 90% of the West Bank. (i.e. almost as much as Barak's final offer of 92% at Taba, I believe the Palestinian final offer was about 97%) When asked about the remarks Sharon promptly says he has no plans for further evacuations. Then the next time he talks about the need for large scale 'painful sacrifices' being needed.  Considering that if he wanted to follow the hawkish policy he could have happily stayed in Likud, I think it's clear he wants further evacuations.

As kcurie has pointed out, the big territorial difference between the left and Sharon's newfound center seems to be over Jerusalem. The left is fine with what the Palestinians and Israelis agreed to at Taba -i.e. dividing up E. Jerusalem into its predominantly Arab and predominantly Jewish neighbourhoods, the center isn't. The two also seem to have a different perspective on whether Israel should seek a negotiated final settlement with the Palestinians or just go its own unilateral course.

by MarekNYC on Tue Nov 22nd, 2005 at 10:40:58 AM EST
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