by David Landau
5. Ofir Akunis interview, Tel Aviv, June 7, 2009.
6. Anonymous interviews, Jerusalem, 2008–2009.
7. Ross, Missing Peace, 539.
8. Nonconfidence Resolution in the Prime Minister Submitted by the Likud Faction: His Policy Regarding Palestinian Activity in Jerusalem, Knesset Record, February 21, 2000.
9. Ross, Missing Peace, 585.
10. Akunis interview.
11. Anonymous interview.
12. Ross, Missing Peace, 599.
13. Ben-Ami, in Bregman, Elusive Peace, 68.
14. Bregman, Elusive Peace, 77.
15. Ibid.
16. Ben-Ami, Front Without a Rearguard, 224. See also Ben-Ami, Scars of War, Wounds of Peace.
17. Indyk, Innocent Abroad, 313, 330, 335.
18. No-Confidence Motion by the National Union Faction: Israel’s Sovereignty over Jerusalem, Knesset Record, July 24, 2000.
19. No-Confidence Motion by the Likud Faction: The Prime Minister’s Method of Negotiating at Camp David, Knesset Record, July 31, 2000.
20. Motion by the Likud Faction: The Prime Minister’s Trips Abroad to Negotiate with the Palestinians, Contravening Cabinet Decisions, Knesset Record, August 15, 2000.
21. They have since divorced and each remarried.
22. Sher, Just Beyond Reach, 282.
23. Harel and Isacharoff, Seventh War, 15. A similar account of the Arafat-Barak conversation appears in Bregman, Elusive Peace, 123.
24. Ben-Ami, Front Without a Rearguard, 287. Rajoub denied this version in his testimony before the Mitchell Commission and in his interview with Bregman, Elusive Peace.
25. Yossi Verter, “Sharon Will Climb Down—and Get the Second Spot,” Haaretz, September 28, 2000.
26. Amira Hass and Baruch Kra, “Visit by Sharon and the Likud on the Temple Mount Provokes a Storm,” Haaretz, September 29, 2000.
27. Uri Dan, whom the others kept out of this forum but who still tried to maintain his close relationship with Sharon, was enthusiastically in favor. In his book, he recalls accompanying Sharon, then minister of commerce, one freezing dawn in the mid-1980s on a demonstrative visit to the Wall after Palestinians had thrown stones at Jewish worshippers. “For Sharon, it was not a provocation but a confirmation of Israeli sovereignty over the site.” Dan, Ariel Sharon, 159.
28. Omri Sharon interviews, Yavne, 2008–2009.
29. “Senior Likudniks Stayed Away,” Yedioth Ahronoth, September 29, 2000.
30. Harel and Isacharoff, Seventh War, 18ff.
31. A report in Maariv, undenied, said the IDF’s Central Command fired 850,000 rounds of light-arms ammunition during the first month of the intifada. Ibid., 36.
32. Indyk, Innocent Abroad, 352.
33. Dan, Ariel Sharon, 176.
34. Ben-Ami, Front Without a Rearguard, 297ff.
35. Bregman, Elusive Peace, 129.
36. Yoel Marcus, “Rock of Our Existence—Part II,” Haaretz, October 3, 2000.
37. Ron Ben-Yishai, “Just Not Arafat,” Yedioth Ahronoth, October 2, 2000.
38. Ze’ev Schiff, “Some Lessons from the Riots,” Haaretz, October 27, 2000.
39. Special Session in Memory of Prime Minister and Defense Minister Yitzhak Rabin, Blessed Be His Memory, Knesset Record, November 9, 2000.
40. Indyk, Innocent Abroad, 359.
41. Ben-Ami, Front Without a Rearguard, 382.
42. Indyk, Innocent Abroad, 373–74.
43. Arieli and Sfard, Wall of Folly, 40.
44. Ibid., 41.
45. Yossi Verter, “Meridor: If the Clinton Parameters Become an Agreement, I’m Voting Sharon,” Haaretz, December 28, 2000.
46. Adler interviews, Tel Aviv, October–December 2007.
Chapter 13: Power Failure
1. Danny Ayalon interview, Jerusalem, December 24, 2007.
2. Harel and Isacharoff, Seventh War, 109.
3. Danon interview, Jerusalem, November 4, 2009.
4. Bregman, Elusive Peace, 151ff.; Harel and Isacharoff, Seventh War, 110.
5. Shaul Mofaz interview, Tel Aviv, March 3, 2008.
6. See Sean Yom and Basel Saleh, “Palestinian Suicide Bombers: A Statistical Analysis.”
7. Lior Shilat interview, Jerusalem, October 26, 2009.
8. Uri Shani interviews, Tel Aviv, September 2009.
9. Arnon Perlman interviews, Tel Aviv, June 2007.
10. Moshe Kaplinsky interview, Tel Aviv, July 6, 2007.
11. “The Cease-Fire: A Roadside Bomb in Samaria; Mortars in Gaza,” Ynet, June 4, 2001.
12. Shani interview.
13. Ibid.
14. Anonymous interview, Tel Aviv, June 30, 2008.
15. Omri Sharon interview, Yavne, August 11, 2009; phone conversation, August 23, 2009.
16. Avi Gil interview, Jerusalem, December 2009.
17. Binyamin Ben-Eliezer interview, Tel Aviv, March 20, 2008.
18. Danon interview.
19. Shani interview.
20. Miller, Much Too Promised Land, 333.
21. Dan Kurtzer interview, Herzliya, July 2009.
22. “The White House: Sharon’s Statement About Appeasement of the Arab World Is Unacceptable,” Ynet, October 5, 2001.
23. Miller, Much Too Promised Land, 336.
24. New York Times, September 12, 2001.
25. Harel and Isacharoff, Seventh War, 169.
26. “Sharon: There Are Some Things I Have to Do Which I Don’t Like,” Haaretz, January 1, 2001.
27. Bregman, Elusive Peace, 168–69.
28. Clancy, Battle Ready, 394.
29. Ibid., 395.
30. Mofaz interview.
31. Harel and Isacharoff, Seventh War, 181–88.
32. “The Netanyahu Effect Takes Its Toll,” Haaretz, December 5, 2001.
33. Yossi Verter, “Sharon Against the Central Committee,” Haaretz, July 23, 2001.
34. Bregman, Elusive Peace, 178.
35. Miller, Much Too Promised Land, 341.
36. Clancy, Battle Ready, 402.
37. Bregman, Elusive Peace, 186.
38. The account that follows of Operation Defensive Shield relies heavily on Harel and Isacharoff, Seventh War.
39. Clancy, Battle Ready, 404.
40. Powell, in Bregman, Elusive Peace, 196.
41. Ibid., 200.
42. Bregman, Elusive Peace, 212.
43. Ibid., 215.
44. Avigdor Yitzhaki interview, Tel Aviv, March 26, 2008.
45. Perlman interview.
46. Anonymous interview, Tel Aviv, December 6, 2006.
47. Kaplinsky interview.
48. Michal Modai interview, Tel Aviv, November 22, 2006.
Chapter 14: King of Israel
1. Yossi Verter, “Sharon Reassures: My Policy Will Take No Account of ‘Political Considerations,’ ” Haaretz, May 14, 2002.
2. Appointment of Defense Minister, Knesset Record, November 4, 2002.
3. “Netanyahu to Be Sworn in Today,” Haaretz, November 6, 2002.
4. Speech to Tenth Annual Caesarea Economic Forum, July 9, 2002.
5. Harel and Isacharoff, Seventh War, 196–97. The authors cite an unnamed senior officer who told them the Israeli policy makers were ready to countenance ten innocent fatalities in order to kill Shehadeh. “It was a choice between the lives of ten Palestinians and the lives of tens of Israelis.”
6. Ibid., 172.
7. Ibid., 195.
8. Ibid., 199, 202. Bregman’s figures in Elusive Peace are similar: thirty-three Palestinians assassinated in 2001 and thirty-seven in 2002.
9. When Richard Haass, director of policy planning at State, sought to raise his concerns about a war with Rice in early July, the national security adviser “cut him off. ‘Save your breath,’ she told him, in Haass’s recollection. ‘The president has made up his mind.’ ” Bumiller, Condoleezza Rice, 185.
10. Bregman, Elusive Peace, 231–33.
11. Ibid., 235–42.
12. Hefez and Bloom, Shepherd, 629–31.
14. Keynote Address to the Herzliya Conference, 2002.
15. “Sharon: Mitzna’s Plan Is an Illusion,” Haaretz, December 23, 2002.
16. The State Comptroller’s Report on the Parties’ Accounts for the Prime Ministerial Election, February 6, 2001, and on the Parties’ Current Accounts for the Period 1.6.1999–28.2.2001, October 1, 2001.
17. Tel Aviv chief magistrate Edna Beckenstein, sentencing Omri Sharon and Gabriel Manor, February 14, 2006.
18. Ibid. The ceiling was a factor of how long a particular campaign lasted; the longest campaign period covered by the law was nine months.
19. Mordechai Gilat, Michal Grayevsky, and Mali Kempner, “The Greek Island Affair,” Shiva Yamim/Yedioth Ahronoth, March 16, 2001. The following paragraphs also draw on the Draft Indictment Against Ariel Sharon and Gilad Sharon, March 2004; and on the Decision of the Attorney General in the Matter of Ariel Sharon and Gilad Sharon in the Greek Island Affair and Appel’s Lands, June 15, 2004.
20. The story carried a triple byline: By Mordechai Gilat, Gidi Weitz, and Michal Grayevsky.
21. “Sharon Fuming: ‘UK Interfering in Election,’ ” Yedioth Ahronoth, January 5, 2003.
22. Hefez and Bloom, Shepherd, 652.
23. Amram Mitzna interview, Yeruham, December 25, 2007.
24. Adler interview, Tel Aviv, October 25, 2007.
25. Silvan Shalom interview, Tel Aviv, December 21, 2006.
26. Omri Sharon interview, Tel Aviv, March 24, 2010.
27. United Torah Judaism, as we shall see, joined Sharon’s government in 2005, before the disengagement.
28. Omri Sharon interview, Tel Aviv, January 5, 2011.
Chapter 15: About-Face
1. U.S. Department of State Web site.
2. Yossi Verter, “The Hawks Succumbed to Sharon’s Power,” Haaretz, May 26, 2003.
3. Hefez and Bloom, Shepherd, 696.
4. Efraim Halevy interview, Tel Aviv, May 20, 2008.
5. Moshe Ya’alon interview, Jerusalem, June 12, 2008.
6. Amir Oren, “The Thousand-Day War,” Haaretz, June 3, 2003.
7. Maariv–Hagal Hahadash poll.
8. Uzi Benziman, “The Hudna Came Too Soon,” Haaretz, June 20, 2003.
9. Drucker and Shelah, Boomerang, 324.
10. Bregman, Elusive Peace, 268.
11. Harel and Isacharoff, Seventh War, 305, 315.
12. “Israel Inciting U.S. to Iraq War, Says Arafat,” Daily Times (Lahore), March 3, 2003.
13. Bill Keller, “Is It Good for the Jews?,” New York Times, March 8, 2003.
14. The main headline of Yedioth that day was “Four Shin Bet Chiefs Warn: Israel Is in Serious Danger.”
15. David Landau, “Unilateral, Though Not Unequivocal,” Haaretz, November 14, 2003.
16. Nahum Barnea, “Olmert Withdraws from the Territories,” Yedioth Ahronoth, December 5, 2003.
17. Dov Weissglas interviews, Tel Aviv, July 10, 27, August 24, 2008, September 15, 2010; Eival Gilady interviews, Tel Aviv, February and May 2008. Arieli and Sfard put the encompassed areas at closer to 20 percent. Wall of Folly, 97.
18. Gilady interviews, February 26, 2008; May 8, 2008.
19. Kurtzer interview.
20. “Sharon: Corrections,” Haaretz, December 3, 2003.
21. Drucker and Shelah, Boomerang, 258–59.
22. Weissglas interview, Tel Aviv, July 10, 2008.
23. The author was editor in chief of Haaretz at the time of the disengagement.
Chapter 16: Island in the Sun
1. “Dispute Among Police over Sharon’s Involvement,” Haaretz, October 31, 2003.
2. Amir Oren, “Wise Men and Presidents,” Haaretz, October 3, 2006.
3. Baruch Kra, “Gilad Sharon Repaid Kern with Another Mysterious Transfer from the Austrian Bank,” Haaretz, August 27, 2003.
4. “Hendel: Sharon Is Base and Corrupt,” Haaretz, October 25, 2004.
5. Sharon, dir. Dror Moreh, 2007.
6. Hefez and Bloom, Shepherd, 731.
7. Tsur, Disengaging from the Strip, 172.
8. The Prime Minister’s Disengagement Plan and Policy in the Territories, Knesset Record, March 15, 2004.
9. Harel and Isacharoff, Seventh War, 208ff., 321ff.
10. Shani interview.
11. Harel and Isacharoff, Seventh War, 324.
12. Tsur, Disengaging from the Strip, 194.
13. Debate on the Implementation of the Disengagement Law, Knesset Record, November 2, 2004.
14. Motion for the Agenda by National Union–Yisrael Beiteinu: The Government’s Reliance on the Extreme Left, Knesset Record, January 17, 2005.
Chapter 17: “You Worry Too Much”
1. Tsur, Disengaging from the Strip, 199.
2. Hefez and Bloom, Shepherd, 753.
3. The following section draws heavily on the Final Report of the Judicial Commission of Inquiry into the State Authorities’ Handling of the People Evacuated from Gush Katif and Northern Samaria. This commission, under the Supreme Court justice Yehoshua Matza, was created by the State Control Committee of the Knesset in February 2009, following a series of critical reports submitted by the state comptroller. As provided by the Commissions of Inquiry Law, the three members of the commission were appointed by the chief justice of the Supreme Court. The commission published an interim report in September 2009 and its final report in June 2010.
4. The date was later brought forward to July 20, to ensure completion well before the Jewish High Holidays, which fell in early October. The date was then changed again to August 15, so as not to coincide with the annual mourning period for the destruction of the Temple. This ends with the fast of Tisha B’Av, which fell that year on August 14. Subsequently, nevertheless, national-religious circles have incorporated mourning for Gush Katif into the Tisha B’Av rites.
5. “Land of Israel Supporters Buoyed by Human Chain,” Arutz Sheva Israel National News, July 26, 2004.
6. Jeffrey Goldberg, “Protect Sharon from the Right,” New York Times, August 5, 2004; Yossi Verter, “Sharon and the Right,” Haaretz, August 13, 2004.
7. Hefez and Bloom, Shepherd, 754.
8. Arik Bender, Ben Caspit, and Yifat Zohar, “The Calls on the Right Are Intended to Foment Civil War,” Maariv-NRG, September 12, 2004.
9. “The People Is Against Withdrawal—and the People Is Us,” Maariv-NRG, September 12, 2004.
10. Yoel Marcus, “He’s Got a Mandate. And How!,” Haaretz, October 22, 2004.
11. Yossi Verter, “Obsessively,” Haaretz, October 22, 2004.
12. “Top PM Aide: Gaza Plan Aims to Freeze the Peace Process,” Haaretz, October 6, 2004.
13. Weissglas interview, Tel Aviv, June 18, 2008.
14. He died in 2007, at the age of fifty-seven.
15. Nadav Shragai, “The Settlers Invoke Heaven,” Haaretz, October 27, 2004.
16. Government Statement on the Amended Disengagement Plan, Knesset Record, October 26, 2004.
17. Hefez and Bloom, Shepherd, 762.
18. Yisrael Maimon interview, Tel Aviv, June 2008.
19. Yossi Verter, “Rabbi Eliashiv Rules,” Haaretz, January 7, 2005.
20. Conversation with author, March 22, 2005.
21. Ya’alon interview.
22. “IDF Bids Farewell to Ya’alon and Welcomes the Disengagement CoS, Dan Halutz,” Haaretz, June 1, 2005.
23. “It Is Impossible to Have a Jewish and Democratic State and to Rule over the Whole Land,” Haaretz, September 26, 2005.
24. Aharon Abramowitz (committee chairman) interview, Mevasseret Zion, December 2010.
25. Aluf Benn, “He’s Leaving the Likud for an ‘Ingathering Plan,’ ” Haaretz, November 21, 2005.
26. “Abbas: Olmert Negotiations Would Have Succeeded,” JPost.com, October 14, 2012; conversations with Olmert.
27. Robin Wright, “Rice Cites ‘Progress’ in Talks to Open Gaza Border Cros
sing,” Washington Post, November 15, 2005.
28. Dan, Ariel Sharon, 250.
29. Yossi Verter, “Men in a Trap,” Haaretz, March 7, 2008.
30. Anonymous interview, August 2008.
Chapter 18: To Sleep, Too Soon
1. Danon interview.
2. “Sharon Was Unable to Count His Fingers,” Maariv, December 19, 2005.
3. “Sharon: Don’t Overdo the Doughnuts,” Haaretz, December 26, 2005.
4. Ran Reznick, “How Much Does Sharon Really Weigh?,” Haaretz, December 27, 2005.
5. “The Doctors: Sharon’s Not in Danger but He Must Rest,” Haaretz, December 20, 2005.
6. Shani interview, September 30, 2009.
7. Neri Livneh, “Decade in Review: The Day the Prime Minister Was Felled by a Stroke,” Haaretz, December 25, 2009.
8. Anonymous interview.
9. Aluf Benn, Tamara Traubman, and Ran Reznick, “Sharon to Have Another CT This Morning,” Haaretz, January 6, 2006.
10. Ibid.
11. Livneh, “Decade in Review.”
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Arieli, Shaul, and Michael Sfard. The Wall of Folly. Tel Aviv: Books in the Attic and Yedioth Ahronoth, 2008
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