Why does Sharon need Peres?

[Englander]

By Akiva Eldar

What need does a party called Kadima (forward) have for a serial loser? Did Ariel Sharon's strategic consultants not warn him that Benjamin Netanyahu would hang Shimon (Oslo) Peres around his neck? Did they really not consider the possibility that the last remnant of the Mapai era would send the Likud back to its former loves?

It is hard to believe that Sharon did not take all this into account when he decided to embrace the political orphan. But despite everything, Peres is the prime minister's most important possession. To Sharon, one picture with him in The New York Times or Le Monde is worth more than thousands of votes in Jerusalem and Dimona.

For the sake of another term at the head of the Ministry for Developing the Negev and the Galilee, the Nobel Peace Prize laureate will continue to travel from capital to capital, living proof that his boss is a man of peace. When the man who for years led a rival party explains that he joined Sharon in order "to build an infrastructure for peace" - who will doubt Sharon's commitment to peace? Even if in the meantime, the settlement outposts flourish and the peace process languishes, do not worry: As long as Shimon is in the kitchen, something is surely cooking with Abu Ala (Ahmed Qureia). And if Defense Minister Avi Dichter spoils the broth with a series of targeted assassinations, Peres will take his "peace team" to Europe and show the world that everything is all right.

It is worth taking note of the new terminology in Peres' political lexicon: He makes do with saying that Sharon will build "an infrastructure for peace." This is not exactly a peace agreement, but something similar, such as a separation fence built along a route determined by the stronger side, based on the map of the "settlement blocs." If the Palestinians behave nicely, the Kadima government will even consider letting them call the Swiss cheese that remains in their hands a "temporary state."

More at;
Haaretz

[no_hypocrisy]

1. Easy: To ensure lack of resistance from other political factions in the

Israeli Parliment if Peres is on his team.

[barb162]

2. accounting concept of goodwill