Sharon's Peace Plan

The Israeli government now plans to ban all Palestinian laborers from working in Israel within three years. Viewed together with the plan to disengage from Gaza and the northern West Bank as well as the construction of the security fence, this latest announcement provides the clearest picture yet of Sharon's grand strategy: complete separation between Israelis and Palestinians.

In the current situation, banning Palestinian workers will spell continued disaster for the Palestinian economy. That is undesirable for Israel for a number of reasons, including the fact that continued Palestinian economic trauma means that the global financiers of terrorism, like Hezbollah and Iran, will find no shortage of Palestinians willing to attempt terrorist attacks for cash. If this plan is to succeed, Israel will need to lobby for massive foreign investment to create jobs in the Palestinian territories. Industrial zones on the Egyptian and Jordianian borders--similar to the now defunct Erez zone--will also help boost the Palestinians' economy.

Though Sharon's strategy is unilateral and doesn't involve attempting to reach a permanent settlement to the conflict at this stage, it, ironically, will do more to benefit eventual peace than negotiations would at this point. By defining a provisional border and separating Israel from the Palestinians, Sharon is creating de facto the provisional Palestinian state called for by the "road map," and paving the way for a negotiated two-state solution in the future.