Heavy on Begin's Team

His countrymen refer to him, both admiringly and pejoratively, as "the Bulldozer." He walks like a man about to topple forward under his weight (235 lbs.), each large step shaking the floor as he advances. Both the sobriquet and the gait are appropriate, for Israel's new Defense Minister, Ariel ("Arik") Sharon, 53, whose responsibilities include administration of the Arab territories occupied since 1967, is already exerting more political weight than all his colleagues combined in Prime Minister Menachem Begin's four-week-old Cabinet.

Last week, as Begin met in Alexandria with Egyptian President Anwar Sadat, it was Sharon who spelled out the final schedule for the Israeli withdrawal from the Sinai desert next April. A fortnight earlier he had issued new guidelines for Israeli forces serving in the occupied territories. Henceforth, they should avoid entering Arab schools in the West Bank, Gaza Strip and Golan Heights; roadblock checks should be as civil as possible; and efforts should be made not to treat large segments of the Arab population as terrorist sympathizers. The orders amounted to an admission that the dour, ironfisted occupation policy of the previous 16 months, during which demonstrating Arab youngsters were occasionally fired upon by Israeli soldiers, was a failure.

That such changes should be initiated by Sharon stunned many Israelis. He was, after all, a tireless, ofttimes abrasive advocate of Jewish settlement in Arab territory and a ruthless fighter against terrorism in the Gaza Strip between 1970 and 1972. Born in what was then the British mandate of Palestine, Sharon has been a hard-line Zionist all his life. At 14, he signed on with GADNA, then an underground paramilitary youth organization defending Jewish settlements. During a military career that spanned nearly three decades he earned a reputation both as a swashbuckling, Patton-like commander who sometimes overstepped his orders and as a brilliant tactician. In 1953 he created an international incident by leading an Israeli raid into Jordan that left 69 Jordanian civilians dead. Miffed because he had been passed over for the post of chief of staff, he resigned from the army in 1973 to seek a political career. When his reserve unit was activated during the October 1973 war, he saved the day for Israel by leading a task force to attack the Egyptian Second Army, helping to bring Israeli tank columns to within 63 miles of Cairo.

Frustration at what he considered lack of support for his effort to "finish the war" decisively before a cease-fire and a U.S.-sponsored disengagement agreement forced Israel to retreat back across the Suez Canal fueled his interest in politics even more. He was elected to the Knesset in December 1973 and in 1977 joined Begin's first government as Agriculture Minister. There he established a reputation less for his initiatives in farming methods than for his relentless encouragement of Israeli civilian settlement in occupied territories (when he took over the portfolio, there were 70 such settlements with 12,000 people; now there are 135 with 28,000 residents). Convinced that Israel's security could be guaranteed only if the territories were controlled by Israel, Sharon announced a plan to settle 2 million Jews there over two decades.

Sharon's outspokenness has earned him a well-deserved reputation for arrogance--not only toward Arabs but also toward Israel's few friends in the world. He is contemptuous of U.S. attempts to be evenhanded in the Middle East. "The Americans should not treat Israel as 'natives,' " he said after President Reagan lifted the temporary U.S. embargo on F-15 and F-16 jet fighters, "and we should not behave as beggars."

Against that backdrop, West Bank Arabs were scarcely impressed last month by Sharon's new guidelines. Declared Anabta Mayor Wahid Hamdallah: "We all know Sharon. We cannot trust him." Ironically, Sharon is one of the few men around Begin who favors negotiation with Palestinians--even with the P.L.O.--although he firmly opposes the creation of a Palestinian state. "One negotiates with enemies, not friends," he explained before coming into the Cabinet in 1977. If Israel ever decides to talk to the P.L.O. leaders face to face and taps him for such negotiations, Sharon will be ready. As one of his aides explained, "We have to live with the Arabs, since both they and we are going to stay here forever."

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