Moving Israel Forward?

By Jeff Chu

Ariel Sharon is nicknamed the Bulldozer. The Israeli Prime Minister showed why last week. He reshaped the political landscape by ditching his right-wing Likud Party--which he helped found in 1973--and forming a new centrist bloc called Kadima (Hebrew for forward). Sharon, who will lead the party into elections in March, said he wants to focus on the Israeli-Palestinian road map for peace, not on "wasting time in political struggles," a swipe at the Likud hawks who have undermined him. His top adviser, Reuven Adler, blamed them, not the Palestinians, for failure to advance the peace process. "The rebels made his work very hard," Adler told TIME. "The setbacks occurred because of the rebels."

One Likud loyalist, former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, has emerged as the top candidate to take on Sharon and leftist Labor Party leader Amir Peretz in next spring's election. Netanyahu, known as a hawk, told TIME he will campaign as a center-right candidate against the dovish Labor and Kadima, which an aide said Netanyahu plans to paint as "Labor in disguise." Under Sharon, "a de facto Palestinian state has been created in Gaza. Terrorist organizations became stronger," Netanyahu said, adding, "I believe there's a different road to peace."

Palestinian officials fear that Sharon's move, apparently meant to rejuvenate the peace process, may stall it. Although Palestinians last week celebrated the opening of the Rafah crossing between Gaza and Egypt--the first border post under Palestinian control--a Cabinet minister said he is worried that Israeli jockeying will hinder further progress: "Politicians will now be interested in playing internal Israeli games, rather than working for peace with the Palestinians."

With reporting by Jamil Hamad/Ramallah, Matthew Kalman, Michal Levertov/Jerusalem