Is Sharon softening?

last updated 8 January 2015

Jerusalem

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon caused a ruckus in his conservative Likud Party this week when he said Israel would have to give up some of the Jewish settlements in the West Bank. It was the first time the hard-liner had ever openly considered making unilateral concessions without first winning a Palestinian promise to stop terrorism. “Ultimately, we will not be in all the places we are now,” he told his party. “I do not rule out unilateral steps.” But Sharon also said he would consider drawing his own border for a future Palestinian state, and the Palestinians were unimpressed with that idea. “Peace is negotiations and agreeing between the Palestinians and Israel,” said chief Palestinian negotiator Saab Erekat, “not between Sharon and himself.”