Grace period needed

This week it appeared as though the country's senior leadership realized it crossed the line through its endless involvement in internal mud wrestling. Ehud Olmert and Amir Peretz realized, so it seems, that a country cannot be managed through mutual cursing. Personal hatred and contempt are not an agenda. It simply doesn't work.

So the prime minister dealt with diplomatic speeches meant to pick up the pulse and put some color back in his cheeks, the defense minister praised him and focused on the matters dealt with by his own ministry, the opposition issued scathing criticism over what it viewed as selling off the country, and an old-new justice minister was appointed.

Compared to what went on here last week and the week before that, the last days certainly constituted sensational news, a grace period miracle.

At the same time, we shouldn't be quick to rejoice. The relationship between Olmert and Peretz, between Olmert and Kadima, and between Peretz and his own party will supply quite a few headlines in the future. The relationships between those two leaders and between those who are supposed to stand by them are tense as always, and those holding on to long knives won't be throwing them away. They will only hide them, for now.

The (real) disengagement plan

Knesset Member Yisrael Katz, the veteran Likud member who opposed the Gaza disengagement, is a practical man.

"Reality has changed," he says, "so we need to adapt ourselves to the new reality. There's no choice. We have to be functional."

Functional. This is apparently the new trend in the Israeli Right, or at least in the Likud. In this framework, Katz prepared a diplomatic plan, whose full details are being published here for the first time, meant to turn the Likud into a functional party.

"If the Likud adopts my plan," Katz explains, "it would be able to present the Israeli public with something practical and defined that provides a clear answer regarding the policy we should adopt in Gaza, but not only there. The Likud hasn't had a clear, practical policy for a while now, and the current policy is confused and incommensurate with reality."

So what does Katz's plan include? First of all, total disengagement. From Gaza. Katz proposes that Israel adopt the same policy in the Strip that it does in Lebanon.

"These areas we evacuated should be free of fortifications and heavy weapons, and the policy of firing at targets should be the way it was at the end of the recent war in Lebanon: We should distribute leaflets calling on the population to evacuate areas used as launch sites, and then undertake massive activity against the infrastructure."

Katz argues that one of the main failures of the disengagement is the failure to disengage. Or in other words: Israel withdrew from Gaza, yet the connection to the Palestinian population and the Palestinian economy continues unabated. In fact, he says, Israel remained responsible for everything that goes on in the Palestinian Authority.

"We have to undertake a civilian separation," the former agriculture minister explains. We must complete the disengagement by terminating the entire civilian connection between Israel and Gaza, and we need to turn all the crossings used to transfer goods to international border crossings.

In fact, we need to annul the entire civilian-economic appendix of the Oslo Accord that established the civilian relationship with Gaza. What's happening right now is that if there's hunger in Gaza – we're responsible. This isn't what Sharon promised." Katz, by the way, supports the building of a seaport in Gaza for the Palestinians.

As to Judea and Samaria, Katz has slightly different plans. There, he says, we must act through strategic vision and wait patiently.

"In Judea and Samaria I'm in favor of a gradual civilian disengagement," Katz explains. "We have to reach an understanding with Jordan. Jordan doesn't have to be the Palestinian state, but we need to reach an agreement with it to connect it through an economic agreement to areas A and B in Judea and Samaria. Such deal would create an economic-civilian corridor."

No evacuations

In the event of an agreement with the Palestinians, Katz proposes two simple things: No permanent Jewish or Arab community would be removed or evacuated, and Israeli Arabs would be able to vote for either the Israeli Knesset or Palestinian parliament. Transfer?

"Heaven forbid. There will be no transfer of Arabs and we have to go for a functional solution. Those who talk about uprooting Arabs have no clue what they're talking about, and those who talk about uprooting Jews don't know what they're talking about.

"Once we have a final-status agreement, the Arabs will be given the possibility to choose where they vote, and the Jews beyond the Green Line would be able to, theoretically, if they wish, to vote for the Palestinian parliament. As to the Arabs, it will be like East Jerusalem today. They will continue living in Israel, but will vote if they want. Their nationality will be determined by their vote."

Katz says there are no malicious intentions behind his diplomatic plan. True, if Israel's Arabs decide to vote for the Palestinian parliament the number of their Knesset representatives will be smaller, but there's no reason to worry: Someone will be taking care of the Arabs. Katz is not bothered by the inherent contradiction created by the fact that Israel's Arabs, who will be facing a difficult internal conflict, won't be represented in the Knesset.

"Their rights as residents of Israel won't be undermined," he promises. "This is the solution and I believe there will be a consensus across the political spectrum on this matter. Currently we're seeking the wrong solutions, and therefore we need a functional solution like the one I'm offering.

"Currently we're living a bluff. After all, (Knesset Member) Azmi Bishara doesn't really represent the country. So he should be elected to the Palestinian parliament."

Katz promises that his plan will be brought up for discussion in Likud institutions in the near future.

"I hope the Likud adopts my plan, and then we'll be able to present a diplomatic solution to the public," he says.

We should pay attention to…

...Immediately after the prime minister announced that he's appointing Tzipi Livni as justice minister, interim Justice Minister Meir Sheetrit's close associations were heating up the atmosphere. "Sheetrit is furious, angry, mad," anonymous sources said. "He will make life hell for Olmert."

Oh well. Napoleon would probably ask where are the battalions that would allow Sheetrit to make life hell for Olmert. Therefore, before we get excited about Sheetrit's threats, we should remember that the fact he considers himself as a possible candidate to head Kadima doesn't automatically turn him into more than a candidate. And that's it. In democracies, anyone can be a candidate.

And if we're speaking of candidates, here's a historic moment: Immediately after Ariel Sharon's second collapses, a poll was undertaken that gave Kadima about 40 Knesset seats under the leadership of Shimon Peres, Ehud Olmert, or Tzipi Livni.

For curiosity's sake, the possibility of Sheetrit heading Kadima was also looked into. Then he got 28 Knesset seats. That was odd, yet based on this figure, today when Kadima gets 15 seats in the polls, Sheetrit would barely take this party above the threshold needed to get into the Knesset.

…slight optimism prevailed at Amir Peretz's office this week. The quiet that has descended on the political system put the defense minister's people in a good mood.

"Amir knows how to fight," one of Peretz's close associates said. "It's not easy right now, but the hard work is only beginning. He's recovering and the feeling is that he'll make it."

He'll make it, the defense minister's people say, as if a lack of popularity was a disease. May he get well.