Jude Wanniski's Final Article: After Gaza: Sharon's victory?

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After Gaza: Sharon's victory? by Jude Wanniski Sunday 28 August 2005 12:23 PM GMT

Perhaps the most pleasant surprise of the year so far has been Israel’s fulfillment of its promise to clear the Gaza Strip of the 8,000 Jewish settlers. Those of us who doubted Prime Minister Ariel Sharon would carry out his plan to completion are now saying this may be his "finest hour."

Still, it is difficult to forget that Sharon was the man most responsible for locating the settlements on land Israel seized in its pre-emptive 1967 war with Egypt and Jordan.

Because the pullout from Gaza was unilateral on Sharon’s part, not having been negotiated with the Palestinian Authority, the world is now waiting to see how he will deal with the West Bank settlements, where some 400,000 Jews have built their homes and businesses since 1967.

At 76 years of age and soon to face new elections, is Sharon even prepared to negotiate with Mahmoud Abbas, over Palestinian claims over the rest of the land Israel seized in 1967?

If there is nothing more up his sleeve, it is to be expected that Palestinian leaders associated with Hamas will threaten a return to violence.

Their logic will be that Sharon would not have given an inch of Gaza if it were not for the most recent, most violent intifada. It alone enabled Sharon to persuade enough of his Likud Party that it had to make concessions as long as he did not have to make them to Yasir Arafat, whose death last year opened the door for serious movement in this direction.

The Bush Administration is of course hoping some time will be allowed for consolidation before Palestinians demand more steps toward a Palestinian state that includes most of the West Bank. Abbas reportedly called Sharon recently, telling him he hoped the Gaza experience would open a new page in relations and the two agreed to meet soon.

That sounds promising, but at the same time Sharon has made it clear there will be no further unilateral withdrawals from the West Bank beyond the four small sites being cleared after Gaza. And he has stated that he would continue to build within the existing settlement blocs in the West Bank and try to link one of them, Maale Adumim, to Jerusalem.

Writing from Gaza, Steven Erlanger of the New York Times reminds us that it is widely expected that Sharon will now move back toward his right-wing Likud base as he readies for new elections, perhaps as early as the spring. All of this seems ominous to Pat Buchanan, an astute observer of the complexities of Middle East issues:

"What is going to happen now is wearily predictable. After Sharon has withdrawn the last settler, he will demand $2.2 billion for his heroic achievement. The request, already in, breaks down to $1 million for every family moved out of Gaza. Bush and Congress, who only in May raised the death benefit for families of GIs killed in Iraq from $12,000 to $100,000, will fall all over one another expediting the latest tranche of US tax dollars.

"Then the scenario will play out as Dov Weisglass, ex-chief of staff to Sharon, mockingly described. Under the deal Weisglass cut with pliant Bush aides in 2004, ratified in Bush's public letter to Sharon, Israeli disengagement from Gaza and a few outposts on the West Bank "supplies the amount of formaldehyde necessary so there will not be a political process with the Palestinians."

"What I effectively agreed to with the Americans was that part of the settlements would not be dealt with at all," Weisglass said, "and the rest will not be dealt with until the Palestinians turn into Finns." The "road map" – the peace plan agreed to by the United States, United Nations, European Union and Russia – Weisglass merrily told the paper Ha'aretz, is dead.

If Sharon now informs President Bush that Israel has made a sacrifice of Gaza, and no more progress toward a viable Palestinian state can be made until all violence ends and Hamas and Islamic Jihad are disarmed, what will Bush do? Buchanan answers his own question: "Nothing," he says.

I am not sure about that and I believe Buchanan is basing his skepticism on an awareness that the American Jewish community is already saying nothing more can be done unless the Palestinian Authority forces the disarmament of Hamas and Islamic Jihad.

The only possible favorable interpretation of the withdrawal from Gaza is that it puts Israel in a sounder position strategically, because it no longer has settlers in Gaza to worry about if it finds it necessary to strike back at the Arabs living there.

To argue that it will delay Arab demands for more giveaways is foolish. On the contrary, it will merely encourage them to think that violence gets results.

As you say, Wanniski seems to have been politically naive.

Yep. That was sudden. He was a close collaborator with Paul Craig Roberts who did the nuts and bolts work of implementing the supply-side tax cuts.

Supply-side inventor Jude Wanniski dies Author, WND columnist succumbs to heart attack
World NetDaily August 29, 2005

Jude Wanniski

Economist Jude Wanniski, the man who coined the term "supply-side economics," died of a heart attack earlier today at 69.

The former WND columnist was founder and chairman of Polyconomics, Inc., and author of the 1978 book "The Way the World Works," named one of the 100 most influential books of the 20th century by the editors of the National Review. At the heart of the book is his 1978 discovery of the cause of the 1929 stock market crash, a discovery that vindicates the classical economics, which had been blamed for the crash and the Great Depression.

"Jude will be greatly missed by all who knew him," said Joseph Farah, editor and founder of WND. "To me he was a curmudgeonly adviser and friend. He had a sharp and biting wit and never hesitated to say what was on his mind – whether you liked it or not."

It was during his tenure as associate editor of The Wall Street Journal – 1972 to 1978 – that he coined the phrase "supply-side economics." He was an adviser to Ronald Reagan from 1978 to 1981, and designed the Reagan tax cuts that propelled the U.S. economy out of stagflation and led to the great stock market boom that followed.

He counseled Democrats as well as Republicans in the years since, pro bono, and developed pro-growth strategies for several governments.

In recent years, he became an ardent anti-war activist.

Wanniski appeared frequently in the broadcast and print media, and also wrote weekly commentary for the Polyconomics website. He also presided over a free, virtual "Supply-side University," which has 3,000 registered students around the world. Wanniski held a B.A. in political science and an M.S. in journalism from UCLA.

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