Sharon's Latest Move

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon is considering land swaps with the Palestinians wherein Israeli Arabs would live under Palestinian rule, presumably with Israel gaining formal rights to areas of dense Jewish settlement in the Occupied Territories. The first question that comes to mind here is whether the Israeli Arabs will go along with this. And regardless of whether Sharon is serious, the fact he's proposing all this from the right really affects the overall Israeli political climate. Meanwhile, Labor party leader Shimon Peres has promised to join the government if settlements are removed, a sentiment echoed by Benjamin Ben-Eliezer and Ehud Barak.