I sraeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon is known as "the Bulldozer" for his relentless approach to problem solving. Mr. Sharon likes to create "facts on the ground" that make certain outcomes -- his preferred outcomes -- inevitable. Recently, Mr. Sharon announced that he was prepared to proceed with unilateral disengagement from the occupied territories in an attempt to solve the Palestinian problem once and for all.
Mr. Sharon's announcement has enraged the right in Israel. It has also worried Palestinians and Americans who fear that it is an end run around the "road map," which is designed to create a two-state solution to the violence between Israelis and Palestinians.
In a much anticipated speech, Mr. Sharon on Dec. 12 said the Palestinian failure to implement the road map -- the peace process worked out by the United States, European Union, Russia and the United Nations -- would require him to take unilateral action to protect Israel. If the Palestinian Authority did not live up to its end of the deal "in a few months," Israel would unilaterally pull back from land it seized in the 1967 Mideast War, relocate settlements and withdraw troops.