Israel’s Dissident

Sharansky now argues that Palestini-an society needs wholesale economic and political reform before it is ready for more democracy or a peace deal with Israel—a view Netanyahu shares. "You can't focus on building the penthouse before you build the 19 stories underneath," says Dermer. He adds that both Sharansky and Netanyahu favor the creation of economic development projects, such as new industrial zones close to Palestinian population centers, as a way to turn the Palestinians into a potential partner. The difference, says Dermer, "is in their level of optimism. Natan believes it could happen relatively quickly. Netanyahu is more skeptical. For Bibi, it may be a generation." Palestinians and Israeli doves argue such a long view is just a stalling tactic to permit more settlement building.

In the meantime Sharansky, never one to put all his eggs in one basket, has begun to court the United States' new president-elect. The Israeli says he read and enjoyed Barack Obama's first book, "Dreams From My Father," and that he and Obama might actually have more in common ideologically than he did with Bush. Sharansky has long argued that successful democratization has to come from the bottom up and can't be imposed from above. "I think Obama is a bottom-up kind of person," he says. "His whole campaign was about appealing to the grass roots." Sharansky has already reached out to Obama; they met about a year and a half ago in the senator's office, where the Israeli gave Obama his pitch. Sharansky says he tried to meet the other Democratic presidential candidates too, but Obama was the only one who returned his call.

© 2008