by Patrick J. Buchanan – April 26, 2002

Ariel Sharon is now contemplating annexation of half of the West Bank. So The Washington Times reports, and so Israel’s Foreign Minister confirms. And if Sharon is that cocky, who can blame him? Indeed, why does he not simply annex it all?

After all, who is going to stop him?

Certainly not the Americans. In short order, Sharon has put Arafat under arrest, smashed his Palestinian Authority, killed hundreds of his fighters, locked up thousands more in camps and jails, eclipsed his rival Netanyahu, become the most popular man in Israel, and bested the president of the United States in a face-off, as the president conceded defeat by declaring him a “man of peace.”