A Red Herring?

I have been suspicious about Sharon's efforts to pull out of Gaza for a while now, and his other actions only further my suspicion. I am now starting to think that the deal will be for Israel to pull out of Gaza, and in return take large parts of the West Bank to help secure its borders. However, there may be another motivation on Sharon's part. He could be attempting to get the Israeli far-right to implode. From the Jerusalem Post:

Shin-Bet Chief Avi Dichter warned the cabinet on Sunday that dozens of hard core right-wing extremists "have the potential to commit an act of terror" against Prime Minister Ariel Sharon or the Temple Mount in an attempt to stop the disengagement plan.

Dichter said that the number of cases of extremist statements threatening the prime minister has more than tripled from last spring. The Shin Bet tracked 70 such statements made by leaders of the extreme right from December to February.

The statements included: "Yigal Amir is alive, Rabin is dead, and Sharon will die too," "Sharon is worse than Arafat," "Sharon will meet Arafat in hell," "the government declared war on the Torah and Judaism," "a political assassination would be welcome," and "pray for Sharon's death to stop the diplomatic process."

I now must wonder if Sharon is hoping to discredit the far-right in Israel, by goading them into taking actions which will hurt their credibility with the rest of Israeli society. They are overly powerful in Israeli politics, especially through the settler community, and weakening their authority and control over the Israeli political machine would make things much easier for those hoping to find a peaceful solution. The primary impediment to this is the Palestinians, of course, but assuming they do somehow find some common sense somewhere, the Israeli far-right will be the next barricade. Removing them from the scene early on might make the rest of the job easier. Assuming, of course, that this is part of the plan.