Aiding the Enemy

Who would have imagined that anyone could turn a vacillating dictator like Yasir Arafat into a hero, while also sowing discord between Israel and its greatest ally?

Ariel Sharon has managed to do both. And by defying President Bush's appeals and using helicopters paid for with United States tax dollars to destroy Palestinian homes and lives, he is also undermining American credibility in the region.

Now there is also a growing risk of a larger war. Israel is understandably outraged by Hezbollah rocket attacks from Lebanon and is contemplating striking back — at Syria. An Israeli cabinet member said this week that Israel was seriously considering hitting Syrian targets, and acknowledged: "The magnitude of the conflict may be a huge one."

Mr. Sharon is, of course, brutally provoked by Mr. Arafat's duplicity and dalliance with terrorism, and one can't help sympathizing with his need to satisfy an Israeli electorate that understandably demands a response to bombings. Yet Mr. Arafat is such a catastrophe as a leader that it falls upon Mr. Sharon to display enough wisdom for both.

Unfortunately, Mr. Sharon has made a career of responding to Palestinian outrages by pursuing rash military solutions that ultimately harm Israel rather than bolster it.