ABSTRACT
After three years of relying heavily on the IDF to impose a military decision on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon finally came to the conclusion that the conflict’s stalemate would have to be solved on a political level. As was seen in the previous chapter, PM Sharon (and the majority of the Israeli population) did not believe that there was any credible negotiator on the Palestinian side. This belief was partially changed following Yasser Arafat’s death on 11 November 2004, but reverted back to its original stance once Hamas won the Palestinian Council elections.1 In any case, by December 2003, Sharon decided to progress with the Road Map peace initiative through unilateral disengagement.
