Sharon shocks Israel.

Byline: The Register-Guard

Will the real Ariel Sharon please stand up?

The feisty Israeli prime minister, who has developed a penchant for unexpected gambits, shocked his nation this weekend by announcing that he is washing his hands of the hard-line Likud Party he co-founded 30 years ago.

The 77-year-old Sharon says he's had all he can take of Likud's intransigence when it comes to resolving the conflict with the Palestinians, and he has ``no intention of allowing anyone to miss'' the ``historic opportunity'' occasioned by Israel's withdrawal from the Gaza Strip last summer. Sharon accused Likud of being unable to "lead Israel toward its national goals'' and said he would form a more centrist party focused on resolving "the final borders of the state."

Sharon's surprise announcement shook the foundations of Israeli politics and will force new elections early next year.

Stunned Israelis can be forgiven for wondering which hat now fits their unpredictable prime minister best: former army commander and godfather of the Jewish settlement movement, or architect of the unprecedented return to Palestinians of territory captured in the 1967 war? Defiant warrior or pragmatic peacemaker?

Signs point more toward peacemaker, especially in light of Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's recent breakthrough in deadlocked talks over Palestinian control of Gaza's border crossings. Few events in the blood-soaked years since the start of the second intifada have had as much potential to change the desperate plight of Gaza's 1.3 million impoverished Palestinians as Israel's removal of settlements.

But for Palestinians, that potential could never be realized if they remained confined by the Israeli military in the world's "largest open-air prison." They needed access to the outside world and the ability to move goods and people across Gaza's borders, something Israel had, for obvious security reasons, refused to allow.

Last week, Rice demonstrated how important high-level U.S. involvement in Mideast negotiations can be. Working through the night with envoy James Wolfensohn, Rice was able to overcome a stalemate that had threatened to indefinitely derail a Gaza agreement.

The new deal calls for opening Gaza's border with Egypt on Friday. European monitors will supervise border operations at the Rafah crossing, with Israel receiving closed-circuit TV transmissions of the crossings.

That was a clincher for Israel's security forces, allowing them to monitor the checkpoint for terrorists and weapons. The pact also will allow Palestinians to travel between the West Bank and Gaza in bus convoys starting in December.

Rice's success raises the bar for the Bush administration in brokering negotiations between the Israelis and Palestinians. President Bush should do everything in his power to capitalize on Rice's first major diplomatic breakthrough by nurturing Sharon's new willingness to push forward in the peace process.