From Warfare to Withdrawal: The Legacy of Ariel Sharon

What explains Sharon's policy of unilaterally disengaging from settlements he himself promoted and defended as necessary for Israel's security? His shift in policy can be explained by ideological and personality factors that enabled the change, in combination with more proximate, sufficient causes. Sharon's weak commitment to any one ideology, his present time orientation, his high risk propensity, and moderate cognitive flexibility enabled his significant policy changes. Sharon's straddling between Labor and Likud perspectives both acts as a permissive variable for some change, and also as a restraint on more extensive change, such as giving up the entire West Bank and dividing Jerusalem.