When Ariel Sharon declared that, should there be no progress along the road map, he would go it alone and declare a unilateral settlement, there were immediate fears of more violence. Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qorei has since said he is committed to his side of the road map. He added a warning of his own: A unilateral Israeli settlement would only make things worse.

In the same vein albeit in more circumspect terms, the United States too warned Israel against any attempt to impose a settlement outside the road map. The fact that this White House has such close relations with Sharon makes criticism of him all the more striking. But given that Washington is one of the co-authors of the road map and has pinned all its hopes on this particular peace plan, Sharon should have expected such a reaction.

Jewish settlers, once a bedrock of support for Sharon, are just as opposed to the prime minister’s plan. Sharon has made their life precarious: They fear they will have to abandon their homes as part of his announced plans. Many settlers say they feel betrayed by the man who was seen as the champion of the settler movement and have vowed to resist any attempt to remove them. But the figures suggest that what meets the eye is very different from what the settlers see is coming.

Sharon did not mention any specific settlements by name, and reports say that in the long term whatever happens will only affect 15-20 settlements — many of them little more than a collection of shipping containers or caravans.

The issue does not concern tens of thousands of settlers, merely an estimated 100 families. Some settlers have taken comfort in the fact that Sharon’s plan is short on detail: They doubt the measures will really be implemented.

But one thing Sharon has been crystal clear on is the wall of separation, insisting that work on it will even be speeded up, regardless what happens in the peace process. The construction of the barrier has been criticized by the UN for also cutting off hundreds of thousands of Palestinians from their jobs, fields, hospitals and schools.

Sharon has not set out any specific timetable for his possible unilateral move, just an ultimatum of a few months. But the story has a more immediate second chapter. He is planning a visit to Washington next month to present his case to President Bush. The premier seems determined to carry out his own version of a final settlement — with or without the Palestinians.

But because there is so much resistance to his plan, the United States as the chief mediator will then have an opportunity to tell Sharon in person that any attempt to throw away the road map and design a settlement by himself is unacceptable.