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Al-Ahram Weekly 25 - 31 March 1999 Issue No. 422 
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Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Al-Ahram Weekly 25 - 31 March 1999 Issue No. 422
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Egypt Region International Economy Opinion Culture Focus Profile Features Travel Living Sports People Time Out Chronicles Cartoons Letters 'Nothing to talk about'
By Khaled AmayrehIsrael escalated its sabre-rattling against the Palestinian Authority this week, after PA President Yasser Arafat threatened to resume the Intifada if Israel tried to deprive the Palestinians of their right to self-determination and statehood.
Israeli officials, from Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu down, issued statements warning the PA against "misreading Israel's resolve."
On Saturday, a statement from Netanyahu's office warned the Palestinians that Israel would take "strong and swift action" if the PA unilaterally declared a Palestinian state. But the statement did not elaborate on what kind of action it would take. The Israeli daily newspaper Ha'aretz said on Sunday that Israel would annex a large portion of the West Bank if Arafat formally declared a Palestinian state.
As well as preparing to annex 70 per cent of the West Bank, Israel is drawing up contingency plans to take over the seven Palestinian towns currently under PA administration.
According to the Israeli press, the two plans, code-named "Operation Thorn Field" and "Musical Fascination", involve stationing snipers on rooftops, deploying special forces inside the towns and using helicopter gunships to quell violent Palestinian protests.
The renewed warnings came a few days after the latest row between Israel and the European Union (EU) broke out over the status of Jerusalem. The EU recently affirmed that it considers the whole of Jerusalem as a corpus separatum (separate body) belonging to neither Israel nor the Palestinians.
Netanyahu, seemingly inclined to make the subject of Jerusalem the main issue in his election campaign, criticised the EU "for daring to interfere in Israeli internal affairs." "Israel will never allow any country or group of countries to dictate the boundaries of our capital," he said.
Ignoring the fact that East Jerusalem was occupied by Israel in 1967, along with the West Bank, Netanyahu suggested Jerusalem was not negotiable with the Palestinians or anyone else. "I believe the final status talks on Jerusalem would be very brief, because there will be nothing to talk about as far as we are concerned," said Netanyahu at press conference last Thursday.
With the Israeli elections less than two months away, it is clear that Netanyahu wants to exploit the Israeli consensus on the town to bolster his prospects. In this context, his reaction to a visit by European diplomats to Orient House -- the former headquarters of the Palestinian Delegation to the Madrid Peace Conference -- in East Jerusalem was to strip three PA officials of their VIP status.
Netanyahu, through his Foreign Minister Ariel Sharon, had earlier tried to prevent the meeting, which grouped 10 European diplomats and three PA officials: Faisal Husseini, Hanan Ashrawi and Ziad Abu Ziad. As a result of what was described by the Israelis as a "provocation", the three Jerusalemites lost their VIP status, which implies they will be frisked and humiliated by Israeli soldiers manning roadblocks and checkpoints on key intersections throughout the West Bank and between the West Bank and Gaza Strip, just like the rest of the Palestinians.
Husseini described the reaction to the meeting as "provocative" and said it was most likely designed to "serve the election considerations of Netanyahu." Ashrawi, meanwhile, referred to the move as a sign of "political bankruptcy."
The draconian measure against the Palestinian leaders is consistent with Netanyahu's declared policy of "lowering Palestinian expectations" on Jerusalem and the rest of the Occupied Territories.
From Netanyahu's point of view, lowering Palestinian expectations implies that the Palestinians should accept Israeli occupation of at least 50 per cent of the West Bank and 30 per cent of the Gaza Strip. It also implies that Palestinians, particularly the PA, will have to come to terms with Jerusalem as "Israel's eternal and united capital" as well as the "indelible" 206 Jewish settlements in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
In short, Netanyahu expects nothing less than capitulation by the PA, and his way of achieving this is to first define his position and then resist international, especially US, pressure.
Meanwhile, Arafat appears to have decided to postpone the declaration of a Palestinian state until at least after the Israeli election. It is not clear if the postponement will be open-ended as the Americans appear to be insisting on, or for a limited period of time, as Palestinian public opinion demands. The postponement comes as no surprise, given the opposition by the US to the unilateral declaration of a state.
The US administration has made it clear that "unilateral actions" were unacceptable, whether taken by Israel or the Palestinians. However, it is apparent that when applied to the Palestinians "unacceptable" means "active opposition", while it means "passive opposition" when applied to Israel, with its continuous unilateral actions, such as the expansion of Jewish settlements and the suspension of the Wye River memorandum.
Needless to say, Arafat had been hoping, to no avail, that the US would reward or at least compensate him for taking such a difficult decision. The Palestinians had been led to believe that 4 May would be a watershed signifying Palestinian statehood. Now the Palestinian leader, along with many others in the Middle East, must wait to see the outcome of the Israeli elections before contemplating the next move.
