 |
Al-Ahram Weekly On-line 16 - 22 November 2000 Issue No.508 
| ||
Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
| ||
|
Al-Ahram Weekly On-line 16 - 22 November 2000 Issue No.508
| ||
| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
| ||
Egypt Region International Economy Opinion Culture Focus Travel Living Sports Profile People Time Out Chronicles Cartoons Letters A tragic case
By Salama Ahmed Salama
There is no longer any reason to think the world community is capable of resuming the Middle East peace process. Indeed, current attempts in that direction aim only to anaesthetise Palestinians and Arabs at large, as witnessed both in the ministerial tours and the quick Arafat-Barak summits held in Clinton's presence. In the latter case, the current electoral confusion that has yet to be resolved in the US is sufficient to undermine the credibility of any such endeavours.
The present scene appears perilously complex. The Intifada has not ceased; on the contrary, the Palestinians are increasingly insistent about their struggle, however much it costs them. In turn the Israelis, in their increasing brutality, are less and less mindful of the Arab states, international law and the resolutions passed by Arab and Islamic summits. At the same time, Israel continues to isolate Palestinian villages and towns, besieging them with tanks and infantry. Israel has not stopped bombarding Palestinian towns with missiles, killing and injuring thousands of unarmed civilians -- men, women and children -- as well as tracking down and assassinating pro-Arafat parties.
Recent history has witnessed nothing of the kind: the daily bombardment, using planes and tanks, of an unarmed people for more than 45 days on end -- and all to suppress civilian protests and demonstrations. The world, in the meantime, displays such a lack of concern it is not even willing to protest or condemn such activity. European states that claim to be playing a significant part in the stability of the Middle East have shown cowardice, complacency and the desire to avoid Israel's anger at any cost. Europe seems to be replaying its role in Bosnia, then Kosovo, as if to demonstrate how blindly it follows the dictates of America and international Zionism. Liquidating an entire people is not too high a price to pay, it seems, for peace of mind.
Still, one cannot absolve the Arab political regimes of responsibility for this tragedy. Despite all they possess in terms of wealth and power, the Arabs seem to have lost the will to fight back. They have become unable to manage a long-term conflict using non-military methods. If wars are no longer a viable route to the resolution of major conflicts like the one at hand, it is equally true that the peaceful and diplomatic methods employed by the Arabs so far have cost them too many compromises, culminating with Oslo, and now the present void, with no benefits in return. After seven years of negotiations, the Palestinians finally realise that they have only 20 per cent of the land that belongs to them, and what little land they do have remains under full Israeli control. The latter fact probably explains why Arafat has kept threatening to implement the decision to declare a Palestinian state independently of Israel and then failing to do so.
The Arab summit was held, with difficulty, in the light of the dangers threatening Jerusalem. But the Arab consensus has not transcended the barriers put up by America's Middle East policies, which aim to protect Israeli interests. The Arab summit resolutions do not live up to even the bare minimum. And the same can be said of the Islamic conference in Qatar: the issue of Qatar cutting ties with Israel prevented the conference from going any further than the Arab summit before it.
For many reasons, it seems, America has squandered an opportunity for peace it is unlikely to be offered again, now that the establishment of a new basis on which to conduct negotiations, other than Madrid and Oslo, has become a necessity -- at least from the Arab perspective. Looking for a framework in which America does not monopolise the role of overseeing peace is an aim upon which the Arabs must agree before all else. During the Islamic summit, moreover, Iran suggested alternative methods of tackling the Palestinian question, worth considering in their own right.
The most pressing question now is how and to what extent the Palestinian people can endure the current, tragic situation, and what the alternative might be.
© Copyright Al-Ahram Weekly. All rights reserved
