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Al-Ahram Weekly On-line 23 - 29 November 2000 Issue No.509 
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Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Al-Ahram Weekly On-line 23 - 29 November 2000 Issue No.509
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Egypt Region International Economy Opinion Culture Focus Travel Living Sports Profile People Time Out Chronicles Cartoons Letters The tactics of terror
President Hosni Mubarak's decision to recall Egypt's ambassador to Israel is intended not only as a sop to local and Arab public outrage at Israel's continuing brutal assault against the Palestinians but is intended, too, to send a clear message to Israel that its use of brute force can never oblige Arabs, or Palestinians, to accept its terms for a permanent settlement. The recall also lends weight to the assertion, made at the close of the Arab summit held in Cairo last month, that each escalation from the Israeli side will be met by similar moves on the Egyptian and Arab side.Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak's decision to indiscriminately shell the besieged Palestinian population in Gaza, allegedly in retaliation for a suicide attack in which two Israelis were killed, has angered not only Arab public opinion but provoked outrage around the world, forcing even the US State Department, not normally known for its pro-Palestinian sympathies (indeed, whose statements read all too often as if they have been prepared by the Israeli Foreign Ministry) to remind Israel's prime minister that such use of force is hardly conducive to ending violence in the occupied territories.
In Palestine, of course, there is not even a single missile to defend the population from aerial attack. Yet still the residents of Gaza defied the Israeli campaign to sow terror and marched in the streets, knowing better than anyone that Israel's indiscriminate bombing has only civilian targets in its sights. What other targets exist? There are no weapons or military installations in Gaza or Palestinian-controlled areas in the West Bank. So was this massive show of force by the Israelis really to shell a few empty offices, or was it a cynical and bloody attempt by Israel to terrorise the Palestinian population into total submission?
Barak's decision to bomb Gaza signalled, in the most dramatic terms, the end of any possibility that Israelis and Palestinians will return to the negotiating table. Whatever hopes had been espoused in the past nine years during the tortuous process of the so-called peace process proved, in the end, to be still-born. Which should surprise no one, given this week's incontrovertible evidence that all along Israel has believed it can terrorise its peace partner into accepting whatever it wants.
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