1 - 7 March 2001
Issue No.523
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Al-Ahram Weekly On-line 1 - 7 March 2001 Issue No.523 |
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United they stand
After weeks of wrangling among its opposing factions, Israel's Labour Party decided on Monday to join Prime Minister-elect Ariel Sharon in forming a "government of national unity" that will also include extreme right-wing and ultra-religious parties.
A Palestinian burns a mock Israeli settlement during demonstrations at the West Bank town of Hebron on Monday
(photo: AFP)
The decision, passed by a vote of 64 per cent for, with 34 per cent against, was taken following a heated and stormy debate that underscored the deep split which has developed within the party since the Labour candidate, outgoing Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak, lost badly to Likud's Sharon in the 6 February prime ministerial election.
According to the coalition agreement, each of the two parties will receive eight ministerial portfolios. Two key portfolios were given to Labour: defence and foreign affairs.
While enthusiastically supported by prominent Labour figures such as Shimon Peres, Ephraim Sneh, Benjamin Ben Eleazer and Haim Ramon, the decision to join Sharon was scathingly attacked by Foreign Minister Shlomo Ben Ami and Justice Minister Yossi Beilin. Both outgoing ministers warned that the party was in danger of disintegrating as a result of becoming "subservient and subordinate to Sharon, Ze'evi, Liberman," a reference to two avowedly racist, right-wing leaders, Rehavam Ze'evi and Avigdor Liberman, who are likely to join the government.
"If we join the national unity government, it will be the ultimate justification of the blank ballots. We will be the blank ballot party," said Ben Ami.
Another Labour minister, Yolli Tamir, cautioned that "we will only be a fig-leaf for Sharon to give him an acceptable appearance to the world." However, Peres, who has already announced acceptance of the Foreign Ministry post in Sharon's government, sought to allay fears, voiced in Israel and the region as well as throughout the world, that the next Israeli government would be bellicose and against peace. "I am certain that what we did tonight is the right way to serve the country. We will set forth, buoyed with faith, and I tell you and the nation that peace has a chance -- and the party has a chance of renewing itself."
Labour's decision to join the government paves the way for Sharon to form a government very soon, with or without the blessing and consent of religious parties, including Shas, which controls 17 seats in the Knesset. Sharon has already started coalition talks with religious party representatives, but he is clearly in a stronger position to resist or reject their demands, since, as one Israeli commentator put it, "he has the Labour party in his back pocket now."
The new Israeli government will, in fact, not represent complete "national unity", as neither the centre-left Meretz Party nor the secular right-wing Shinui Party will participate. Shinui's leader, Yossi (Thom) Lapid, opposes joining a government with Orthodox parties. Israel's three Arab parties, which have a total of nine Knesset members, will be excluded from Sharon's cabinet.
Most Palestinian observers believe that the Labour Party's participation in a Sharon government will improve the government's outer appearance, but not alter the substance of Sharon's hardline policies.
In a joint news conference with visiting US Secretary of State Colin Powell on Sunday, Sharon reiterated that Israel would not resume talks with the Palestinian Authority before a complete halt of "all acts of terror and violence," a clear reference to the Intifada, now entering its sixth month, against Israel's 33-year military occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
"As prime minister, I will conduct negotiations with the Palestinian Authority only following the cessation of hostilities, and Arafat must publish an unequivocal declaration to his people to stop the violence and incitement against the state of Israel."
As expected, Sharon made no mention of the fact that the second Intifada, like the first, is the direct result of Israel's enduring denial of Palestinian human and national rights and its incessant efforts to coerce Palestinians into accepting occupation and apartheid.
Powell, whose tour focused on mobilising regional governments against Iraq rather than on the Palestinian-Israeli issue, sounded noncommittal, speaking in general terms about the need to stop the violence. "This is the time to bring calm to the region. This is the time to begin security coordination again. This is the time to do everything to control passions," said Powell.
Powell met PA chairman Yasser Arafat for two hours in Ramallah, stressing the need to restore regional stability. The US fixation on "stability" reflects its desire to pursue its Iraq policy and to maintain its strategic alliance with Israel -- even while the latter pursues its own policy of occupation and territorial expansion.
Powell did call on Israel to lift its tight siege on Palestinian population centres in the West Bank and Gaza, but only on condition that the PA make efforts to calm the violence, end shooting attacks and renew security coordination. Powell's lopsided moderation did little to hearten the Palestinians.
Arafat responded, "We are the ones whose cities are being bombarded by artillery and helicopter gunships. Our towns are being blockaded and closed. We are being assassinated and murdered in broad daylight. We are the victims of their terror and violence, not the other way around."
Nonetheless, the Palestinian leadership welcomed Powell's assertion that the US was still committed to finding a peace settlement based on UN resolutions 242 and 338, even though such statements have been repeated many times by other American officials, who then did little or nothing to see them translated into facts on the ground.
As elsewhere in the region, Powell was greeted by hostile demonstrations in Gaza and the West Bank condemning the US for waging a genocidal war on the Iraqi people.
Powell remarked that he had not expected "that much opposition to our policy." His surprise contributed to the American decision to review the economic sanctions regime against Iraq.
Meanwhile, Israeli occupation troops continued killing Palestinian civilians, giving the lie to claims that the uprising has subsided. This week, trigger-happy Israeli occupation soldiers killed at least five Palestinian civilians, among them 14-year-old Hussam Imad, shot dead by Israeli troops in the village of Semiramis, near Ramallah, on 26 February.
The often deliberate killing of Palestinian children by Israeli troops and settlers is likely to continue -- or even increase -- given the Israeli courts' leniency towards the murderers. Human rights activists say the courts' lenient attitude amounts to giving a licence to murder.
Last week, an Israeli soldier who had killed a 14-year-old boy in the Gaza Strip was sentenced to 49 days in jail by his commander, after it was determined that he had violated the army's open-fire order. The soldier, from the Givati brigade, fired at Ibrahim Elamub earlier this month, as the boy was going to school near Kfar Dorom settlement. At no point did the boy pose a threat to the soldier.
Israeli arrogance now targets the very top of the Palestinian Authority. On Sunday, Yehoshua Mor-Yosef, spokesman of the Jewish Settlement Council in the West Bank and Gaza, urged the Israeli government to assassinate Arafat, claiming that Arafat is responsible for all attacks against Israel.
"Arafat is an enemy; he was never a peace partner, we need to assassinate him," Mor-Yosef told the Associated Press. Egyptian Foreign Minister Amr Moussa was astonished by such statements, saying that those who call for assassinating Arafat must be "crazy."
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