22 - 28 March 2001
Issue No.526
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Al-Ahram Weekly On-line 22 - 28 March 2001 Issue No.526 |
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Watching a tragedy
US President George W Bush, after meeting Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, announced that Washington would "encourage, but not force" a peaceful settlement in the Middle East. That was exactly what his visitor wanted to hear. Sharon went to Washington with what observers described as a "prescription for war," blaming Palestinian President Yasser Arafat personally for the Al-Aqsa Intifada and pressing for his isolation.The right-wing Likud leader, described by former US Secretary of State James Baker as an "obstacle to peace," also refused to lift the siege of Palestinian territories that has turned the lives of millions of people into a daily ordeal of humiliation and suffering.
In essence, Washington is giving Sharon a green light to continue his oppression of the Palestinian people, and freeing Israel from its legal obligations. The US has been the only sponsor of the peace process since 1991, and, upon Israel's insistence, has vehemently resisted all mediation attempts by other parties.
The US, however, is Israel's main supporter, and protecting Israeli security is still one of America's main strategic goals in the region. It is therefore unlikely that the US will disengage itself from efforts to reach a peace settlement. When the Bush administration announces, regarding an Israeli-Palestinian deal, that it will "assist, but not insist," the only foreseeable result is further deterioration on the ground, and the risk of greater regional instability.
The involvement of the Clinton administration produced no significant results, especially since such involvement consisted in hounding Arafat to accept a settlement that fell far short of Palestinian demands. The massacre of Palestinian civilians being conducted by the Israeli army, however, requires immediate international intervention.
On the day Sharon left to Washington his government announced that it was building 3,000 new homes in the illegal Jewish colony in Jebel Abu Ghneim, near Jerusalem. And since the world community continues to regard the situation as a spectator sport, many more such measures are sure to follow.
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