12 - 18 April 2001
Issue No.529
|
Al-Ahram Weekly On-line 12 - 18 April 2001 Issue No.529 |
||
| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 | Current issue | Previous issue | Site map | ||
The brutal truth
*
The Israeli response to the Amman Summit (27-28 March) testifies, as clearly as ever, to Israel's Zionist-terrorist orientation. No sooner had the conference concluded its proceedings than Sharon escalated the violence against Palestinians, as if to declare to the Arab world that Zionism remains blindly fixed upon its ultimate aim. No amount of inter-Arab work, he seemed to be saying, would save the Intifada from the might of Israel.
In his defiance, Sharon is working on the (justified) assumption that Israel will always enjoy America's unconditional backing. Prior to the summit, in fact, the US had vetoed a Security Council initiative to send UN troops to protect Palestinians from Israeli brutality. In itself this should be an indication to the Arabs that America is ultimately their truest enemy, and only nominally the mediator between them and their more direct enemy, Israel.
The attempt on the lives of three top Palestinian security officials in northern Gaza on 5 April (Generals Abdel-Razzaq Al-Majaida and Amin Al-Hindi, and Colonel Mohamed Dahlan) is but one example of the kind of state terrorism that has guided Israel's every move since 1948. Ironically, while Likud perpetuates such atrocities with impunity, the Labour party looks on with amusement, as if to say to the Arabs: "We offered you the best possible deal, you said no. Here is what you get now."
Yet had it been Israel's intention to actually assassinate these targets, the cars they were driving would have been destroyed, for assassinations since the flare-up of the Intifada have involved heavy-duty military equipment, rather than the more discreet snipers of the recent past. One might conclude that what the attempt amounts to is in effect a twofold message from the Israeli administration to the Palestinian people and security apparatus -- a message reasserting Israel's omnipotence and warning against the continuation of the Intifada.
* This week's Soapbox speaker is a Palestinian political analyst.
© Copyright Al-Ahram Weekly. All rights reserved
 |
|
|||||||||||||||||
| ARCHIVES Letter from the Editor Editorial Board Subscription Advertise! |
WEEKLY ONLINE: www.ahram.org.eg/weekly Updated every Saturday at 11.00 GMT, 2pm local time weeklyweb@ahram.org.eg |
 Al-Ahram Organisation |
Recommend this page