Al-Ahram Weekly Online 7 - 13 June 2001 Issue No.537
Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875		Current issue | Previous issue | Site map

Down to the dead end

The attack that killed 20 Israelis at a disco in Tel Aviv last week revealed the fragility of the current situation in the Middle East, and underscored the need for international intervention in formulating a just settlement to the Arab-Israeli conflict. Ariel Sharon's bid to crush the Al-Aqsa Intifada has translated into a brutal siege on the Palestinian areas, the use of enormous military force and the assassination of Palestinian activists -- yet Israeli violence, and the determination to continue building and expanding colonial settlements in occupied areas, have only produced more frustration among Palestinians, and led to desperate attacks like the Tel Aviv incident.

Several Arab countries, including Egypt, have issued condemnations consistent with their opposition to attacks on civilians. But Arab public opinion cannot ignore the irony of the world community's outrage in contrast to the shameful apathy shown for the massacre of over 400 Palestinians, the majority of them children and teenagers, since the second Intifada started.

Sharon had warned he would re-occupy the Palestinian self-rule areas in the West Bank if Yasser Arafat did not declare a "cease-fire." Arafat has responded to the pressure, but insists that concrete steps must ensue, leading to the resumption of final-status talks. The report issued two weeks ago by former Democratic Senator George Mitchell also states that Israel must stop expanding settlements in the occupied Palestinian areas, and immediately lift its inhumane siege.

The US and Europe are fully entitled to condemn the Tel Aviv attack, as most of the Arab nations have. Arab public opinion, however, cannot fathom why the world is still stubbornly blind to the racist occupation the Palestinians have been living under for 34 years. The truth? It is that form of violence that must come to an end.

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