7 - 13 June 2001
Issue No.537
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Al-Ahram Weekly Online 7 - 13 June 2001 Issue No.537 |
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Spiral the circle
As they await the last step in Israel's assault on the Palestinian Authority, Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank are more helpless than ever. They are as aware as we are of Israel's intention to put an end to Arafat's influence, dismantle Palestinian institutions and launch a large-scale offensive on the Intifada and the resistance. Despite recent announcements that Hamas and Jihad are ready to abide by a temporary cease-fire to test Israel's intentions, it will not be surprising if Israel insists on extirpating all these groups.
The communications underway, launched to end what has come to be called "the circle of violence," will hardly improve present conditions. The measures Israel took following the recent suicide attack that killed 20 people are an integral part of the scenario disclosed by the Israeli newspaper Yediot Aharonot, according to which Israel will impose a comprehensive security closure by air, land and sea, then penetrate Palestinian areas in the West Bank and besiege the Authority in Gaza. This is indeed what Israel is doing now, Sharon having managed to destroy opportunities for peace and hopes of returning to the negotiating table by creating the atmosphere of despair in which the last Tel Aviv operation took place. This follows his announcement that he would not heed the Mitchell recommendations and his approval of the construction of 700 new housing units, in addition to the 5,000 currently in the process of being built.
Capitalising on the international community's call for general restraint and its insistence that Arafat arrest Hamas and Jihad leaders and imprison them once more, Israel has wasted no time in executing this scenario. It has blocked roads and airports, cut off gas and electricity supplies, tightened the siege on Gaza and the West Bank and forbade Arafat from leaving Gaza. In a matter of days, those Israel wants to get rid of will be slaughtered on the pretext that Arafat failed to live up to his pledge to end the Intifada, thereby forcing Israel to take on that task independently of him.
It was Washington's failure to insist on the implementation of Mitchell's recommendations that gave Sharon the green light. Israeli forces have readied themselves for all possible developments: Israeli fighters are circling the Lebanese and Syrian borders, and the international call for a cease-fire seems directed only at the Palestinian side. It is, moreover, impossible to separate what is happening on the Palestinian front from what is happening on the Arab front, where the oil producing countries have announced they will happily supply the West if Iraq should stop exporting oil in protest of the UN Security Council decision to suspend the oil for food programme. This augurs yet another explosion of inter-Arab strife.
The question, therefore, is not whether the current situation will explode into an all-out war, since no Arab country is ready to contemplate that eventuality. It is, rather, what the future of the Intifada will be: how it may be possible to preserve it and maintain the resistance. Will the present Palestinian leadership be able to deal with the situation once Israel manages to wipe out the Palestinian Authority and its political, economic and security institutions, turning to a direct confrontation with the various groups of the resistance?
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