16 - 22 August 2001
Issue No.547
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Al-Ahram Weekly Online 16 - 22 August 2001 Issue No.547 |
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A war for everyone
President Mubarak's decision on Monday to send a top- level delegation to Washington reflected Egypt's and the Arab world's awareness that Israeli Prime Minister Sharon's violation of every single agreement Israel has signed with the Palestinians is driving the region toward an abyss of violence.Since US President Bush took office at the beginning of this year, the Arab countries have given the new administration the benefit of the doubt. Some analysts went so far as to hope that the new administration would adopt a more balanced approach to the Arab-Israeli conflict, since many of its top officials have long experience in the region.
Over seven months on, Washington's silence can only be a clear expression of support for Sharon and his savage suppression of the Palestinians. It is with US weapons, after all, that Israeli troops massacre Palestinian teenagers.
Sharon is not a world leader but a war criminal whose policies include extrajudicial killings, violation of all international human rights conventions and implementation of one of the world's most barbaric forms of racist occupation. In a midnight raid last week, he ordered his army to occupy Orient House in East Jerusalem. On Monday, also shortly after midnight, Israel's troops re-occupied parts of the West Bank town of Jenin, one of the first towns returned to the Palestinian Authority in 1995. The international reaction, as usual, consisted in words of disapproval and condemnation. The situation warrants far more, however. Israel must be forced to respect the agreements it signed with the Palestinians, and resume talks towards a final settlement deal.
If the world community does not fulfil its responsibility in this respect, the Arabs and Israel will not be alone in suffering the consequences. In the region and elsewhere, there are those who see revenge as the only possible way to stop Israel's aggression. US interests in the region will also be in danger, and all the efforts exerted during the past 10 years to reach a peaceful deal will turn against their architects. That is a scenario neither the Arabs nor the United States would like to see unfold.
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