27 Sep. - 3 Oct. 2001
Issue No.553
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Al-Ahram Weekly Online 27 Sep. - 3 Oct. 2001 Issue No.553 |
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Decisive meetings
One year after it was triggered off by Sharon's ill-advised visit to Al-Haram Al-Sharif on 28 September 2000, the Al-Aqsa Intifada is already very different from the first Intifada and, in the wake of recent developments, is expected to change still more before its second anniversary rolls around. But despite the differences between them, the issue of terrorism promises to be as crucial in determining the outcome of the second chapter of the Palestinian uprising as it was for the first.
The seeds of the current Intifada were planted when the Camp David summit between Clinton, Arafat and Barak in July last year failed to translate the basic guideline for a settlement, namely, the exchange of land for peace, into a solution of the specifics of the Palestinian problem (the status of Jerusalem, the return of Palestinian refugees, the future of Israeli settlers, and, more generally, what peace for what land). While Israel's repression of the first Intifada (1987- 1993), where teenage stone throwers were confronted with machine guns and armoured cars, was widely seen as an inordinately harsh use of brutal military force against harmless demonstrators, its equally harsh repression this time around is not perceived in the same light. The worldwide sympathy for the first Intifada paved the way for the Oslo accords, which consecrated mutual recognition between Israel and the PLO and laid down the blueprint for a settlement. The knottiest problems were deliberately deferred to final status negotiations some years down the road, on the assumption that solving the easier problems would create a momentum conducive to breakthroughs on the more intractable issues dividing the two sides. This assumption proved to be wrong.
Oslo also became possible when Israel's prime minister at the time, Yitzhak Rabin, realised that Arafat gave priority to peace negotiations with Israel over building a common front with all Palestinian factions, including Hamas and Islamic Jihad, which Israel and its American allies branded as "terrorist organisations." This issue, so critical at the time the Oslo accords were signed in September 1993, is no less critical today. With Bin Laden blamed for the recent terrorist assault on America, Arafat's position is once again crucial in any global alliance that America hopes to build up against terrorism. The question now is whether Bush can afford to stand idly by while Sharon continues to push Arafat's back to the wall in an attempt to destroy the whole structure of the Palestinian Authority, or whether the overriding consideration of fighting terrorism at the global level will prompt him to call Sharon to order and compel him to resume negotiations with Arafat. The answer to this question, as well as the future of the Intifada, will be determined in the much-anticipated meeting between Arafat and Peres.
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