6 - 12 December 2001
Issue No.563
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Al-Ahram Weekly Online 6 - 12 December 2001 Issue No.563 |
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Green light to terror
By buying Sharon's line that Arafat was responsible for this week's suicide bombings Washington has put its weight behind spiralling violence, writes Ibrahim Nafie
After returning from Washington Israel's prime minister unleashed yet another brutal assault against the Palestinian people. The bombardment targeted PA government buildings, including the offices of the Palestinian presidency and the adjacent airstrip, destroying the three helicopters used by Arafat to move between PA areas in the West Bank and Gaza. The following day Israeli occupation forces made incursions into several Palestinian cities and bombed Gaza Airport, destroying its sole runway, opened in 1998. Israel has thus isolated Arafat from the outside world and deprived him of the right of movement inside PA areas.
Clearly Sharon had received Washington's go-ahead to step up his belligerency against the Palestinians. In a press conference after his return he declared that the PA is "an organisation that supports terrorism," and that Arafat was directly responsible for recent suicide bombings in West Jerusalem and Haifa. He further charged that Fatah's military wing and Force 17, responsible for protecting Arafat, are terrorist organisations.
Sharon found the terrorist attacks in West Jerusalem and Haifa an ideal pretext for forging ahead with his scheme to dismantle the PA and create a power vacuum in the Palestinian territories which, he imagines, is the way to end the Palestinian Intifada. Sharon is also exploiting the growing tendency to confuse terrorism with national resistance, in the hope of decimating any remnants of the peace process.
The Israeli prime minister has no programme for reaching a political solution. What he has is a military programme, the use of excessive force to suppress the Intifada and impose his conditions on the Palestinian people. Sharon's greatest fear is that the seven days of calm he demands will become a reality. Calm, after all, is the great enemy to his purely military agenda. It is Sharon who needs violence in the Palestinian territories to justify bringing the Palestinians to their knees. Calm means that Sharon would have to accommodate himself to the prerequisites of a political negotiating process.
From the moment he came to power Sharon was determined to keep tensions and confrontations between the Palestinians and Israelis at the highest levels. He exacted impossible-to-meet demands from the PA, launched massive incursions into PA areas, set into motion a hunt to kill policy and encouraged Israeli soldiers and settlers to attack Palestinian civilians. These acts of deliberate provocation compelled Palestinians to act in self-defence, which Sharon exploited to let loose more intensive barrages.
PA officials were the first to condemn the recent suicide bombings and immediately rounded up suspects from the organisations declaring responsibility. Simultaneously, senior Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat announced, "We must enter into negotiations immediately in order to save the lives of both Israelis and Palestinians."
Egypt, along with other Arab and Islamic states, denounced the bombings. "Each side is responsible for putting into effect the hopes of the international community, which seeks to bring security and stability to the Palestinian and Israeli people," said President Mubarak. Sheikh Mohamed Sayed Tantawi, the Sheikh of Al-Azhar, declared: "Islam upholds the sanctity of human life and holds that the unjust assault against a single life is an assault against all humanity. In the name of the shari'a we condemn aggression against innocent civilians."
Egyptian condemnation of the attacks in West Jerusalem and Haifa recognises such acts serve neither the Palestinian cause nor that of peace. They play into the hands of a notorious war criminal searching to cite "self-defence" as his motive for intensifying Israeli brutality against Palestinians. Further, attacks against civilians, universally condemned by the international community, furnish the enemies of the Arab nation additional fodder in their attempts to lump legitimate resistance with terrorism.
Our condemnation is all the more vehement because they were timed to coincide with an intensification of US efforts, through special envoys Zinni and Burns, towards reaching a ceasefires. The attacks undoubtedly came as a relief to Sharon, who was not looking forward to the Zinni-Burns initiative, as was apparent from the media campaign that preceded their arrival.
It is glaringly obvious that the suicide bombings are the product of a climate fueled by Israeli occupation and Israeli terrorism, by systematic murder of Palestinians, by closures and economic blockades.
President Mubarak has stated repeatedly that Palestinian-Israeli agreements must be implemented and that Israel must end its occupation of Arab territories. Unfortunately, since the assassination of Rabin, we have had to deal with extremist Israeli governments that lack the vision, courage, resolve and, above all, the credibility and honesty to take the necessary decisions for peace. This applied to both Netanyahu and Barak, and more strongly to the butcher of Sabra and Shatila, brought into power by a sweeping majority in order to kill all remaining hopes of reviving the peace process.
The actions currently being undertaken by Israel against the Palestinian people constitute state condoned terrorism perpetrated by an occupying power. One would have expected the international community and the US to make an outcry. Rather than pleading for self-restraint, President Bush said, "The PA President must find those responsible for these attacks and arrest them, and Arafat and the PA must, now more than any time in the past, prove through deeds, not words, that they are serious in fighting terrorism." Sharon took this statement as a green light.
That Washington has bought the Israeli line that Arafat is responsible for the recent suicide bombings because he failed to prevent such acts provokes some surprise. US security agencies are perfectly aware that the attacks took place inside Israel and near Israeli army camps and that if the perpetrators of these operations were capable of eluding Israel's formidable security and intelligence agencies, what can Arafat do when he cannot even move within Palestinian territories without a permit from Israeli officials. What can Arafat do when he cannot fully exert his control over the disparate parts of Palestinian territory, when occupying forces are targeting PA security personnel and installations, and when every measure is being taken to undermine his authority?
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