16 - 22 May 2002
Issue No.586
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Al-Ahram Weekly Online 16 - 22 May 2002 Issue No.586 |
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Broken olive branches
For the second time in less than two months the Arabs are offering Israel a large, green olive branch. There are no conditions, no reservations that could possibly raise suspicions about their motives or desire for peace. Yet it seems that there will be no response from Israel. It is equally apparent that the Arabs have learned little from past experience.
In the Beirut summit last March the Arabs adopted the comprehensive peace plan based on Saudi initiatives that, in exchange for the recognition of a modicum of rights for Palestinians, promised the full normalisation of relations with Israel. But before the summit was allowed to run its course Israel had placed Arafat under house arrest in Ramallah and commenced its massive incursions in the West Bank, arresting and randomly killing people as it reoccupied Palestinian towns and villages.
In the trilateral summit that took place recently in Sharm El-Sheikh Arabs renounced violence in any form, implicitly condemning suicide operations directed at Israeli civilians. They did so unconditionally, adding only that they condemned the massacres and commended Palestinian persistence. They did not demand that Israeli forces withdraw from Palestinian lands, that the thousands of Palestinians under arrest and in detention be released, that the Oslo Accords be abided by or that the siege on Palestinian towns be lifted. What they did was to emphatically endorse peace.
The main goal of this summit's pronouncements, it later transpired, was to exercise pressure on Arafat to put an end to suicide operations; the impetus in this direction was coming from the US and the summit was taking place in response to American pressures. Washington had been persuaded of Israel's view of these operations, that the Palestinian Authority was behind such terrorist activities and that were it not for the suicide operations then Sharon would have blossomed into what Bush had ludicrously called him, "a man of peace". It would seem, then, that the core of Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah's talks with President Bush in Washington had concerned Arab pressure on Arafat to constrain resistance.
Yet all these compromises on the part of the Arabs did not obtain any of the expected results: Israel continues to surround Gaza, threatening to invade it at any time; Israeli forces are still entering and exiting Palestinian towns, killing, "cleansing" and arresting at will.
The loudest response to the Sharm El-Sheikh initiative, in fact, was the Likud's refusal to allow the establishment of an independent Palestinian state. Nor does Sharon's own position differ one iota from that of his party -- each attempts to surpass the other in its extremism-- and the Bush Administration does not possess the ability to persuade Israel to modify its position however much Arabs modify and alter their views.
Does the problem reside in ending suicide operations, or is it really that Israel has rejected out of hand the pursuit of any meaningful peace? Such a peace would, after all, require the establishment of a Palestinian state and the withdrawal from lands occupied since 1967.
What is beyond question is that Arafat will never be able, single-handedly, to prevent Palestinian factions from acts of resistance, however powerful he becomes. The occupation weighs Palestinians down irrespective of class and persuasion, and there is no indication that Israel will stop its systematic oppression, and violation of the most basic human rights, of civilians. Since Arab leaders have not procured any guarantee that the incursions will stop, it is unfair to ask the factions to stop their operations, even temporarily -- until Israel begins to respond positively to the Arab leaders' overenthusiasm regarding peace. The only possible cause for optimism is to be found in Arab hopes that a change in the American position will effect a change in Israel's, hopes that may well have some foundation.
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