Issue No. 592
Opinion
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27 June - 3 July 2002 Issue No. 592 Opinion |
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 | Recommend this page | ||
Delaying tactics
No one could be certain, while waiting for President Bush's much publicised Middle East policy statement, that it would ever be made. With hindsight, though, the delay appears to have been calculated: it served the interests of Israel's extreme right and Sharon, enabling the latter to implement plans to reoccupy Palestinian lands and transport the families of activists to Gaza.
A close examination of the statement reveals that Bush and Sharon's views are extraordinarily close. Much of the statement was informed by a conviction that Arafat must go, and a new PA emerge, on the pretext that Israel cannot deal with the present leadership. This is in essence Sharon's view, and ignores the fact that Arafat is the Palestinians' democratically elected leader.
One condition set for Israeli withdrawal to the borders of September 2000 is the implementation of the Mitchell report on Palestinian security arrangements. The Palestinians' would then be rewarded by the promise of some nebulous "temporary state", the form of which, the capital and borders, have yet to be negotiated. Further progress will then be contingent on Israeli approval of the new authority's conduct. Washington will provide no guarantees.
The statement contained other conditions: that suicide operations should cease; Hamas, Jihad and Hizbullah be banned and the states that support them be ostracised. Iraq and Iran are to be opposed; and Arab countries must normalise relations with Israel immediately. the question of refugees, Jerusalem and peace with Syria and Lebanon are also to be resolved, though outside any temporal framework.
Suicide operations in Jerusalem were used as a pretext for delaying the statement as long as possible, even as Sharon's was refusing to withdraw from villages and towns reoccupied in the West Bank or to abide by UN resolutions demanding a stop to military operations. Bush is obviously content to think of Israel's military operations as self defence and the killing and arrest of Palestinians as no incitement to action.
Bush's understanding of suicide operations as a reason for, rather than a result of, continuing occupation points to the flawed logic that governs his administration's policy towards the tragic situation in Palestine. Washington has helped divide and weaken the Palestinian Authority -- so much so that neither Arafat nor anybody else can now stem the tide of young Palestinians queuing up to sacrifice themselves.
In refusing to send international observers Washington issued Israel a license to kill and expand, promoting the very conditions that have given rise to suicide attacks.
A woman like Cherie Blair has expressed the view that it is nihilistic despair, not an addiction to violence or the desire to make political gains, that drives young Palestinians to suicide. A humanly sensible instinct, unsullied by considerations of political interest, proved more penetrating than the views of powerful statesmen.
Bush has successfully squandered ten years' of peace efforts which might have been used as a foundation on which to build. Whatever its actual plans for the Middle East, one thing is certain: Washington's role as a mediator has been undermined. And it is Sharon's government, ironically, that will continue to subvert Washington's plans from within.
As for Arafat, rather than welcoming the statement, he might at least have discussed it with his legislative council so that his response would reflect the real opinion of Palestinians.
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