Summit of failure
Israel has threatened to kill Arafat. It is a sign of despair, writes Hassan Abu Taleb
In a show of unwavering support for Israel, and disdain for Arab opinion, Washington vetoed a UN resolution urging Israel to rescind its decision to expel President Yasser Arafat. In wielding its veto Washington not only flaunted its flagrant bias towards Israel and its disregard for international norms but gave Sharon's extremist government a green light to actually expel Arafat. To Arab and Muslim ears anything US officials say that might be construed as expressing disapproval of the Israeli decision understandably rings hollow.
The US veto came at a time when the Bush administration is turning the heat on Syria for any number of phoney pretexts, at a time when US officials -- forever forgetful about Israel's nuclear arsenal -- are kicking a storm about Iran's nuclear programme, conducted under the watchful eye of the International Atomic Energy Agency. Double standards no longer adequately describe US policies that display a consistent animosity to Arab and Islamic nations, denying them the right to improve and reap the benefits of modern technology.
US hostility and Israeli hysteria represent a dual threat to stability in the Arab and Islamic worlds. Israel's hysteria climaxed recently with an open call to kill Arafat, not just expel or tighten the siege on him. The call -- made by extreme right-wing officials in Sharon's government -- found support in an editorial published in the 10 September issue of the Jerusalem Post, a newspaper commonly viewed as sober inside as well as outside Israel. When people commonly viewed as sober advise murder as the only exit from a complex problem rationality and commonsense have clearly been thrown out of the window.
The call to kill the Palestinian leader represents a continuation of the policy of collective punishment pursued by the Israeli military machine against the Palestinian people. But the call is untenable for several reasons: premeditated murder is a desperate and lowly act criminalised by all creeds and norms; it is the last resort of those who cannot think straight and who fail to accept their own responsibility for a worsening situation. Murder has never resolved any conflict, and certainly not one as complex as that unfolding in Palestine. It will lead only to escalation, tension and chaos.
The preposterous call, and its endorsement by the Jerusalem Post, suggests that nihilism has taken hold of Israel. It is also a proof that Arafat is still a figure with which to contend, the symbol of a just and immutable cause. It recognises that Arafat can pull strings at home and abroad and that he has foiled all Sharon's plans to turn the Palestinian Authority into a subservient entity. The Israelis should deal with Arafat and use his skills and historic legitimacy to reach a solid and sustainable peace. Instead, they have murder in mind.
Key individuals play a major role in deciding the course upon which their nations are embarked. Their sudden disappearance may have a negative effect at least in the short term. But considering the very nature of the Palestinian issue, and the existence of Palestinian institutions with political legitimacy at home and abroad, Israel's murderous intentions are foolish. Even if Arafat disappears from the scene his successor will not take orders from Tel Aviv.
Israel's seeming indifference to the chaos Arafat's disappearance will leave is proof enough of the adventurism and absence of political judgement that now marks all Israeli politicians, regardless of their ideological and intellectual leanings. The manner in which Israel is unleashing its ferocious war machine against a smaller and weaker enemy is equally evidence of despair.
Over the past few years the Palestinian resistance has continued to strike deep in Israel, despite all security measures and precautions, in a manner that has changed Israel's collective psyche. There is a sense of failure in Israel, and a desperate desire to suppress the Intifada. Which is why the Israelis are trying to eliminate Intifada activists, along with everything else associated with the Palestinian cause. Arafat has become a target simply because of what he stands for.
Israeli politicians and their US backers are forgetting one thing. For all the planning and investment that went into security efforts over the last three years, for all the weapons commissioned and agents recruited, the outcome has been dismal. The reason is simple. Nations willing to stand up for rights that are legitimate cannot be cowed, even by powerful enemies. The Israelis imagined, and still do, that they can demoralise the Palestinians by rocket attacks, targeted assassinations and the sewing of widesperad havoc. They are wrong. Murder, particularly when endorsed by the most powerful country in the world, represents the summit of failure.
* The writer, an expert at Al-Ahram Centre for Political and Strategic Studies, is editor-in-chief of the annual Arab Strategic Report.
