29.10.05
A
twenty-minute drive is all that separates the Israeli Prime Minister's
office in Jerusalem from that of the Palestinian President in
Ramallah. But for all practical purposes, the
Muqata'ah in Ramallah
might as well be on the moon.
The day
before yesterday, Ariel Sharon declared for the who-knows-how-many-th
time, that he had cancelled his planned meeting with
Mahmoud Abbas. The reason:
Abbas "is not doing anything against
terrorism". A routine pretext, but it seems that this time the act itself
is not mere routine.
The long
campaign for the elimination of Mahmoud
Abbas is entering its final phase.
Much to
the regret of Sharon & Co., Abbas cannot be
"eliminated" the usual way, as were Sheikh Ahmad
Yassin and many other Palestinian leaders. In the case of
Abbas, it is not even allowed to use the word
"elimination" - an official term of the Israeli army, taken straight from
the Mafia lexicon.
The
ascent of Abbas after the elimination of
Yassir Arafat - still shrouded in mystery -
turned on a red light in Sharon's office. After all, his plans are all
based on the slogan "There is Nobody to Talk
With". Abbas, on the other hand, looks to the
world, and even to a significant part of the
Israeli public - like a Palestinian leader eminently fit to talk with.
Worse, he looks that way to President Bush too.
That
made a cautious approach necessary. Carefully concealing his anger, Sharon
shook hands with Abbas in
Aqaba, in the presence of Bush. He saw, with growing concern, how
the Palestinian leader was received in the White House and heard Bush
praise the democratic elections held by the Palestinians. There was a
growing danger that the Americans would realize an old nightmare of
Israeli governments: an "imposed peace" that would compel Israel to return
more or less to the pre-1967 border.
Therefore, Sharon adopted a cautious tactic: gain time, wait for a change
of circumstances, and in the meantime be content with sticking needles
into Abbas' effigy. It was impossible to
launch a campaign of demonization against him,
as had been done to Arafat, with the full participation of all the Israeli
and world Jewish media. But in all the media, a daily message was planted:
Abbas is a wet rag, Abbas
is not worth anything, Abbas is not able to
destroy the "terror infrastructure", it's quite
useless to talk with him.
This
week, the style was sharpened. No more pity for poor
Abbas, doing his best and failing, but an outright attack on him.
Abbas, it is being said, doesn't really want
to put an end to terrorism. The news pages of all newspapers, from
Maariv to Haaretz,
were mobilized for this campaign. The radio and television networks joined
in with enthusiasm.
At the
same time, the violent confrontation broke out again with full force.
Who
started it? Depends who is asked. As always, each side declares that the
new round began with an atrocity from the other side. If one wants to, one
can go back 120 years, to the first stone thrown by a Palestinian shepherd
at the first Jewish settler - or to the first blow struck by the first
Jewish settler on the head of a Palestinian shepherd who had led his goats
onto his field.
As a
matter of fact, the confrontation has not stopped for a moment. The
Palestinians did indeed declare a Tahidiya
("calm"), but that was only an agreement among
themselves. The Israeli army was no party to it and continued with
great vigor entering Palestinian towns and villages, arresting "wanted"
militants and killing some of them, here and there.
The new
round started with the killing of Luay
Sa'adi, a militant of the Islamic Jihad in the
Tulkarem area, who had already spent five of
his 25 years in Israeli prisons. The army described him as a very senior
commander, a huge "ticking bomb". The Jihad took up this ludicrous
assertion with alacrity, because it justified a major retaliation. In
private, Palestinians said that he was just a local activist.
Either
way: when Sharon, between breakfast and lunch, gave his assent to the
execution, he knew that he was also condemning some Israelis to death -
since it was certain that the Jihad would respond with an act of revenge.
There is no escape from the conclusion that that was indeed the purpose of
the action.
It was
confirmed with great speed. A Jihadist from a
close-by Palestinian village carried out a suicide bombing in the fruit
market of the Israeli town Hadera, five
Israelis were murdered. (In the terminology used by all Israeli media, as
dictated from above, Israelis are always "murdered", while Arabs "find
their death", or, at most, are "killed".) The village of the suicide
bomber is separated from Hadera by the high
Separation Wall, but it seems that this did not hinder him. Before his
death, he was videoed declaring that he was taking revenge for the killing
of Sa'adi - disproving the army's contention
that the bombing had been prepared before the killing and had nothing to
do with it.
As if it
had only been waiting for this outrage, the army went immediately into
well-planned action. A choking general blockade was imposed on the
northern West Bank. Towns and villages all over the West Bank were cut off
again, sometimes only hours after the
roadblocks around them had been removed at the insistence of Condoleezza
Rice. A general man-hunt against Jihad activists was started, with a broad
hint that the turn of Hamas and
Fatah activists would not be far behind.
In the
Gaza Strip, a parallel cycle started. Out of solidarity with the West Bank
comrades, some Qassam rockets were fired at
Israeli localities, without hitting anyone. The response was prepared in
advance: the Army cut the Strip off from all contact with the world, all
passages were closed. The Strip was shelled and bombed from land, air and
sea. Helicopter missiles killed Jihad activist Shadi
Muhanna together with his assistant and four
passersby, including a boy - an act that may well bring Chief-of-Staff Dan
Halutz another step closer to the
International Criminal Court in The Hague. Revenge is assured, and so is
the revenge for the revenge.
While
all over the world praise is heaped on the "disengagement" and on Sharon,
the Man of Peace, he has launched a general offensive for the annexation
of most of the West Bank.
Last
week, all over the Palestinian territories, the miserable living
conditions were made even worse. That looks like collective punishment,
which is forbidden by the Fourth Geneva Convention. But in reality, it was
something worse: the aim is to sow despair among the Palestinians, bring
them to their knees, compel them to accept Sharon's diktat - to be
content with 42% of the West Bank (11% of pre-1948 Palestine) in several
enclaves - and, ultimately, to convince them to emigrate altogether.
Sharon
behaves like a bullfighter, sticking his
bandilleras between the shoulders of the bull in order to
enrage and bait him, till he lashes out in all directions.
While
attention is diverted by the widespread military action, the settlements
are being enlarged at a feverish pace, and new settlements are springing
up. The building of the Wall continues vigorously, regardless of the
Hadera bombing which showed that its security
value is doubtful. The dismantling of the hundred "outposts" that were put
up after 2001, as demanded by the Road Map, is not even on the agenda. All
the army did was to remove five new "outposts" set up this week, with much
mutual shoving and hitting, without using tear gas, salt or rubber bullets
or stun grenades, which are seemingly reserved for Israeli peace
activists.
The
demand by the Quartet emissary, James Wolfenson,
to open the absolutely vital passage between the Gaza Strip and the West
Bank, was treated with contempt. Since Wolfenson
is highly regarded by Bush and Condoleezza Rice, this has a special
significance.
Sharon's people are
closely following events in Washington. They know that Bush is in deep
trouble and is fast becoming a Lame Duck. Condi, the duckling, is limping
along behind him.
For
Sharon, that is a great relief. At long last, he can now stop praising
Abbas and start to bury him.
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