It ought to be patently clear to the international community that the government of Ariel Sharon has carefully planned and engineered for the moment when it could dismiss Chairman Yasser Arafat as of no further relevance to its plans. Sharon and the Zionists always hated the Oslo Accord and wanted to destroy it. But as long as Arafat led the Palestinian Authority and was able to build the beginnings of an independent Palestinian state, supported and recognized by the rest of the world, the Oslo agreements would continue to have international legitimacy.

So, Israel had to destroy Arafat’s standing abroad and wreck his authority at home. The Sharon government embarked upon a consistent campaign of provocation. First it blocked further advances in negotiations. When this produced protests, it revoked some heads of agreement, thus stirring up further protest. The ordinary Palestinians who had hoped that, at last, an end was in sight to their half-a-century of oppression and statelessness, took to the streets in despair. The second intifada began. Nothing could have better suited Zionists ambitions. Sharon and his generals had the confrontation they wanted.

From thereon, they could manipulate the cycle of violence and stoke up Palestinian anger until it was white hot. It did no good for men of reason and good will to plead that violence was not the answer and that negotiations should continue. The extremists of Hamas and Abu Jihad could never have thrived without the popular support of Palestinians, who had finally given up any hope that talking would bring peace. In destroying that hope, Sharon has deliberately bolstered Palestinian extremists.

And to make sure that these groups remained virulent in their determination to attack Israeli targets, the Sharon government has been systematically murdering their leaders. Throughout this whole disastrous descent into the abyss of violence, the Israelis have tried to portray themselves as the victims merely defending themselves from brutal aggression. It has been a neat trick, given that it is only Israel that has the tanks, the attack helicopters, the bulldozers and the highly trained army.

So now is the time for the rest of the world to ignore all the slick Israeli propaganda and to consider the long-term consequences of Sharon’s campaign to destroy the reputation and authority of Yasser Arafat and the Palestinian Authority. Without the leadership of Arafat, the Palestinian community will fall into an ungovernable chaos, in which armed factions could prey upon each other as much as upon the Israeli enemy.

And only the Bush White House seems prepared to buy Israel’s false and distorted analysis of the conflict. But in sponsoring the Sharon policy of aggression, Washington is actually guaranteeing regional destabilization and piling up future troubles for itself and for its vision of a stable world.

Absolutely nothing can excuse the horrors of Sept. 11. But have the Americans still not yet understood why they are so disliked, even hated, for their support of a vicious cuckoo state with a fanatical agenda to humiliate and destroy the Palestinian people?