The arms-laden ship, the Karine-A, raises more questions than answers. Who owned the ship? Where was the proof that Yasser Arafat ordered the weapons? Where did they come from? Who were the actual intended recipients?
So far, the Palestinians have been trying to answer these posers. The Palestinian Authority has categorically denied any connection and wants to prove so. Arafat signed an order for the detention of all people whose names have come up in connection with the shipment. The PA has been interrogating several people and has arrested three of its own security officers for questioning. On the other hand, Israel has already concluded that Arafat and the Authority are guilty, though it has not provided a single shred of evidence. While Israel’s rush to judgment is true to form, the US rush to support its ally should in itself raise eyebrows. The State Department initially said it wanted to know the facts before drawing grand conclusions about the shipment. It later said it found evidence of alleged Palestinian involvement deeply troubling. US officials then said there was a compelling case against senior Palestinian officials over the ship and that there were strong suspicions that Arafat knew of the shipment. The turnaround was completed when President Bush said he was beginning to suspect that the ship was intended to promote what he described as terror.
But where is the evidence? Until now, Israel has been utterly incapable of providing evidence that any link exists between the PA and the Karine-A. Did it ever occur to the Israelis that other elements outside the Authority were involved with the ship without the PA having any knowledge of their actions, just as Hamas suicide attacks are conducted without the PA knowing about them?
According to the Oslo accords, the Palestinians are barred from purchasing weapons. But according to Oslo, Israel is not allowed to destroy Palestinian homes. Fifty-eight have been leveled this week, says the UN, leaving 511 people homeless. Again, according to Oslo, Israeli tanks and bulldozers should not tear up the runway of the Palestinian international airport in the Gaza Strip, Israeli missiles should not hit Palestinian naval targets in Gaza. The Israeli Army should not be waging war against Palestinian civilians, property and institutions.
But Sharon is a great promoter of violence as the solution to problems and has a discouraging record of success in problem solving. His aim is not only the destruction of the Palestinian Authority and the territorial and political achievements created by Oslo. It is not just Arafat whom Sharon wants to delegitimize. What he really intends is for the entire Palestinian struggle for national self-determination to become irrelevant.
In the wake of the Karine-A capture, Sharon said the government must strategically reassess its relations with Arafat and the PA, perhaps implying that the time had come to move from a policy of passive ostracism to active removal. He declared the PA an enemy and debated with his Cabinet whether to cancel all peace agreements signed since 1993.
Before the Karine-A incident, Sharon was apparently running out of creative ways to abandon the peace process. Not any longer.
