Cutting ties with the Palestinian Authority was certainly not what President Yasser Arafat had in mind when he urged the United States to do much more to promote Middle East peace. More than 1,000 people have been killed in the 16-month-old intifada, three-quarters of them Palestinian. Yet Bush blames Arafat solely for the violence and is contemplating his next move, including suspending contacts or demanding that Arafat guarantee to make arrests in the ship arms-smuggling episode.
We have been through this before. Neither Israel nor the United States has yet provided credible evidence that the PA was involved or knew of the shipment of arms aboard the Karine-A. Documents that Israel claimed would link Arafat to the alleged smuggling attempt have never been produced. The PA has repeatedly denied involvement and ordered the arrest of Palestinian officials who might be implicated in the affair.
If the Bush administration sees it fit to review its ties with Arafat, then the same should be done with regards to Sharon because the same yardstick used to judge Arafat should be used to judge the prime minister. If that is done, Washington will find huge discrepancies in Sharon’s claim that he is committed to bringing peace in the Middle East. He was elected at a time of crisis and knows that his rule is sustainable only in a time of crisis. For the sake of his own political survival, he will do whatever it takes, and look for any excuse, to stoke the flames of unrest and avoid a return to the negotiating table.
The United States has done next to nothing to deter Sharon. It has said little about the bulldozing of Palestinian homes, the almost daily Israeli incursions into Palestinian lands, its assassinations and the house arrest of Arafat. And now, Israel is set to add more fuel to the fire. Its security service, the Shin Bet, has recommended that Jews be allowed to resume visiting Al-Haram Al-Sharif in Jerusalem despite warnings that such a step could ignite fresh violence. It was a visit on Sept. 28, 2000 by Sharon, which ignited the uprising the next day. Then Israel’s opposition leader, he ignored repeated warnings that Muslims would regard his presence as a provocation. Sharon’s failure — or perhaps his ability — to see what was coming should tell Washington something about the man and that it cannot speak about Arafat’s responsibility to end the violence without speaking about Sharon’s responsibilities to do the same.
If Washington was genuinely serious about ending the conflict, it would not be trying to delegitimize Arafat or the PA. It would be announcing to the Israelis that the only way for them to be secure is to end the 35-year-old occupation of Palestinian territory. They must abandon the myth that it is possible to have peace and occupation at the same time, that peaceful coexistence is possible between slave and master. The lack of Israeli security is born our of the lack of Palestinian freedom. Israel will have security only when the occupation ends, not before.
US Middle East envoy Anthony Zinni is not expected back in the region anytime soon. When and if he returns, he would do well to realize that oppressed Palestinians are advocating the right to defend themselves in the absence of help from anywhere else, including his own country.
