AS TANKS REMAIN stationed within 100 meters of Yasser Arafat’s headquarters in central Ramallah, where he has been stranded since early December and the guns trained permanently on his offices, it is difficult to believe Ariel Sharon’s claim that he is not out to harm Arafat or dismantle the infrastructure of the Palestinian Authority. The Israeli prime minister did express regret he did not kill Arafat in Beirut in 1982 and it looks like he would like nothing better than to finish what he started in Lebanon. Sharon wants to replace Arafat, not just force his hand. Israeli forces are systematically targeting the Palestinian infrastructure in the name of combating terrorism. The Israelis have been chipping away at the symbols of Arafat’s authority, wrecking police stations, the airport, the harbor and offices of Palestinian radio. These are acts of military occupation. Palestinian leaders assassinated, innocents starved, the sick dying, Palestinian land and society being destroyed, life completely paralyzed — and yet Sharon says he means no harm.
It is also alarming how President Bush has adopted Israel’s line that Arafat is to blame for Palestinian violence, could halt it if he chose, and should be contained. The internment of Arafat has been met by America’s "understanding" of Israel’s "self-defense". While the US administration has yet to follow Sharon’s lead in severing ties with Arafat, it has effectively joined the siege of Arafat. Bush has tacitly supported the encirclement and there is talk in Washington of sanctions to isolate and punish Arafat.
The United States says the onus is on Arafat and passively looks on, occasionally dispatching its special envoy when the situation looks better, keeping him home as soon as events take a turn for the worse. The message from the Bush administration is that no rescue will be forthcoming and that it is prepared to stand by Sharon and allow him to strangle Arafat. Washington is ignoring Israel’s disproportionate use of force against a people fighting to free themselves from occupation and create a viable state. The United States is miscalculating by not even remarking on the siege, allowing the violence to escalate dangerously. The name of this game, of course, is pressure. The United States and Israel want Arafat to take decisive action against militants attacking Israelis.
But hemming in Arafat and asking him to control the violence is illogical. His hands are tied, he has no freedom of movement and his police and infrastructure are being destroyed. Sharon has paradoxically focused his firepower on the security forces and governmental infrastructure of Arafat — all the while demanding that the same government and the same security forces suppress Hamas and Islamic Jihad.
Only determined intervention by the United States and the international community, condemning Sharon’s deliberately provocative acts, can preserve the promise held out by Arafat’s call for an end to violence and can prevent a return to chaos. The States must not undermine Arafat’s legitimacy as the elected leader of the Palestinian people. As long as Arafat is the elected leader, it is he who must be talked to. If anything, it is Sharon who, at the head of the most extreme, bellicose government in Israel’s history, who should be written off. The victim should not be criticized and the executioner should not be supported. For now the siege seems only to have emboldened Arafat and his people. They are showing forbearance and steadfastness. They have not been intimidated or have been persuaded to give up and that is a sign of great will and purpose.
One knows what Sharon wants. What about Bush? All over the Arab world, the conviction is growing that they are acting in unison.
