Yesterday, in this column we said that Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon was not to be trusted, that his apparent softer approach — lifting the blockade on Yasser Arafat and dropping his insistence on a seven-day moratorium on violence as a precondition to talks with the Palestinians — was a deception. Far from moderating his policies, he has unleashed his full, brutal might against the Palestinians. They are on the receiving end of the most massive Israeli military onslaught in 20 years.
Not that anyone should have been surprised. From massacres in Sabra and Shatilla onward, he has shown himself, like so many other tyrants, addicted to the fantasy that brute force can win political arguments — in this case that the Palestinians can be terrorized into submission. The fact that such a policy has not worked nor can work refuses to register with him. But that is because he has a tyrant’s mind: the objectives and the scale may be different, but he is no different from a Hitler or a Milosevic. He believes in violence as an instrument of government. His attack against the Palestinians is outrageous by any yardstick. The maiming and slaughter of civilians goes against any concept of civilized behavior. Certainly, there can be no talk of a “just” war against terrorism. In any event, who are the terrorists here? The Palestinians, over 160 of whom have died in the past week, or the Israeli Army? Who are the oppressors? Who are the victims?
These questions need to be answered not here in the Middle East but in Europe, across the West, most of all in the US, the one power that can muzzle Israel’s rabid dogs of war. And they need to be answered now — for it must be obvious to even the most blinkered of minds in Washington that this onslaught will result in further violence. Far from making the Palestinians cower, it will breed yet more attacks. That aside, we in the Arab and Muslim world simply do not understand why others are not outraged. And even if their hearts are unmoved, surely the Americans understand that they too are victims of Sharon’s brutality. This onslaught could well be the kiss of death to any hopes President Bush might have had that he can build a coalition against Saddam Hussein.
Washington’s claim that Iraq is again building weapons of mass destruction, including nuclear weapons, and has to be stopped may well be true. In other circumstances, the Gulf region would take such claims very seriously. We have been targeted by Iraqi rockets before. No one harbors any delusions that we would not again be, if Saddam had the power and the inclination. But at this moment in time, the only threat in view comes from the Israelis. There is an invasion happening right now in the Middle East. Unless Washington immediately applies its fullest efforts to stop it and drag the Israelis, kicking and screaming if necessary, back to the negotiating table, the coalition will have difficulty in taking shape. Dick Cheney will be told in no uncertain terms that the Americans are not the only people in the world who need to be freed from terror.
Arab patience with Washington’s very self-centered view of global politics is at breaking point. It is time America moved on the Palestine issue. Progress on that first, other things later.
