RIYADH, 17 September 2003 — The administration of US President Bush has made two extremely crucial errors in their effort to launch the road map to peace. The first was in taking the position and publicly stating that Israel’s Prime Minister Ariel Sharon was a “man of peace” and the second was in ignoring and attempting to isolate Yasser Arafat from the peace process and the Palestinian people.

The current Israeli military campaign against the Palestinian population is escalating and shows no signs of approaching a “cease-fire” status. Sharon has stated that “Israel will keep up assassination of Palestinians until the Palestinian Authority takes action against militants.” Several Israeli officials refer to this policy as “targeted interception” but Sharon has blatantly declared “open season” on suspected terrorist leaders.

This week he announced that “Hamas leaders are marked for death.” He then approved the assassination attempt against Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, founder and spiritual leader of Hamas. In as much as Sharon has not supplied a detailed listing of his potential targets, it is not possible to know who is targeted or how many people will be eliminated.

What is known is that Ariel Sharon has a history of using violence to solve conflicts. In January 2002 he told the Maariv newspaper that he should have killed Yasser Arafat 20 years ago when he was under Israeli siege in Beirut. He was referring to Lebanon in 1982 where the massacres of hundreds of Palestinians took place in the refugee camps of Sabra and Shatilla — a crime that resulted in Sharon’s resigning his post after an Israeli commission of inquiry established that he bore indirect responsibility for the deaths.

Now the struggling peace process has provided Sharon with the “cover” he needed to implement a campaign of destruction. The only requirement that is deemed necessary is for a group to be added to the list of terrorist organizations. The political branch of Hamas was added to this list, joining it to the military wing Izzeddine Al-Qassam brigades, with the approval of both the United States and the European Union.

The question is just how far Sharon is willing to go. Will he attempt to eliminate his ancient enemy Arafat by insisting the Palestinian Liberation Organization is, in and of itself, a terrorist organization? That the Al-Aqsa brigades are directly connected to Arafat’s Fatah organization and that there is no legitimate political representation of the Palestinian people? If there is no political representation, then there is no body of people and there is no dream of a free state of Palestine. The Bush administration must reassess the direction of Sharon and his government and find a means by which to control the “man of peace.”

The second major error was in sidelining Arafat. The US position that Arafat is to be isolated because he is “tainted with terrorism” is naive at best. The mental image of Arafat attending a UN meeting with an olive branch in one hand and a gun in the other dates back a number of years. This decision is very recent and stems from pressure by Israel to eliminate Arafat.

Yet, the question arises, how is that possible? Abu Ammar, as Arafat is called, is in the words of the Fatah Forum “their warrior leader.” Whenever Arafat is threatened, thousands of Palestinians take to the streets in protest. To contend that he does not have the most direct influence over the Palestinian people is either wishful thinking or plain ignorance.

The Bush administration should revise its position and instead incorporate Arafat into the peace process. Only by this inclusion will Arafat be forced into a public forum in which he will have to show his true colors as either a supporter of major terrorism or as a patriot who desires above all else, a free state of Palestine. The very fact that both former Prime Minister Abbas and currently nominated Prime Minister Qorei have pleaded with the Bush administration not to sideline Arafat should be sufficient evidence.

If an additional argument is needed, they should consider the fact that under Prime Minister Abbas, the peace process came apart due to the fact that he controlled only four of the eight armed branches of the Palestinian security forces; the other half were, and are, controlled by Arafat. Placing Arafat in a position of open authority will make him responsible for controlling terrorism within the occupied territories. He will either empower Security Chief Mohammed Dahlan to arrest and bring to trial dangerous elements or he will demonstrate to the world that he, like everyone else, cannot control these elements. If he cannot control the militants, then the Bush administration can set a course that could be implemented by the United Nations to bring them under control with the support of the Israeli and Palestinian people.

To continue on the current path is not only a death sentence for the peace plan but a promise of continuing violence on both sides.

— Adrienne McPhail is an American journalist living in Riyadh.