Who is next? That is what the Palestinians are asking. The murder of Abdelaziz Al-Rantissi, coming fast on the heels of that of Sheikh Ahmed Yassin is proof positive to the Palestinians that all they can expect from Ariel Sharon is death and destruction. They wonder whether it will be the Hamas leadership in Syria or Mohammed Dahlan seen by many as the major leading figure in Gaza. Maybe it will even be Yasser Arafat himself, though the Americans have said that is a line Israel must not cross.
The Palestinians in any case know for sure that the blood of many more martyrs will soak into their homeland’s soil before freedom finally dawns. Yesterday Israel’s Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz confirmed it to them when he said that Israel will continue striking at Hamas leaders. He and his security chiefs have, according to reports circulating in Israel, decided to try to kill the entire Hamas leadership without waiting for another suicide attack. There is no reason to doubt such reports — and the Palestinians will not doubt them for a moment.
They knew already that Sharon plans to snuff out any Palestinian leader who raises his head above the parapet or gets in his way; the only difference now is that the whole world knows of these bloody intentions. In the same way, the Palestinians have known for a long time that all road maps, all peace plans were dead. It was us — the rest of the world — who clung on to the precious dream that Israel would at some point withdraw from all the occupied territories. Yes, we thought, Jerusalem would be the tough negotiating issue, but the ’67 borders were seen as carved in stone, the boundaries of a future Palestinian state.
The Sharon-Bush meeting in Washington last week provided a rude awakening. It has changed everything. The old paradigm has been blown out of the water. By accepting the hitherto unacceptable and approving Sharon’s unilateral plan to permanently occupy Jewish settlements in Gaza and the West Bank, President Bush has made a triple mockery of international law. He has repudiated the ’67 borders; he has endorsed the seizure of land by war; and he has condemned a future Palestinian state to being a non-state — an unworkable patchwork of Bantustans. How can a state function that is a haphazard cluster of unconnected towns and villages? It will forever be at Israel’s mercy.
Bush also denied the Palestinians their right to return to the land of their forefathers, once and for all. Noises from Washington that any final settlement is between the two sides are just that: Noise.
Such, then, is the new paradigm in the Middle East: Murder and malevolent mapmaking and the shutting of doors. It will solve nothing.
