The Israeli incursion into the Palestinian refugee camp of Khan Younis simply refutes the notion that Ariel Sharon is looking for peace with the Palestinians. The two-day raid, ostensibly to reduce mortar attacks, did much more damage than limit attacks on Israelis. It killed 11 Palestinians — at least half were civilians — and wounded dozens of others. Houses were demolished and 300 families fled. UNRWA says at least 80 families totaling 600 people sought shelter at its schools. Although small when compared to other Israeli blitzes, the Khan Younis attack was the largest military incursion launched by Israel since Yasser Arafat’s death last month, violating Tel Aviv’s stated policy that it would refrain from military operations in the run-up to the Jan. 9 elections, and that it would preserve law and order that so many feared would collapse in the wake of Arafat’s death.
Yet Sharon talks of peace as if there was nothing else on his mind, speaking of 2005 as offering a historic opportunity for peace with the Palestinians. Well, the New Year will begin with an international peace conference in London on the Middle East — and Israel will not be participating. Israel initially opposed the conference for fear it would bypass the road map, then it accepted, then again turned down the invitation. It says it can help from the outside. It is incomprehensible how, being a direct party to the conflict, Israel will not attend. It should be there, front and center, supporting the Arab peace initiative of Crown Prince Abdullah and adopted by the Arab League at the Beirut summit as the basis for negotiations.
The initiative says the Arabs will recognize the Jewish state in return for all occupied land being returned. That would include, among other areas, the West Bank, not just Gaza which Sharon is touting as a huge step to peace. This too is misleading because Sharon conceived his plan with a strategy that is the complete opposite of what Palestinians are calling for. By pulling out of Gaza, Sharon is freeing valuable Israeli financial and military resources from the onerous task of maintaining order in a troublesome hot spot and re-channeling them to the pursuit of territorial expansion in the West Bank. Transforming the Gaza disengagement plan from a plan designed to consolidate Israeli occupation into one that does just the opposite is in part the challenge the Labor Party faces. Likud and Labor have put the finishing touches to form a new coalition government that will help Likud avoid early elections.
Labor supports the disengagement, hoping it can be turned from a unilateral move into an integral part of a new peace process. However, this is not necessarily Sharon’s agenda. Exactly one year ago Sharon first floated the idea of a Gaza pullout. It was supposedly a sudden renunciation of his life’s work to put settlers in settlements and keep them there. Israel, though, is to retain control of Gaza’s external borders, coastline and airspace, placing doubts over suggestions that the withdrawal comes with no strings attached.
