The unfolding events in Palestine remind us of what had already taken place in Bosnia- Herzegovina. It all tells us of how the European plan to block the emergence of a third full sovereign Muslim state in Europe was carried out.
The Bosnian leadership made a serious mistake when it agreed to hand over the heavy weapons found at its military bases and in the hands of Bosnian soldiers to the Serbs as part of a deal to win independence from the crumbling Yugoslav Federation. Soon after the weapons were handed over Belgrade started enforcing the plan designed to kill the Muslim state by breaking it up into tiny cantons.
To achieve its objective, Belgrade pursued a policy of mass killing and destruction of homes, mosques and any Islamic monument that would testify to the Islamic nature of the land. The Bosnian people were terrorized psychologically and physically and forced to flee their homes while the Serbs carried out a scorched earth policy.
To enforce the plan with precision, the European Union led by the United Kingdom assisted the Serbs in every possible way to reach a common objective.
The Europeans then followed a policy of stalling and foot-dragging to give Belgrade the time it needed. It did this by sending envoys and negotiators who had no political authority and mandate to take meaningful steps in order to resolve the conflict or even protect the helpless Bosnian people from Serb terrorism.
As if this was not enough, the EU then imposed a ban on the import of arms into countries of the former Yugoslav Federation. Although the embargo was total it was only enforced on the Bosnians while weapons and all other type of military hardware were smuggled from Russia to Belgrade under the very nose of the EU countries and the United States.
It was only after the Republic of Bosnia- Herzegovina had collapsed and its disintegration was complete that Washington intervened to cover up the shameful European stand. The Dayton Conference was held on American soil and it was at Dayton that the dismemberment of the Bosnian state was completed and its psychologically defeated leadership presented with a fait accompli.
Today, we witness the same tragedy being repeated in occupied Palestine in every bit of its sad detail. After it found itself obliged to recognize the establishment of a Palestinian state, Israel quickly moved to thwart the final stage of the peace process. It embarked on a design that would kill any attempt leading to the establishment of a Palestinian state.
Elections were held and Ariel Sharon the butcher became prime minister. Sharon immediately moved to escalate terrorist military operations against the defenseless Palestinian people. His forces started killing Palestinian children and youth, demolishing homes and systematically destroying the Palestinian National Authority by attacking its leaders and bombing offices and expanding and building more Jewish settlements on Palestinian land.
Israel’s actions then took a further twist with the army turning the courtyard of the main mosque in the town of Bir Sheeba into a battleground. The aim was to demolish the historic site and obliterate any sign showing that the town has been Islamic long before the establishment of the Jewish state.
The occupation army then embarked on a large-scale campaign to expel more than 40,000 Palestinians from their homeland on the ground that the visit visas allowing them to enter the occupied land had expired.
Israel’s terrorist actions were met with support and sympathy from within as well as the outside. Domestically, Rabbi Ovadiya Yose, spiritual leader of the ultra rightist Shash party, called for the annihilation of all Arabs wherever they might be. Internationally, the European position shifted from calling for the continuation of the peace process to complete silence over Israeli actions. The 15 European foreign ministers did not issue any statement on the Middle East at the end of their April 9 meeting in Brussels. Earlier, France and the United Kingdom abstained when a resolution calling for protecting the Palestinian people was put before the United Nations Security Council and vetoed by the United States. Meanwhile, the new Bush administration has been adopting a vague stand toward the Palestinian issue.
All these developments point to a new plot aimed at preventing the establishment of an independent sovereign Palestinian state on the occupied Arab lands and to the fact that the EU and the United States are up to their necks in this plot. What this means is that Palestinians will have to content with self-rule status under Israeli occupation. This could be achieved through an enlarged conference like the one in Dayton where Jewish-Western demands would be imposed on the Palestinian leadership. The only difference between Bosnia and Palestine is that Bosnia did not receive any genuine support from any party whereas Palestine continues to have the support of Arab and Muslim groups with whom it shares common interests.
Will this be enough to prevent the convening of an other Dayton conference?
