After more than 30 years of bombings and butchery, Northern Ireland is at peace, and the Americans, in particular Sen. George Mitchell had a lot to do with it. It was an awful, savage conflict. The British were caught using torture in their Castlereigh interrogation center and roundly condemned by the European Court. In the face of hunger strikes and worldwide condemnation, they were also forced to abandon the policy of interning suspected terrorists without trial.
These deeds were bad enough for a society that considered itself civilized. But how would the world have reacted had the British thrown cordons of tanks around Republican areas, assassinated known terrorists with cannon fire from helicopter gunships, used jet fighters to bomb offices of Sinn Fein and cut off ordinary Republicans from their places of work and business? The outcry would have been deafening and the Americans, in whose country so many Republican sympathizers of Irish decent have made their homes, would have been loudest in their howls of condemnation.
Odd then, how silent, how uncritical and how apparently complicit Washington has been when Israelis behave with exactly the same savagery to their opponents, the Palestinians.
The key link between Northern Ireland and the occupied Palestinian territories is George Mitchell. He came to both troubled lands and with patience, skill and diplomacy, hammered out peace plans. His plan, which Gen. Anthony Zinni is charged with implementing, calls on Israel to freeze all new construction of Jewish settlements in Palestinian territories and to stop the army firing on unarmed Palestinian demonstrators. For their part, the Palestinian Authority must clamp down on Palestinian extremists. In the face of huge obstacles, not least the disruptive attacks on his police force and intense popular anger, Yasser Arafat has courageously arrested many leading activists and persuaded Hamas, the largest militant group, to suspend suicide attacks.
Israel, however, has not stopped settlement building and expansion. Indeed, it seems that covertly, considerable extra resources have been directed to the Zionist settlers. Nor have the Israeli forces ceased their murderous attacks on Palestinian civilians. Sharon is trying to ward off the Mitchell plan by calling for seven clear days without Palestinian violence. Yet Israeli violence is continuing, with the clear intention of provoking a Palestinian response, which can then be characterized as a justification for avoiding talks. Zinni’s return to the region means that he will once again be in a position to observe, first hand, the hypocrisy and doubl dealing of the Sharon government. But how long will it be before the Bush White House can be persuaded that it is not the Palestinians and Yasser Arafat but Ariel Sharon who constitutes the core of the problem ?
Zinni’s arrival is the cue for intensified Israeli stoking of anger among Palestinians. The truce by Palestinian extremists will be tested to breaking point. Only violence and chaos will allow Sharon to escape implementing the Mitchell plan. How much longer will the Americans try to ignore this stark truth? How much longer will the Sharon government be allowed to make fools of their American friends?
