What is happening in Ramallah is a barbaric assault on a president, his people and on the norms which should govern civilized behavior. The siege of Yasser Arafat’s compound as Israeli troops make their way up to the very doorstep of his residence, is an outrage, an affront not only to Arabs but to all who value human rights and human dignity — all except those in Washington who suffer from moral amnesia when it comes to Israel.
It is also Ariel Sharon’s open challenge to the Arab League peace plan and all those who support it. Just one day after the plan was unanimously adopted Sharon moved into Ramallah.
What is his strategy? To send a message that his troops can reach Arafat anytime, anywhere? That he can scare the Palestinian president into submission? Humiliate and embarrass him? The Israeli leadership is deluding itself if it thinks it is winning this conflict by stooping to such scandalous levels even though those who matter in Washington are cheering them all the way.
The Ramallah raid has not broken Arafat or the intifada or the Palestinian spirit. All remain defiant. No one has surrendered or given up the fight. The will of the people of Palestine has proven stronger than Israeli bullets, their spirit more powerful than tanks.
Isolating Arafat is has done nothing to stop the Palestinian bombers, as Sharon envisaged. It has rallied the Palestinians and other Arabs around Arafat in a show of unparalleled unity and total defiance of Sharon and his American backers who repeat, in a Pavlov-like conditioned reflex, that “Arafat is not doing enough”. And it has not pushed Arafat into signing on to something he cannot. Anthony Zinni’s bridging proposals for a cease-fire are tilted heavily in favor of Israel, since they make no mention of an end to Israel’s assassination policy or a timetable for the lifting of the sieges on the West Bank and Gaza. Worse still, there is no corridor between the security provisions laid down in the Tenet plan and the political track of resumed negotiations recommended by the Mitchell report. In short, there is no political horizon to look forward to. Zinni remains in town but given the events of the last few days, the chances of a cease-fire are almost nil. The cease-fire as envisaged by Zinni is only designed to help the Zionist entity to continue the occupation without pains. And Sharon has not made any secret of his plans: A comprehensive military confrontation with the Palestinians, involving deeper, longer and more lethal incursions in Palestinian-controlled areas. This could very well mean the destruction of what is left of the PA and Israel’s permanent reconquest of the vast stretches of the occupied territories.
If Israel is Arafat’s jailer, the United States is his warden and parole officer. The United States has stood idly by, placing hardly any pressure on its dangerous ally, and parroting the Israeli mantra that Arafat is responsible for the hostilities and that only he can stop it. This has gone far enough. Arafat cannot be made responsible for the actions of every single Palestinian individual, just as George Bush cannot be held accountable for what each and every one of 240 million Americans plans or does. If anything, Sharon and by extension Washington are helping create the bitterness and helplessness that breed suicide bombers, making even Palestinian civilians who had not been caught up in the violence seethe with rage. Yet the Israelis and Bush and company consistently accuse Arafat of being able, but unwilling, to press the button that will end the violence. The blame game seems to be preferable in American eyes to tackling Israel over the occupation — the root cause of the conflict.
This radical Israeli escalation must stop. In accordance with the Security Council resolution passed on Friday, Israel must immediately withdraw from all Palestinian self-rule areas, including Ramallah, implement an immediate cease-fire, then follow through on the Tenet and Mitchell plans, the way they were originally drawn up. Meanwhile the least we expect from the Americans is to stop adding insult to Palestinian injury.
