Just how much pressure is the US putting on Sharon to withdraw his storm troopers? The rhetoric sounds right but it has no effect whatsoever. The Israeli war machine shows no sign of stopping. Tanks pull out of two towns only to move into others.
Maybe, the intention is to be ineffective. Washington is no paper tiger, all growl and no teeth. We all know that if it badly wants something done, it usually has the power to make sure it happens — all the more so when it controls the purse strings. And in Israel’s case the dependence is total.
If Arabs now conclude that President Bush’s rhetoric is hollow — so hollow that you can almost hear the echo — he has himself to blame. It would have been different if there had been the smack of firm action by the US. We all thought — or perhaps deluded ourselves into believing — that it was finally going to happen when he announced with such apparent determination last week that he was sending Secretary of State Colin Powell to the region. But, instead of heading straight to Israel to read the Riot Act to Ariel Sharon and haul him into line, Powell has taken the slow route.
What is wrong with Washington’s focus? The problem is not in Morocco or Egypt or here in Saudi Arabia. It is in the occupied territories. It is with the Israelis.
The fact that he will not arrive in Israel before the weekend, instead wasting time in a tour of Arab states, suggests that Washington wants to give Sharon more time to inflict maximum devastation on the Palestinians.
What is the point of him coming first to Arab capitals? President Bush has said that the Israeli onslaught must end. Arab leaders say the same. There is nothing to discuss. That was why King Mohammed VI of Morocco asked him almost as the first word of greeting, “ Don’t you think it would be more important to go to Jerusalem first?”
Or is it that Powell has a more pressing objective than drumming the Israelis into line: the need to firm up wavering Arab support for it and its so-called war against terrorism, perhaps? The fact that he has been sent to Arab capitals first indicates that he has something important to discuss with Arab leaders. Since it cannot be the need to stop the Israeli war machine, it has to be something else. Or maybe, if the rumors are correct, Powell wants an Arab condemnation of terrorism as the price for demanding Sharon pull out his troops (though not before the weekend). If true, it is outrageous and insulting. The Arabs have condemned terrorism time and again and, in this case, the Palestinians are far more sinned against by the Israelis than sinning. Powell’s plodding progress does nothing to inspire confidence in American intentions. Is it any wonder that Arab public opinion feels so frustrated and bitter with the US? Palestinians are dying while he takes the roundabout route to Tel Aviv. All it does is convince people of what they thought was the case: that Washington is not interested in the plight of the Palestinians.
If Powell wants to dispel that view, he needs to crack the whip — and it has to be at Sharon and his storm troopers. Everything else comes after that.
