The most recent Israeli Army raid on Yasser Arafat’s headquarters in Ramallah, and the siege at his person, is setting the stage for a violent backlash, the like of which Israel has not seen since the intifada erupted almost two years ago.
In the three days of relentless army bulldozing, which has left Arafat’s office the only one standing in the compound, thousands of Palestinians have poured out on to the streets of the West Bank and Gaza in support of their leader, chanting, "Long live Arafat, long live Palestine". Thousands of Palestinian men, women and children have defied military curfews, and in the face of tear gas and bullets, four have fallen and it is feared that many more will follow.
What is happening is a popular, spontaneous outpouring of patriotism expressed by a repressed people angered to the core by a brutal decades-old occupation and now by the humiliation their president is being subjected to. This is not isolation, as the Israelis claim. It is humiliation. Arafat is holed up, a virtual prisoner, crammed along with 250 people in just four rooms, with little water or electricity and cut phone lines.
This internment has isolated Arafat only physically. It has prompted widespread support around the world and at home. France has led a chorus of international condemnation against the siege. Britain added its voice to the criticism, saying this was not the answer to suicide bombings which prompted the raid. The EU says it is greatly concerned while the United States, which turned the other way in previous assaults on Arafat’s compound this year, at least this time advised Israel to consider the consequences of its operation. Today, the Security Council is to debate the situation.
The Israeli Army is apparently preparing for a long standoff. Demanding the surrender of around 20 Palestinians wanted for alleged involvement in attacks and said to be holed up with Arafat. Israeli troops say they will not withdraw from the compound before the men surrender and left open the possibility that even then they might not leave. This is ample proof that Arafat is the target. He is supposedly not to be harmed, nor expelled to Gaza or abroad, the Israeli Cabinet having decided that expelling Arafat could backfire, making him a hero. But in such precarious conditions he could very easily be killed or seriously injured. He is free to leave the compound but Israel will never allow him to return. He will get what Tel Aviv calls a "one-way ticket in a dignified way."
Sharon has long argued for Arafat’s expulsion and a few months ago voiced the wish he had killed him when he had Arafat encircled in Beirut in the early 1980s. He has Arafat surrounded again and this time Sharon may make his wish come true. Sharon’s other hope, never to see peace achieved, is being met. How else can it be explained why, in the almost six weeks of no Palestinian bombings, Sharon made no effort to begin a peace process? It seems as if he was waiting for the next bombing to move — not toward peace but in the other direction.
On Saturday, Arafat issued a statement asking all Palestinian factions to stop their attacks inside Israel. But as the Israeli Army gnawed away at his last redoubt, Arafat added he would never capitulate. His people will not surrender either.
