Sharon is at it again. He is now threatening left, right and center, and sending his bombers in all directions.
This man will not be satisfied till he plunges the area into another war, the only solution he sees for his and Israel’s problems.
The man has a problem — a big problem. He builds a Soviet style wall in the name of security; he punishes a whole people in a fashion reminiscent of Nazi policies; he blames everything from freak storms to suicide bombers on Yasser Arafat — yet the security situation inside Israel is no better than it was before he started all of this.
Couldn’t he see, or couldn’t someone at least show him, that his problem is internal and has nothing to do with (for once) other Arab states?
Bombing sites in Syria might satisfy his ego; it might also satisfy his co-madmen: But it will achieve nothing for him.
The brutal truth is that the Palestinians have taken things into their own hands since that day in September 2000 when he “visited” the Al-Aqsa mosque compound and triggered the intifada.
One day it is Arafat and the absolute need to remove him so suicide bombers will stop.
Next it is Syria and what is claimed to be “terrorist training camps”. Now we await another declaration, perhaps to do with a Templar-like organization targeting Sharon from the realms of outer space.
The truth is that Syria does not have much of a say over what is happening. Nor, for that matter, does Arafat.
It is clear to all who want to see that there are forces in Palestine that are reacting beyond and above outside help. They cannot remain disenfranchised forever.
News reports about the female suicide bomber tell that her immediate male relatives were killed by the Israelis and she lived with her extended family in a one room house.
That just about comprises the basic elements of despair. You don’t need a Syria or an Arafat to send her on her way to death.
Sharon’s policies have failed to bring security to Israel. That is a hard fact he cannot deny or evade. The catalogue of failed attempts and initiatives to bring peace to this troubled land need volumes to document.
There used to be a time when the Arabs were largely responsible for failure of such initiatives.
But for a long time now, Israel is the entity that simply pays lip service to peace initiatives and does all it can to foil them.
Sharon does not want peace. If peace reigns over the land, he and his ilk will become redundant since the only thing they thrive on is conflict.
And conflict is what we are going to have so long as he and others on the other side stay in power.
(e-mail: [email protected])
— Arab News Opinion 9 October 2003
