Short-term gains over peace
Wednesday, May 23, 2007
IN RECENT days Israel launched airstrikes on Gaza and is openly threatening to assassinate members of the Palestinian National Authority, including Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal, based in Damascus.
On Sunday, the Gaza home of parliamentarian Khalil Al-Haya was struck. Eight died including seven members of the lawmaker's family. Government-sanctioned extra-judicial assassinations are common.
In the autumn of 1997, 10 undercover Mossad agents carrying Canadian passports were found responsible for injecting Meshaal — then living in Jordan — with a little-known poison.
It was the late King Hussein, supported by former United States President Bill Clinton, who pressured the Israeli government to hand over an antidote. The agents were later swapped for the Hamas spiritual leader Sheikh Yassin, who was being held in an Israeli prison.
Later, in 2004, Israel killed the wheelchair-bound old man as he was exiting a mosque.
Sunday's carnage was wrought under the pretext of preventing Palestinian Qassems from harming Israelis, even though most of these crude homemade rockets land on desert sands.
Indeed, only eight Israelis have died as a result of Qassems since 2001 although they have caused injuries and damaged property in Israeli southern border towns.
Israel is also said to be considering cutting Gaza's water and electricity supplies, a move favoured by Israel's former prime minister, the hawkish Benjamin Netanyahu, who is believed to have ordered the 1997 attempt on Meshaal's life.
Netanyahu is thought to be positioning himself to grab the top job from Ehud Olmert, whose trust rating stands at a derisory 2 per cent the lowest ever recorded. Some sceptics believe Olmert needs a new war after his failure in Lebanon last summer to regain credibility.
There are reports that 20,000 Israeli troops are awaiting orders to reoccupy Gaza when they will erect a barrier across the southern Philadelphi Route, ostensibly to prevent the smuggling in of weapons from Egypt.
Israel is also stirring up Palestinian infighting by facilitating the delivery of weapons to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, head of Fatah. It also gave permission for 500 policemen, answerable to Abbas, to return to Gaza following training in Egypt.
The Daily Telegraph has reported that Israel decided to embrace Fatah in order to foil Hamas. If that's true the move has failed since it has only served to bolster the latter's standing on the street.
Unfortunately, Palestinian factions have fallen right into the divide-and-rule trap and have been waging fierce battles on the street of Gaza for control of the overcrowded open-air virtual prison. Whenever there is a ceasefire the realisation that both sides are facing a common enemy sets in, always bad news for Israel.
In the meantime, the Israeli government and the international community willfully turn a blind eye to the expansion of illegal colonies around Jerusalem and throughout the West Bank.
A similar blind eye is being turned toward the Arab peace initiative, which is backed by all 22 members of the Arab League and offers full diplomatic and economic relations in return for Israel's withdrawal to pre-1967 borders, the setting up of a Palestinian state and the right of Palestinian refugees to return to their homeland.
In 2002, when it was first proposed during an Arab league summit held in Beirut, the initiative was similarly ignored.
Likewise, both Israel and the US ignored documented overtures from Iran in 2003 whereby the Iranians promised to stop supporting Palestinian armed groups in return for recognition and an end to sanctions.
Israel has also rejected out of hand repeated Syrian calls for peace talks and has, instead, attempted to isolate Lebanon from Syria.
On Sunday, speaking at the World Economic Forum held in Jordan, Israeli Vice President Shimon Peres promised his government would offer a counter-proposal to the Arab initiative. However, he neglected to give details of any such proposal. Given that a senior Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman later claimed he knew nothing about this, we shouldn't hold our breath over this.
In a nutshell, Israel has spurned offers of peace from the Arab League, Iran, and Syria in favour of wars and localised conflicts. What benefit do Israelis gain from this consistent policy of rejection, consolidated when Ariel Sharon took power in 2000?
Surely, ordinary Israelis would prefer to live in peace with their neighbours in a state where their children would not be automatically trained to kill or have to live in fear? And certainly Israeli businesses would benefit from an open Middle-Eastern market where trade and tourism would bloom.
What is their problem? Sure they would have to give up confiscated land and return it to its rightful owners. Sure they would have to forego any long-held expansionist plans but the long-term benefits greatly outweigh any short-term disadvantages.
I doubt that any people on the planet favour conflict over peace and prosperity if given the choice. The problem is Israelis are not being asked by their current leadership to disavow their fortress mentality so as to open the door to a new path.
It seems to me that Israelis are in dire need of an enlightened leader; someone who can think ahead to the day Israel may no longer be unconditionally protected by Uncle Sam.
As generations die off, so do memories of the Holocaust and with it collective Western guilt. Americans have already begun asking questions about massive amounts of their tax dollars that end up in Israeli coffers.
It's the 21st century. Arabs are willing to accept the status quo. They are ready to recognise Israel as a good neighbour. They have said so loud and clear. It's time the Israel people slewed off the crusty old warmongering guard. Their negative attitudes are set in stone.
If Israelis don't wake up to embrace this new reality before it's too late, then as Palestinian spokesman Saeb Erekat recently warned, the region is doomed.Arab News
On Sunday, the Gaza home of parliamentarian Khalil Al-Haya was struck. Eight died including seven members of the lawmaker's family. Government-sanctioned extra-judicial assassinations are common.
In the autumn of 1997, 10 undercover Mossad agents carrying Canadian passports were found responsible for injecting Meshaal — then living in Jordan — with a little-known poison.
It was the late King Hussein, supported by former United States President Bill Clinton, who pressured the Israeli government to hand over an antidote. The agents were later swapped for the Hamas spiritual leader Sheikh Yassin, who was being held in an Israeli prison.
Later, in 2004, Israel killed the wheelchair-bound old man as he was exiting a mosque.
Sunday's carnage was wrought under the pretext of preventing Palestinian Qassems from harming Israelis, even though most of these crude homemade rockets land on desert sands.
Indeed, only eight Israelis have died as a result of Qassems since 2001 although they have caused injuries and damaged property in Israeli southern border towns.
Israel is also said to be considering cutting Gaza's water and electricity supplies, a move favoured by Israel's former prime minister, the hawkish Benjamin Netanyahu, who is believed to have ordered the 1997 attempt on Meshaal's life.
Netanyahu is thought to be positioning himself to grab the top job from Ehud Olmert, whose trust rating stands at a derisory 2 per cent the lowest ever recorded. Some sceptics believe Olmert needs a new war after his failure in Lebanon last summer to regain credibility.
There are reports that 20,000 Israeli troops are awaiting orders to reoccupy Gaza when they will erect a barrier across the southern Philadelphi Route, ostensibly to prevent the smuggling in of weapons from Egypt.
Israel is also stirring up Palestinian infighting by facilitating the delivery of weapons to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, head of Fatah. It also gave permission for 500 policemen, answerable to Abbas, to return to Gaza following training in Egypt.
The Daily Telegraph has reported that Israel decided to embrace Fatah in order to foil Hamas. If that's true the move has failed since it has only served to bolster the latter's standing on the street.
Unfortunately, Palestinian factions have fallen right into the divide-and-rule trap and have been waging fierce battles on the street of Gaza for control of the overcrowded open-air virtual prison. Whenever there is a ceasefire the realisation that both sides are facing a common enemy sets in, always bad news for Israel.
In the meantime, the Israeli government and the international community willfully turn a blind eye to the expansion of illegal colonies around Jerusalem and throughout the West Bank.
A similar blind eye is being turned toward the Arab peace initiative, which is backed by all 22 members of the Arab League and offers full diplomatic and economic relations in return for Israel's withdrawal to pre-1967 borders, the setting up of a Palestinian state and the right of Palestinian refugees to return to their homeland.
In 2002, when it was first proposed during an Arab league summit held in Beirut, the initiative was similarly ignored.
Likewise, both Israel and the US ignored documented overtures from Iran in 2003 whereby the Iranians promised to stop supporting Palestinian armed groups in return for recognition and an end to sanctions.
Israel has also rejected out of hand repeated Syrian calls for peace talks and has, instead, attempted to isolate Lebanon from Syria.
On Sunday, speaking at the World Economic Forum held in Jordan, Israeli Vice President Shimon Peres promised his government would offer a counter-proposal to the Arab initiative. However, he neglected to give details of any such proposal. Given that a senior Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman later claimed he knew nothing about this, we shouldn't hold our breath over this.
In a nutshell, Israel has spurned offers of peace from the Arab League, Iran, and Syria in favour of wars and localised conflicts. What benefit do Israelis gain from this consistent policy of rejection, consolidated when Ariel Sharon took power in 2000?
Surely, ordinary Israelis would prefer to live in peace with their neighbours in a state where their children would not be automatically trained to kill or have to live in fear? And certainly Israeli businesses would benefit from an open Middle-Eastern market where trade and tourism would bloom.
What is their problem? Sure they would have to give up confiscated land and return it to its rightful owners. Sure they would have to forego any long-held expansionist plans but the long-term benefits greatly outweigh any short-term disadvantages.
I doubt that any people on the planet favour conflict over peace and prosperity if given the choice. The problem is Israelis are not being asked by their current leadership to disavow their fortress mentality so as to open the door to a new path.
It seems to me that Israelis are in dire need of an enlightened leader; someone who can think ahead to the day Israel may no longer be unconditionally protected by Uncle Sam.
As generations die off, so do memories of the Holocaust and with it collective Western guilt. Americans have already begun asking questions about massive amounts of their tax dollars that end up in Israeli coffers.
It's the 21st century. Arabs are willing to accept the status quo. They are ready to recognise Israel as a good neighbour. They have said so loud and clear. It's time the Israel people slewed off the crusty old warmongering guard. Their negative attitudes are set in stone.
If Israelis don't wake up to embrace this new reality before it's too late, then as Palestinian spokesman Saeb Erekat recently warned, the region is doomed.Arab News
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