Arafat: Israel´s Dilemma
Cynthia Yacowar-Sweeney
05 December 2001
Israel has been hit by a wave of suicide bombings and shooting attacks this past week, the most horrific being in Jerusalem and Haifa. Over 30 Israelis were killed and scores wounded. Yet, according to Saeb Erekat, a leading Palestinian spokesman, Arafat is fully committed to the peace process. "We are trying our best to sustain the ceasefire." Nothing could be further from the truth. Arafat has failed to live up to his foremost obligation, the core bargain of the Oslo agreement: to take all necessary measures to prevent terror attacks against Israelis. His willingness to support peace is the height of hypocrisy. How can he be trusted, based on his violations of all previous agreements to end violence and in light of the incessant carnage in Israel.
Yasser Arafat won´t change. He promises peace to the West, but among Moslems, he calls for jihad. He condemns suicide bombings to the media in English, but urges his people to ongoing violence in Arabic. He´s been playing a double-barrel game with Israel and the West right from the start, sucking Israel and its allies down a road that led nowhere. Since the Oslo Agreement of 1993, Israel and the West were viewed by Arafat and his cohorts as over-trusting willing-to-please clowns, while all along Arafat was trying to seize Israel piece-by-piece. He´s played Israel and the West for suckers.
Israel faces a dilemma. It can either blindly place all hope in Arafat to remain fully committed to the peace process, as he claims he is – despite the fact that his own Fatah organization claimed joint responsibility for one of the suicide bombings last week - and simply lie in wait for more terrorist attacks to occur. Alternately, Israel can overthrow Arafat´s corrupt terrorist regime. Chances are, if the latter approach is taken, Sharon may face a far more fragmented and unyielding enemy, like Hamas or Islamic Jihad, who are already gaining more public support in many PA-controlled areas than Arafat´s own Fatah organization, thereby placing Israel on the doorstep of murder again. Yet, anything would seem to be an improvement over Arafat. So what should Israel do? Does it have other options?
Let´s go back six months to the suicide bombing attack in Tel Aviv which killed 22 young Israelis. Arafat condemned the attack in English, but at the same time, wrote a letter of congratulations and condolences, in Arabic, to the family of the suicide bomber. He called the bomber "heroic" and a "model of manhood". Arafat has been given far too many chances to prove himself a partner for peace. He has obviously done virtually nothing to curb terror from Islamic extremist groups, factions whom he claims are working on their own. Back in August Arafat was considering forming a national unity government with Hamas and Islamic Jihad, two groups dedicated to the destruction of Israel. Sharon explains that "they are all together now (including Hezbollah, the Palestinian police, and Arafat´s own presidential guard), acting to carry out the strategy of terror. Arafat provides them all the help and support and cover and money."
Whether or not Arafat has control over these groups is irrelevant. The bottom line is that he has failed to live up to his side of the bargain in not preventing terrorism. Even his condemnations of the horrific suicide bombings this past weekend and his supposed pleas for peace are hollow, because they are not backed by any action, like pushing the stop button on the assembly line of terrorists being mass produced. That´s because Arafat cooperates with terrorists, encouraging terrorism instead of preparing his people for peace. He has brainwashed a new generation of children to hate. These children are raised in a culture of violence, indoctrinated daily by the PA´s terrorist tentacles and the Arab-language media to "put down their toys and pick up weapons" and to participate in murderous riots against Jews. How can one actually expect to have peace under these circumstances?
Arafat will continue deceiving us. We´ve been waiting far too long to witness a change of heart in Arafat. Therefore, all efforts must be concentrated upon a new strategy. If Arafat does not reign in the terrorists and bring them to justice, then Israel is fully justified in striking at the political infrastructure that supports terrorists and in expelling Arafat and his terrorist regime - just as the U.S. did to the Taliban when they refused to hand over bin Laden and his al-Qaeda terrorists. Israel has been prey to extremist violence for decades and has a right to security and self-defense, just as the U.S. does.
However, ditching Arafat has already been done. Israel exiled him from Lebanon in 1982 for having executed countless numerous incursions into Israel from terrorist bases in that country. Yet he continued operating from his distant refuge and former headquarters in Tunisia. His people were scattered under various regimes, yet, despite his isolation, they remained loyal to him and his cause. He was finally brought back to Israel in 1993 at the beginning of the Olso era, which only led to more bloodshed.
Israel faces a serious dilemma. Assassinating a Nobel Peace Prize winner is certainly not an option, for that would only incur the wrath of the international community. Israel´s survival cannot be ensured without the approval of the rest of the world and the United Nations, despite Israel having good reason not to trust it. So hitting back effectively is just not plausible due to internal and political considerations. Israel is left with the option of scaring Arafat. Sharon is launching a wave of strikes on police stations and government buildings throughout the West Bank and Gaza Strip. He destroyed Arafat´s helicopters near his headquarters in Gaza, but limiting Arafat´s ability to come and go from the region does not scare him. Nor does destroying a police station in Jenin or Palestinian security buildings in Bethlehem. Sharon has been doing this all along, yet the bloodletting continues.
So what does Israel do? That is a question only Israel can answer. It´s time Israel fight terror its own way, which is what Sharon told Bush before heading back for Israel. It´s time for Israel to take care of itself, because no one else will. Israel did just that when it got rid of Saddam´s nuclear reactors in Osirak Iraq in 1981. We don´t hear many complaints about that now. We won´t hear many complaints once Arafat is gone, too, if that´s the road Israel chooses to take. Only time will tell what kind of government would ultimately emerge in his stead.
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Cynthia Yacowar-Sweeney is an associate with the Canadian Institute for Jewish Research (CIJR) in Montreal. |
