Arafat Gambling With Catastrophe
News-Register
Yasser Arafat's strategy has become clear: He wants full-scale war in the Middle East. It does not seem to matter to him that such conflict could become a catastrophe of horrifying proportions.
Arafat's Palestinian Authority has been devastated by Israeli tanks, troops and gunships responding to day after day of suicide bombings and other terrorist attacks. Arafat has done virtually nothing to curb terrorists, leading Tel Aviv to use military forces to pen him up in the authority's headquarters building at Ramallah.
During the past few days, Arafat and his official spokeswoman have repeated the same theme over and over again: "We need intervention." There can be no doubt the intervention they seek is in the form of an attack on Israel by armed forces from Syria, Jordan and Egypt. That would result in a general war of the type not seen in the region since the 1970s.
There is every reason to believe Israel would win such a war with its conventional forces, as the Jewish state did during the 1960s and 1970s in conflicts against its neighbors. But the strategic balance has changed during the past quarter-century. Now, Israel has a potent backup should warplanes, armored vehicles and infantry prove inadequate. Tel Aviv has nuclear weapons.
Use of nuclear arms by Israel is an unsettling prospect. It could set a precedent that would encourage other nations to resort to weapons of mass destruction they heretofore have held in reserve. And, should Israelis become convinced use of nuclear arms is the only thing standing between them and annihilation, there is no reason to think Tel Aviv would not resort to such a means of defense. Little imagination is required to conceive of the danger of such an opening of a military Pandora's Box.
Arafat is desperate, however. His refusal to rein in terrorists has painted him into a deadly corner. He apparently is willing to risk the lives of millions of innocent civilians in order to escape.
President Bush and U.S. diplomats have made subtle yet unmistakable overtures to Arafat, attempting to help him find a way out of his self-created dilemma. Arafat has yet to respond, preferring instead to urge Arab nations to go to war against Israel.
U.S. policy, as we have noted previously, must focus on preventing such a war. Egypt, Jordan and Syria must be made to understand that they cannot prevail against Israel - and that the consequences of an attack could be cataclysmic. Arafat has embarked on an extraordinarily irresponsible course of action.
Far from winning him new allies, it should alienate millions of Arabs who understand he is attempting to use them as expendable pawns in his attempt to destroy Israel. |
