Give diplomacy a chance
haaretzdaily.com
Saudi Arabia and Egypt have recently stepped up their involvement in pressuring the Palestinian Authority and Hamas, calling for an end to terror attacks and condemning suicide bombings. The Saudis warned Hamas of harm to the movement's finances, and offered to speak directly to Hamas leaders about ending the attacks. Egypt demanded from Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat that he ensure Fatah activists were not taking part in terrorist attacks, and to stop making distinctions between good and bad terror. This activity offers a new chance to calm the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
The American administration has adopted the proposal for reforms in the PA. This would entail unifying the security and intelligence services into a single agency with a clear command structure that would act against terrorism and armed militias in the territories. The U.S. is also leaning toward conditioning its economic aid to the Palestinians on a change in the PA structure, to guarantee more transparency and civil responsibility in the Palestinian government, compared to Arafat's centralist management. The European Union should follow in the U.S. footsteps and condition its financial transfers to the PA on more energetic steps to prevent terror and corruption, instead of making do with denials and claims that the aid is given to the Palestinians under supervision and full transparency.
Arafat apparently gets the message, at least so far. In his public appearances in recent days, after the lifting of the siege on his office, he has ceased making his "shaheed" speeches. In TV interviews he has called for a renewal of the peace process and even offered to meet Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. Palestinian officials followed their leader, declaring that the suicide bombs damaged Palestinian national interests. The most recent terror attack in Rishon Letzion prompted condemnations by the Palestinian Authority, and Israeli security elements say they now hope for a new understanding between Arafat and the Islamic organizations about an end to the terror attacks.
Israel must do its part to give international bodies a chance to calm the conflict and renew the political process. To that end, Israel must avoid military actions that could reignite the fighting, free the Palestinian leadership from responsibility for preserving security, and even give the terror groups an excuse to resume their attacks in Israeli cities. The restraint shown by the prime minister and defense minister at the weekend, when they decided against a wide-scale retaliatory operation in response to the Rishon Letzion attack, gave a chance for the international pressure to work on Arafat.
Israel reserves the right to self-defense in its war on terror, but it must use the proper combination of political and military means, and avoid instinctive reactions. On a number of occasions in the past, a too easy Israeli finger on the trigger contributed to unnecessary escalations in the conflict and foiled efforts to reach a cease-fire. Now it is time to give diplomacy a chance. |
