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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group

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To: Sarmad Y. Hermiz who wrote (135417)	6/3/2004 11:52:44 AM
From: TimF	Read Replies (1) of 281500

If you recall, Palestinians were quietly awaiting the implementation of Oslo accords when Sharon went to the site with a thousand troops (in '98 ?) and declared it exclusively for Israelis. That is when the suicide bombings started. That's not a particularly accurate statement. The violence started before Sharon's visit, and the greater violence after it shows signs of planning. It wasn't (or at least not all of it was) a spontaneous reaction to the temple mount visit. The visit was a pretext to try to use violence to achieve the Palestinians aims after the talks had broken down. (Yes Oslo was signed but all the future talks and agreements that where supposed to happen under the framework of the Oslo agreement either didn't happen or didn't achieve anything significant). But even if the whole thing was just in response to Sharon's visit that wouldn't absolve the Palestinians of responsibility. In fact it would lend support to the arguments of those who say that their is no point in negotiating with the Palestinians. If they get so enraged that they go from a state of being peaceful and ready to implement a peace treaty to a state of terrorist warfare because of a visit to an area that is holy to both sides, when Sharon and his entourage did not enter or damage the mosques, then I'm not sure how any ceasefire, peace treaty, or final settlement with them is expected to stick. There will be other provocations. If they explode in violence at every provocation then there isn't any point in negotiating with them. Personally I don't think the Palestinians are so irrational. Their leadership wanted the violence so they caused it to happen with Sharon's visit as the pretext. If Sharon had canceled his visit they would have found another one, or perhaps just started the new wave of violence without a pretext. That doesn't mean that Sharon is innocent in all of this. He made his visit in a very provocative way. Sure he didn't enter or touch the mosques, but 1000 soldiers in the area of the mosques was over kill and was very provocative. Tim

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