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Politics : The Donkey's Inn -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Mephisto who wrote (3178)	3/8/2002 2:19:53 AM
From: Mephisto	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 15516

War without end: Who can stop this Middle East carnage? Leader Monday March 4, 2002 The Guardian Ariel Sharon's latest wheeze for subduing the Palestinian intifada has turned out to be as disastrously ill-judged as his earlier efforts. The Israeli prime minister's strongarm tactics in sending the army into refugee camps in Balata and Jenin predictably backfired. The house-to-house searches for armed militants and their weapons caches in the heartlands of Palestinian resistance simply produced more bloodshed, more innocent victims and more bitterness. Nor was the killing confined to the West Bank. In Gaza, a seven-year-old boy playing outside his home in Beit Lahia died in what was described as indiscriminate machinegun fire. For sure, the Israeli army's incursions were provoked by preceding (retaliatory) Palestinian violence. Yet their main achievement is to have ensured yet more Palestinian attacks. They duly followed, including an outrageous, inhuman bombing in Jerusalem that killed nine people, including five children; and more horrific carnage yesterday that left another 11 Israelis dead. Yasser Arafat's Palestinian Authority condemned the Jerusalem bombing, even as responsibility was claimed by the al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, an offshoot of Fatah. But Mr Arafat is as discredited as Mr Sharon is bloody-minded, as fatally duplicitous as his Israeli counterpart is inept. An opinion poll taken before this most recent escalation shows Israeli support for Mr Sharon steadily eroding; for his part, Mr Arafat is increasingly viewed by many Palestinians as an irrelevance or at best, an unavoidable evil. On both sides, the victims of this latest bout of blood-letting are the victims of failed, incompetent and self-serving leadership. Both sides, both nations, both peoples deserve better than this. Yet who will save them from themselves? The US, seen as the most influential mediator, continues to hold back. One explanation is that it is preoccupied with its "war against terrorism"; but suspicions persist that the Bush administration is content to watch the conflict simmer (although not explode) while, shamefully egged on by Tony the little trumpet boy, it plots war in Iraq. The EU, as usual, appears to be all talk. And the Arab world is busily shooting down the new Saudi peace initiative before it has even taken off. Ordinary Palestinians and Israelis who despair of their foolish leaders can be forgiven for thinking that the outside world does not care as much about their suffering as it pretends. guardian.co.uk