Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Politics : Middle East Politics -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Thomas M. who wrote (1564)	4/24/2002 2:54:10 PM
From: Thomas M.	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 6945

Calculated Provocations September 28, 2000—Ariel Sharon made his notorious visit to the Temple Mount, accompanied by dozens of heavily armed bodyguards, and protected by hundreds of Israeli troops. Although Sharon was then out of government, the leader of the Likud Party was treated as the de facto representative of the Zionist regime. When riots broke out throughout the West Bank and Gaza in response to this provocation, Barak declared his solidarity with Sharon and denounced Arafat for not suppressing the protests, setting the pattern for the subsequent 18 months. Sharon made his move, carefully planned for maximum disruptive effect, when Palestinian nationalist feeling had been inflamed by the decision of Arafat to delay again the formal declaration of an independent Palestinian state. The Likud leader also calculated that US intervention against him was unlikely, given the ongoing US presidential election in which the Republican candidate, then leading in the polls, was criticizing the administration for excessive involvement with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The timing of the Temple Mount visit was also determined by the need to sabotage back-channel talks between the Palestinian Authority, Barak and the Clinton administration, which had resumed in secret after the Camp David failure. According to a subsequent report in the New York Times, a fervently pro-Israeli newspaper, the secret talks had made significant progress, and on September 27 Clinton invited Israeli and Palestinian negotiators to return to Washington. Sharon would certainly have been aware of these maneuvers through his contacts in the Israeli military and intelligence service. The next day his trip to the Temple Mount touched off rioting that was answered by brutal police-military repression. The intifada had begun, and the US-mediated talks did not resume until December, with Clinton a lame duck and Barak little better. wsws.org