Colext/Macondo
Cantina virtual de los COLombianos en el EXTerior
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MisiaRubby estaba feliz y disfrut� de cada minuto que pasamos en Israel.
Visitamos todo lo que hay que ver por esas tierras, y hasta me agarraron de
mansalva y me hicieron casar otra vez en Canaan. Acab� con arroz hasta entre
los anteojos. Menos mal que tambi�n hab�a vinito para reci�n casados, de ese
que donchuchito transmut� habiendo comenzado con fatuta agua. De esto hace
casi diez a�os y de lo �nico que yo me acuerdo --todos los d�as-- es del
odio tan intenso que transpiraba y se alborotaba como una aura maligna
alrededor de todos, jud�os, musulmanes, �rabes... Casi que se pod�a cortar
con cuchillo.
Yo volv� convencido de que una contienda tan milenaria ya no se arregla, no
importa si hay un poquit�n de buena voluntad en unos cuantos. Al final de
este milenio todav�a estar�n "los mesmos con las mesmas" haciendo "lo
mesmo,"a menos que a alguien se le haya ocurrido antes echar una bombita de
hidr�geno capaz de acabar con Raimundo y todo el mundo.
PANGosaurusIncredulicus
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A War Of Sharon's Making
For more than a year it has been discussed in the media and the
political and military system: is what is going on between Israel and the
Palestinians a war, or is it just "fighting"? Early this morning, the
question
has been resolved: it is war indeed. The government of Israel has
officially and formally declared the Palestinian Authority and its
president Yasser Arafat to be enemy, and instructed the armed forces under
its command to actively and agressively pursue the war by land, and sea.
This is not a random happening. In fact, it is the logical culmination of
the policies undertaken by Ariel Sharon ever since he assumed power in
February; and in fact, these are a direct continuation of Sharon's
policies as Defence Minister in the early 1980's, when he initiated a
disastrous invasion of Lebanon for the purpose of destroying the PLO and
expelling Arafat.
Since becoming Prime Minister, Sharon has been edging closer and closer to
this all-out war. Measures of oppression were steadily piled on top of each
other, yesterday's outrageous innovation becoming today's routine. The
"strangling closure" imposed on Ramalla at the very first week of Sharon's
tenure and which aroused then many international protests was, in
fact, far less severe than the siege at present imposed on each every West
Bank town and village.
And the same process of familiarization had gone on with regard to the
bombing of Palestinian cities - first by helicopter gunships (as already
started by Barak), then by F-16 fighter planes; and with the more and more
widespread assassination of Palestinians suspected of terrorism; and with
armed incursions into Palestinian-held areas - first for days, later for
weeks, then months.
Mediation efforts and plans there had been in plenty throughout Sharon's
term. The PM hardly ever rejected any of them openly. Rather, he used what
so far seems a fullproof method: making a rigid demand for seven days of
"complete and absolute cease-fire" before any substantive negotiations can
take place, and then making a gross provocation, just before the newest
cease-fire is about to go into force.
What happened a bit more than a week ago was a particularly effective use
of the technique: a few days before the latest mediator, the ex-US General
Zinni, Sharon authorized the assassination by helicopter gunships of
Mahmud Abu Hunud, a Hamas leader prominent and popular enough to
ensure that his death would be avenged in Hamas' brutal fashion -
particularly since the assassination took place when Palestinian public
opinion was already inflamed by the death of five Palestinian children from
an
explosive charge set up by Israeli army sappers (which was, apparently, an
accident).
The ploy was, in fact, quite obvious. It was commented on in the media at
the time; the knowledgable Alex Fishman pointed in Yedito Aharonot (Nov.
25) that the Abu Hunud assassination broke the tacit agreement between
Arafat and Hamas not to carry out suicide bombing -- an agreement which
had been in force for several months, and whose existence may well have
saved dozens of Israeli lives.
Without access to Sharon's confidential records, there is no way of
conclusively proving that the PM actually desired what followed. There is no
doubt that he and his military and intelligence advisers knew full well what
would result from assassinating Abu Hunud and nevertheless ordered the
deed to be done. Nor can there be a doubt that Hamas' grisly revenge,
causing the death of 26 randomly chosen Israelis, was of an inestimable
profit to Sharon. It gave him the perfect pretext for the declaration of war
upon
Arafat, effectively scuttling the Zinni mission and letting the Pentagon
hawks
gain the upper hand over the State Depratment in the adminstartion's
infighting. As a the result Sharon's onslaught upon the Palestinians got an
unprecented open backing from Washington.
With that kind of backing, Sharon could afford to adopt an openly
contemptuous attitude to his Foreign Minister Shimon Peres, whose
international prestige as Nobel Peace Prize laureate and supposed
peacemaker were hitherto vital to the Sharon Government. Now, the PM
could afford to ram his declaration of war through the cabinet and brush
aside
Peres' objections.
Sharon has been trumpeting his new campaign as "a war on terrorism" . But
how can anybody seriously claim that the cause of "fighting terrorism" can
be furthered by bombing and destroying Yasser Arafat's personal
helicopters, which anyway never could fly without the Israeli Air Force's
approval? Or by sending tanks and bulldozers to wreak the runways of Gaza
International Airport - the airport which was inaugurated three years ago by
President Bill Clinton in person, and which had been closed down ever since
the outbreak of the Intifada? Or by again invading Ramallah, a large portion
of
which was just recently occupied by Israeli tanks without in the least
diminishing the intensity of the Palestinian rebellion? Or even less, by
systematically targetting and destroying the installations of the
Palestinian
Police and security services - the very apparatus with which Arafat had just
begun the difficult and delicate task of confronting Palestinian militants.
Seen in the perspective of an Israeli Prime Minster who is determined to
maintain Israeli occupation of and settlement in the West Bank and Gaza
Strip, and to smother any emergent Palestinian statehood, Sharon's
campaign of the last days makes all too much sense. In which case Sharon
seems to be getting the Bush Adminstrations' support in destroying what
Secretary Powel described, just two weeks ago, as the United States' vision
for the region's future: a viable Palestine living in peace side by side
with
Israel.
Adam Keller Tel-Aviv, Dec. 4, 2001
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