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WHAT DO DO WITH YASS?? and OSLO?
"If we remove Arafat from the stage,
Hamas's spiritual leader Sheikh Ahmed
Yassin, God forbid, will replace him -
so say Peres..."
"...no power in the world can smash to
smithereens a vibrant national community
that has rallied around national, economic
and economic institutions.... The last time
there was an attempt to capture Palestinian
history was 20 years ago, when under the
orders of Ariel Sharon, the Palestinian
national archives were seized in West Beirut."
MID-EAST REALITIES � - www.MiddleEast.Org - Washington - 8/16:
Beneath that thick Israeli arrogance, many Israelis are really far more confused,
and far more fearful, than they are going to admit. Theirs' is a complicated
psychology especially as the scars of the Holocaust remain deeply buried and only
occasionally visible. But because they the Israelis are so much more powerful at this
particular time in history than those who oppose them, and because they have the
world's "only superpower" on their side in a very firm embrace, also for very
complicated reasons, Israeli domination of the Palestinians, and of the region, is
likely to remain for the foreseeable future.
Israel's leading newspaper, Ha'aretz, publishes an unusual combination of right
as well as left-wing Israeli writers and intellectuals as these two recent articles
make quite evident. It seems much of the right-left debate in some ways now comes
down to whether to continue deal with and relie upon Yasser. And it appears the
greatest incentive for some who argue doing so is that the alternative, with just a
change of the last two letters, is someone many have long feared would be much worse.
Even so, the right may not be so sure any longer as the article by Israel Harel
suggests. And as for the left, well it wasn't that many years ago that Meron
Benviniste was Deputy Mayor of Jeusalem, himself preaching the concept of
"segregation" and helping Teddy Kollek and the Labor Party bring about the conditions
that have led to the situation today.
ARAFAT IS DEADLIER THAN YASSIN
By Israel Harel
The Oslo concept was (almost) perfect: Palestine Liberation Organization
leader Yasser Arafat would become responsible for such matters as health,
education, employment and transportation, and would simply cease to be a
terrorist. In general, the leaders of countries, especially if they are
Nobel Peace Prize winners to boot, are never terrorists.
However, the devil refused to take a holiday: A year after Arafat signed on
the dotted line on the White House lawn, solemnly pledging to never ever
resort to terrorism, buses began exploding in Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, Hadera
and Afula. Yet then prime minister Yitzhak Rabin and then foreign minister
Shimon Peres, despite the hundreds of killed and wounded Israelis, remained
hostages of the concept: Arafat, a subcontractor operating without the
benefit of either the Israeli High Court of Justice or B'Tselem (The Israeli
Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories), would take
care of the terrorism (after all, he received thousands of rifles from Rabin
and Peres for that purpose - not for the purpose of killing Jewish settlers
on West Bank and Gaza Strip highways). Peres, who succeeded the assassinated
Yitzhak Rabin as prime minister, furiously rejected the solid evidence
supplied by Israeli military intelligence that Arafat had, in fact, given
the green light for the terrorist attacks on Israeli buses. The prime
minister claimed that the "purported" evidence was biased and subsequently
lost the general election.
Eight years later, and after 11 months of endless terrorism, Peres'
continued faith in Arafat is assuming clearly pathological proportions: The
id?e fixe that Arafat, even after all the abominable terror attacks, is
still a partner for peace and is still the only person with whom Israel can
negotiate, is now requiring Peres to engage in the trivialization of
Palestinian terrorism. Even he can no longer deny the fact that the person
with whom he and the late Yitzhak Rabin shared the Nobel Peace Prize was
directly involved in the terrorist attacks on Tel Aviv's Dolphinarium and in
Jerusalem (as well as in all the other deadly operations carried out by
Palestinian terrorists); thus Peres and his associates must downplay the
emotional, moral and political impact of Palestinian terrorism. Peres still
speaks very guardedly and he still only hints at what is on his mind. You
still need a musical ear to penetrate the mists of his rhetoric. However, it
is possible to distinguish that the "condemnation" is now coexisting - in
the same breath - with the view that "this is not as terrible as we think."
In other words, our "partner" is in a "no-alternative" situation.
Furthermore, Israel has something to do with the creation of this
"no-alternative" situation.
In light of this state of affairs, and in light of the "understanding" that
is being expressed in certain circles in Israel, there is today not one
world leader, with the (temporary) exception of American President George W.
Bush, who rules out Arafat as a "partner for peace" because of the recent
massacres. Even Pope John Paul II, from the Holy See on the banks of the
Tiber - the pontiff who is the spiritual father of billions of Catholics -
saw fit to host Arafat only a short time after the mass murder at the
Dolphinarium and to greet the Palestinian leader as a distinguished head of
state. Yet the government of Israel registered no protest. After all, how
can the government protest - even if it wanted to - when this country's
foreign minister, certain members of its parliament and various public
figures and journalists zealously seek out Arafat's company, joking with
him, being photographed with him and providing him with legitimacy while the
photos of horror depicting the terrorist attack on the Dolphinarium are
still circulating around the world?
If we remove Arafat from the stage, Hamas's spiritual leader Sheikh Ahmed
Yassin, God forbid, will replace him - so say Peres and other persons with
similar views. Peres and his cohorts are clearly demonstrating that, over
the past 11 months, they have not remembered - and, what is most important,
have learned nothing from - the events of the past. This is certainly a
bizarre state of affairs. After all, according to their dialectic (that is,
the dialectic of Oslo), a head of state can never ever act like a terrorist.
And Yassin (or whoever else replaces Arafat) will have to worry about things
like health, education, water and transportation, right? The answer is yes.
And if Arafat's successor continues the terror attacks, Israel would be less
hamstrung in its responses than it was during Arafat's regime, right? The
answer is also yes. Yassin is certainly not the world's darling, and even
the radical Israeli left feels no special commitment toward him. Thus, it is
possible to imagine certain scenarios in which the quantity and "quality"
(i.e., the lethality) of the terror attacks would diminish precisely because
Hamas was in control of the Palestinian Authority, is it not? The answer is,
again, yes.
When Hamas finds itself responsible for the lives of more than two and a
half million Palestinians, it will also discover that terrorist attacks do
not produce food, work, medical services or transportation, and that they
similarly do not produce foreign aid from the Americans or even from the
European Union. In such a situation, Peres and former justice minister (and
key Oslo architect) Yossi Beilin would no longer be able to confuse Israelis
as to the enemy's identity and intentions. If such a scenario fails to
become a reality, the identity of the head of the snake will at least be
obvious to everyone and will no longer be a matter for speculation. Then it
will be possible to fight against this snake's head without any inhibitions
or reservations. Since Arafat is unable to stop Hamas from carrying out its
terrorist actions, Hamas, when it comes to power, will be forced to put the
brakes on itself. Only the fanatics who are presently stage-managing the
suicide-bombing terror attacks in the name of Islam will be able to find
justification in the Koran for putting a stop to the attacks. Although
objections would be raised by Islamic Jihad, its opposition would be crushed
with a fist of iron, as only the fanatics of Islam (abundant examples can be
cited all the way from Algeria to Iran and Afghanistan) know how.
The principal difference between Arafat and Hamas is tactics. Because of his
position, his leadership and his sugar-coated utterances, Arafat is a
thousand times more dangerous than any Hamas leader who may succeed him. It
would therefore be in Israel's best interests for Arafat to step off the
political stage immediately in order to spend his retirement years in Tunis.
As long as he remains in power, and no matter where he turns, he will leave
a trail of scorched earth behind him. Peres and the Labor party can be
numbered among his victims. Arafat's terrorism will double, perhaps even
treble, the clout of both the Likud and the other right-wing parties in the
next Knesset. Nor will the other leftist groups that are so anxious to meet
with Arafat be able to make a comeback. The terrorist attacks, the
demonstrations supporting Arafat over Orient House and the cries for a
boycott of the Jewish settlements at the very height of the attacks on the
settlers will shrink these leftist groups as well.
FOOLHARDY and ANACHRONISTIC
By Meron Benvenisti
The takeover of Orient House and its contents, with its childish raising of
the Israeli flag over the Palestinian center, captured the world's attention
and continues to provoke nearly universal criticism, anger and mockery. But
the clumsiness, folly and anachronistic approach of the government's actions
in East Jerusalem were exposed less at Orient House than in the closure of a
much less colorful and almost anonymous institution: the Arab Chamber of
Commerce, located behind the Rockefeller Museum.
This institution, which has been in existence since the days of the British
Mandate and Jordanian rule over the city, always adapted its activities to
the changing political reality. After the Israeli conquest of the city, when
the need arose for an official Arab agency to mediate between Jordanian
citizens resident in East Jerusalem and the Jordanian government, the
chamber in effect turned into Jordan's consulate in Jerusalem. It provided
notary-like authorizations, verified signatures on checks, matriculation
exams, and export documents. It enabled the renewals of passports and
Jordanian identity cards.
Its services were vital for the maintenance of a quasi-normal existence in
practically impossible conditions and its activities were recognized and
unofficially supported by both the Jordanian and Israeli governments,
because it saved them both a lot of trouble. It was only the tub-thumpers of
the right wing who criticized the Israeli government and Jerusalem
municipality for the "flagrant violation" of Israeli sovereignty in East
Jerusalem, for allowing "Jordanian inroads into the city."
Ater Jordan gave up its claim on Jerusalem and following the Oslo Accords,
all civic powers (functional, not territorial) were transferred to the
Palestinian Authority, including matters such as education, religious courts
and commerce. This immediately had an impact on the lives of the Palestinian
residents of East Jerusalem. These residents, of uncertain citizenship,
became dependent on the PA in matters concerning their personal status
because, for example, the religious courts and waqf Muslim religious trust
are under the authority of the PA's minister of religion, while the
Palestinian Education Ministry became responsible for the school curriculum,
to provide school books and prepare teachers for the public municipal school
system of the municipality headed by Ehud Olmert.
The chamber of commerce, like other public Palestinian institutions, became,
of necessity, a body "affiliated" with the PA. And if that "affiliation" is
a violation of the law, requiring its closure, then Olmert's own school
system in East Jerusalem should be shut down, for it is also connected to
the PA, without which he cannot maintain the schools of East Jerusalem. By
the same token, the Israeli security services that are unable to maintain
even a modicum of quiet in the city without cooperation with the Palestinian
security services, presumably should be shut down as well.
Some have already pointed out that closing the Palestinian institutions in
East Jerusalem - though not all of them, only those with some propaganda
value - was a flagrant violation of Israel's own commitment not only to
guarantee their status but to encourage their activity. But it hasn't been
emphasized enough how their existence is clearly in Israel's interest, since
the alternative - granting Israeli citizenship to 210,000 Palestinians and
their full integration into Israel - is not on anyone's mind, just as "it's
unthinkable" to consider handing Arab neighborhoods to the Authority.
It's difficult to expect Israeli government ministers to weigh the situation
rationally; they only know how to recite slogans about "Israeli sovereignty
in the heart of Jerusalem" and the price of their folly will be paid by the
Arab residents and the representatives of the government who come into
contact with those residents. Soon, very quietly, all the institutions will
resume their activity as a result of the demands of reality and the decisive
fact that no power in the world can smash to smithereens a vibrant national
community that has rallied around national, economic and economic
institutions.
There's no doubt the Israeli government's moves in East Jerusalem - and not
the PA's activities - are violations of the Oslo agreements; not merely of
this or that article or clause but of the entire ideological underpinning of
those agreements - formal recognition of the legitimacy of the national
Palestinian collective.
The symbolic expression of that is not only in the removal of the PLO flag
from the Orient House but in particular the seizure of the documents of the
institutions that operated from the building.
The last time there was an attempt to capture Palestinian history was 20
years ago, when under the orders of Ariel Sharon, the Palestinian national
archives were seized in West Beirut. It turns out that the prime minister
has not learned a thing, and he's stubbornly insisting on reversing the
wheels of history. And the most foolish excuse is that "it's the heart of
Israeli sovereignty" - as if anyone can use force and steal national
heritage to break a connection between a people and its national and
religious capital.
So, now, the Israeli government, faithfully following the traditions of
classic colonialism, is asking the Palestinian donkey to eat a carrot after
it's been struck with a stick. Look, the mayor says proudly, I got millions
to improve the infrastructure of East Jerusalem, proof of the "city's
unity." In his eyes, the Arabs are but dust, whose symbols can be trampled
upon and who can be seduced by sewage pipes. The whole thing could be
dismissed with derision if these people weren't holding our fate in their
hands.
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