THE ADMISSION by Israel’s deputy Prime Minister, Ehud Olmert, that the “liquidation” of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat was an option should come as no surprise. It is perfectly consistent with the Sharon government’s monumentally misguided military campaign to solve the Palestinian issue by crushing Palestinian militant groups. It is a policy that, quite clearly, has failed, as the Palestinian suicide attacks on civilian targets continue with the same frightening regularity, regardless of the ferocity of the Israeli onslaught in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has always maintained that Arafat was behind Hamas and the other militant Palestinian groups and, therefore, capable of stopping the bomb attacks. But this has never been proved. On the contrary, it would seem that Arafat has little control over the militant groups and his “liquidation” or “expulsion” – another option cited by Olmert – is unlikely to put an end to their activities.
Logic would suggest that the taking out of the Palestinian leader would greatly assist Hamas’ recruitment drive for volunteers for suicide missions. But neither logic nor pragmatism, regrettably, have figured prominently in the shaping of the Sharon government’s policy, which has been labouring under the illusion that it can secure a conclusive victory over the militant Palestinian groups. This is looking as remote a prospect today as it was when the Israeli forces began their unrelenting attacks on Palestinian towns and villages.
The US brokered road map had given a glimmer of hope for a while, but the peace process was completely undermined by Sharon and his Defence Minister Shaul Mofaz, when they realised that it would not ensure the political and military extinction of the militant groups, which was the only reason they had agreed to it in the first place. Sharon had agreed to the road map because he saw it as an instrument for crushing the militant groups.
When it transpired that these groups would be preserved, on the condition that they suspended armed action (which was a deviation from the road-map but a step in the right direction as it had secured a cessation of the attacks), Mofaz and Sharon immediately went on the offensive, looking to provoke Hamas and Islamic Jihad by targeting their leaders. Thus ended a short period of relative peace in the Holy Land, with the suicide attacks and the Israeli army onslaught resuming.
The failure of the US government to put the responsibility for the new round of violence on Israel has only made matters worse. The US administration’s unwillingness to apply even a modicum of pressure on Israel is seen by Sharon as approval for his policies; it has rendered the road map a mockery and further undermined American plans for the Middle East. Without a cessation of the violence in the Holy Land, none of the US plans for the Middle East region can come to fruition.
But it seems the Bush administration is resigned to the fact that Sharon and his hawks will continue to dictate Washington’s Middle East policy. As long as this is case there will be no hope of peace and stability in the region.
