Sharon’s
chances
Editorial, Arab News, January 12, 2003
One of the oddest things about the political mess into which Israeli
Premier Ariel Sharon has got himself is that it is illegal under
Israel electoral law to accept campaign contributions from abroad.
Israel’s entire existence has long depended upon economic
and military aid from successive United States governments, along
with hefty flows of cash from the world Zionist community, many
of whom are also US-based. Yet here is the Likud party’s
Ariel Sharon, the most hawkish Zionist leader of Israel since
Menachem Begin, under serious attack for taking a $1.5 million
loan from a South African friend, which was used to pay back excessive
and therefore also illegal campaign contributions from supporters
in Israel.
Coupled with the recent court overthrow of an electoral ban on
the Knesset’s only two Arab legislators, it may seem as
if Israel is shifting away from its repressive stance on the Palestinians
and that, just over two weeks before the general election, liberal
views are gaining an unexpected ascendancy. Such optimism is almost
certainly unfounded. Two characteristics about Israel have long
been clear. The first is that in matters of domestic politics,
the general rule is a free-for-all in which there is little loyalty
and even less stability. Israeli politicians tend to dislike each
other with an unusual vehemence. There is a constant struggle
to reach the top of the greasy poll. Few leaders have been able
to count for very long on the support of political allies, whether
they are in the same party or part of a coalition.
Praying
for a miracle
By M.J. Akbar, Arab News, January 12, 2003
Have the Americans given sufficient thought to the calendar they
propose for their war against Iraq? According to serious analysts,
the date for the invasion is juggling between Feb. 15 and 21.
Washington is expected to wait till the end of January for United
Nations inspectors to deliver their full report (which, so far,
has not discovered a smoking gun in Iraq, leave alone a smoking
weapons of mass destruction). The White House will then spend
a fortnight trying to get another, and hopefully unequivocal,
resolution passed through the Security Council to serve as the
international cloak before the dagger. Come Feb. 15: bang! Does
America realize that the dates clash directly with the Cricket
World Cup in South Africa and Zimbabwe? The Americans could win
the war on the ground and lose it in the air. Given a choice,
what would you watch on television: cricket or war? President
George Bush cannot be so isolationist as to be indifferent to
the fact that the whole of the former British Empire, plus Holland,
will be riveted to cricket rather than the war.It is obvious that
Britain does not care, but that is no surprise. Britain has left
its empire behind, physically, psychologically, emotionally; even
erased it from her memory. But surely America cannot be so irresponsible.
After all, America has to run the world, and do so, according
to Texan optimists, for the rest of this century. That is a long
haul. America could need the help of client states, as availabl e
from the old Empire.
Israel's
academic freedom defended, while Palestine's is destroyed
By Ali Abunimah, The Electronic Intifada, January 10, 2003
Following the January 5 suicide attacks, which killed over twenty
people in Tel Aviv, Ariel Sharon's spokesman, Raanan Gissin, announced
that Israel would shut down three Palestinian universities, possibly
including Bir Zeit, the most prestigious in the West Bank, and
academic home to internationally-known Palestinians such as Hanan
Ashrawi, and Nablus' Al-Najah University, the largest in the West
Bank. This announcement, although it represents yet another escalation
of Israel's collective punishment and sustained effort to destroy
Palestinian civil society, failed to arouse international concern
or attention, and has been almost ignored by the media. Meanwhile,
a mere statement by the administrative council of the prestigious
University of Paris-VI has caused an uproar in Europe over alleged
"boycotts" of Israeli academics. On December 16, the French university's
administrative body approved a motion calling on the European
Union to suspend financial support for Israeli universities on
the grounds that "The Israeli occupation of the West Bank and
Gaza renders impossible teaching and research by our Palestinian
colleagues."
Children
shot in Askar Refugee Camp
By Anne Gwynn, The Electronic Intifada, January 11, 2003
Further Attacks on Balata and Nablus -- Today, Saturday, there
has been massive Israeli troop and tank deployment in Nablus --
while I watched from the roof of a house on the mountainside,
five tanks rolled out of their garage tearing up yet more roadway.
The imprint of these huge weapons of destruction on everything
they vandalise is unbelievable. There was a group of young children
on a balcony and a group up the hillside so one of the tanks stopped
-- remember there are penalties for looking at a tank -- and lobbed
three shells -- over their heads on this occasion, thankfully.
But surely this is terrorism to a degree -- who lobs whatever
millimeter shells at kids of 7 or 8 years old to frighten them?
Huge explosions occured nearby, creating large craters to add
to the ones already there, and three columns of black smoke rising.
At 5.35 pm, a group of kids and one young man were throwing stones
at two Israeli tanks in the roadway in the Askar Refugee Camp.
The tanks opened fire on them, killing one and injuring many more.
The dead martyr was OSHAN ABDUL AZIZ SHANIER, who was shot by
a single bullet to the heart and died instantly. He was 22 years
old, born in a refugee camp in his own land, died in a refugee
camp in his own land, killed by a soldier who is illegally in
his country contravening all the relevant International Laws and
Conventions. No warnings here, no mercy. No normal human decency.
Shoot to kill. He had no weapon but the stone still in his hand
when he died.
The
mask is off
By Uzi Benziman, Ha'aretz, January 12, 2003
Ariel Sharon has in recent days delivered a conclusive answer
to those who had been wondering whether he had changed his stripes
since his election as prime minister. The answer is this: once
a bully, always a bully. Sharon is the perfect exemplar of the
violent Israeli, the sort who tramples his neighbor and who responds
wildly and screams bloody murder whenever anyone tries to put
him in his place. That's what he always used to be; and now it
turns out that his term as prime minister did nothing to soften
the edges, and change his behavioral traits. The moment he gets
into trouble, the moment he sets a goal for himself, he doesn't
fret about the means used to get what he wants. He doesn't flinch
about breaking the rules of the game - and sometimes these rules
happen to be actual laws. And when he's called on to make accounts,
he puts on a martyr's face, playing the part of a victim of some
heinous miscarriage of justice. As an army officer, Sharon's military
talents were often counterbalanced by criticism of his proclivity
to interpret orders given to him as he saw fit. Whenever his actions
were scrutinized, Sharon responded as though he were being persecuted
by people seeped with envy of his success, who wanted to blame
him for misdeeds done by others. That is how he acted after acts
of reprisal undertaken at Qibya (in 1953), after the misadventure
at the Mitla Pass (during the 1956 Sinai War), the 1973 Yom Kippur
War and the Lebanon War.
Jobless
Palestinians do not blame the foreigners
By Danny Rubinstein, Ha'aretz, January 12, 2003
They blame Israel for depriving them of a basic civil right --
Palestinian condemnation of last Sunday's terrorist attack in
the old central bus station in Tel Aviv was a bit unusual. Usually,
the Palestinian Authority condemns attacks against Israeli civilians
inside Israel - this time the announcement mentioned that foreign
workers were among the casualties. It is quite possible the two
young suicide bombers from Nablus had no idea they were going
into one of the largest concentrations of foreign workers in Israel
when they blew themselves up in the Neve She'anan quarter. They
chose a crowded place to kill as many people as possible, and
that's why they went to the old central bus station. An estimated
300,000 foreign workers - perhaps more - have taken up jobs in
Israel once done by Palestinians from Gaza and the West Bank.
People from Romania and China work in construction, from Thailand
in agriculture, and most of the others do house cleaning or manual
labor in various service industries, taking the place of a similar
number of Palestinians who entered the Israeli work place after
1967 for nearly three decades.
US
connection of the Lebanese lawyer leading the push for Saddam's
exile
By Robert Fisk, The Independent, January 9, 2003
Can we play musical thrones? Arab academics, intellectuals and
writers are suggesting that Saddam Hussein step down to prevent
a "catastrophe" in the Middle East, adding that they want a democratic
Iraq in which human rights observers would oversee a "peaceful"
transition of power. Signatories to the petition include the Kuwaiti
lawyer Hassan Jawhar, the Egyptian film director Yousry Nasrallah
and Kammel Obeidia from Tunisia, the former director of Amnesty
International Beirut. "The immediate resignation of Saddam Hussein,
whose rule for over three decades has been a nightmare for Iraq
and the Arab world, is the only way to avoid more violence,''
the petition says. Among the signatories is Chibli Mallat, the
Lebanese lawyer who has attempted to bring the Israeli Prime Minister,
Ariel Sharon, to court in Belgium for war crimes at the 1982 Sabra
and Chatila refugee camps in Beirut in which up to 1,700 Palestinian
civilians were murdered.
Israel
is blocking the road to peace
By Saeb Erekat, Financial Times, January 12, 2003
There is an old cliché about the Middle East peace process: if
it is not moving forward, it is moving backward. Nothing demonstrates
the inherent truth of this cliché more than the past two years.
In the absence of a peace process, Palestinians and Israelis have
become mired in a cycle of unrelenting violence. Trust in the
other side has evaporated, as has hope for the future. Israelis
live in fear, while Palestinians can barely live at all.
For two years, the Palestinian leadership has called for a return
to dialogue. We have embraced every serious effort to do so including
the Mitchell Plan of May 2001, which laid out steps to end violence
and renew negotiations; the Arab League Summit resolution of March
2002, which called for full normalisation of relations with Israel
by the Arab world in exchange for Israeli withdrawal from lands
occupied in 1967; and efforts by the Quartet (the UN, Russia,
the US and the European Union) to develop a road map to a Palestinian
state. Tragically, the current Israeli government is not only
satisfied with the absence of a peace process - it depends on
such an absence for its survival. Israel's leaders, and their
US supporters, have invented an impressive array of excuses why
peace talks cannot resume. First, Ariel Sharon demands a period
of "total calm" - then the prime minister shatters the calm by
killing Palestinian civilians, demolishing Palestinian homes and
stealing more Palestinian land. Then he demands that we must change
our democratically elected leadership - only to have Israel roll
tanks into our cities, impose curfews and effectively prevent
elections and parliamentary meetings. The Quartet road map has
been shelved at Israel's request because of pending elections:
apparently, Israelis cannot vote and negotiate at the same time.
