Sharon's war

The recent strikes by Israeli forces on Palestinians point to Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's policy of aggression and war that has the silent backing of the United States.

THE December 13 announcement by Israel that it is severing all official contacts with Palestinian President Yasser Arafat is added confirmation that the West Asia peace process is, for all practical purposes, dead. Israel followed up this announcement with heavy air attacks using F-16 war planes and helicopter gun ships all over the occupied territories, including Ramallah where Arafat currently is. The Israeli government has held Arafat "directly responsible" for the latest round of attacks by Palestinians on Israeli targets inside the occupied territories. The statement issued by the Israeli government said that Arafat "is no longer relevant to Israel, and Israel will no longer have any connection with him". The decision came a few hours after Arafat fulfilled a long-standing Israeli demand to seal the offices of the Islamic fundamentalist organisations, Hamas and the Islamic Jihad, going against public opinion in the occupied territories.

Arafat had said in the second week of December that Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon is personally targeting him for assassination. His headquarters in Ramallah was bombed, shortly after he left the compound. Israeli tanks have been stationed 300 metres from his compound. A Palestinian Authority (P.A.) spokesman has said that the recent measures taken by Israel constitute a "comprehensive declaration of war". Palestinian Information Minister Yasser Abed Rabdo stated that the Israeli actions have now made it impossible for the P.A. to crack down on militants.

After the latest round of Israeli actions, the United States Special Envoy to West Asia, Anthony M. Zinni, said that he would stay in the region "for as long as it takes" to hammer out a new deal. While the U.S. government's official line is that it continues to recognise Arafat as the leader of the Palestinians, U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell echoed the Israeli line by stating that if Arafat refuses to crack down on "terrorism", the dream of Palestinian statehood may not be realised.

For a very brief while it had seemed that the U.S., the main political and military backer of Israel, would be able to persuade the Jewish state to make some meaningful concessions to the Palestinians. The George Bush administration, gearing to wage a war on terrorism, wanted to appear even-handed in its dealings, especially to the Arab and Muslim world. The reason behind this decision was the priority given to the Palestine issue by Osama bin Laden and the Al Qaeda network in an attempt to justify their jehad against the U.S. and the rest of the Western world. Until early November, senior U.S. officials had sought to convey to the international community the impression that they were indeed serious about bringing about a lasting settlement in West Asia.

In early November, President Bush even went to the extent of suggesting in a speech to the United Nations General Assembly that the creation of a Palestine state was inevitable. Prime Minister Sharon was virtually forced by the Bush administration to apologise for some of his unwarranted remarks against U.S. efforts to bring on board countries and people opposed to Zionism in the "fight against terrorism".

The U.S. put Sharon on a leash for around two months. Israeli troops withdrew from many of the Palestinian towns they had occupied in September. Colin Powell talked about the need to create an economically viable state of Palestine. Regarding Israeli occupation of Arab lands, Powell spoke of the need to implement U.N. Resolutions 242 and 338 which provide for the complete withdrawal of Israeli forces from the occupied territories. But when the war against the Taliban in Afghanistan started going in favour of the U.S. by the middle of November, a change was discernible in the American attitude towards Israel.

The Israeli government was soon back to the game of assassinating Palestinian leaders. The current escalation of the conflict can be directly traced to the assassination of a key Hamas leader and the death of five children, killed by Israeli explosives placed in their path while they were on their way to school. Attacks by Palestinian suicide bombers on Israeli targets followed.

Two more Palestinian children, one of them a toddler, were killed in the second week of December when an Israeli helicopter targeted a passenger car in the West Bank city of Hebron. In all, more than 200 children have been killed so far by the Zionist security apparatus since the uprising resumed. The Palestinians have been demanding the deployment of an international observer group in the West Bank and Gaza to monitor Israeli acts of aggression and violence against civilians.

THE suicide bombings in early December in Jerusalem and Haifa was the excuse that Sharon was looking for. While in the U.S., Sharon made a speech which closely echoed President Bush's speech after the September 11 incident, and then ordered the bombardment of the P.A. offices, airport and the special units providing security for Arafat. Immediately after the events of September 11, Sharon had described Arafat as the "Osama bin Laden" of the region.

Observers of the West Asian political scene would no doubt have found this statement ironical, coming as it did from a man who has been involved in terrorist acts almost from the time of the creation of the state of Israel. There have been demands from human rights groups in many West European countries that Ariel Sharon face a War Crimes Tribunal, at least for the atrocities committed against Palestinian refugees in Sabra and Shatila during the Israeli invasion of Lebanon. A superior court in Israel had asked that Sharon take responsibility for those killings. And it was Sharon's controversial visit to the Temple Mount area in September last year, which triggered a new round of violence that has so far killed more than 800 Palestinians and 230 Israelis. That visit had facilitated Sharon's quest for the leadership of the Likud party and the government.

Successive U.S. administrations have shown seem to suffer from selective amnesia on the issue of terrorism. While the U.S. was raining bombs all over Afghanistan to subdue the rag-tag Taliban militia for over two months, killing innumerable civilians in the process, Israel too started its so-called campaign against terror by targeting both civilian and administrative facilities in areas under the control of the P.A.

The Israeli attacks this time clearly underlined a dual purpose. The random use of helicopter gunships, fighter planes and tanks was meant not only to terrorise Palestinian civilians but also to undermine totally the credibility of the P.A. and its leader Arafat. The attacks continued into the second week of December despite Arafat ordering the arrest of around 30 top activists belonging to the Hamas and the Islamic Jihad. The militant organisations had themselves offered a truce in the second week of December, provided Israel stopped its offensive. The Israeli government rejected the offer. On previous occasions, Israeli security forces are known to have targeted Palestinian jails where Palestinian radicals were lodged.

The Bush administration, in a further show of support to the Israeli government, froze the assets of three charitable organisations, accusing them of helping the Hamas. A Bush administration spokesman justified the Israeli attacks by stating that, "obviously Israel has the right to defend itself and the President understands that clearly". U.S. Vice-President Dick Cheney and Secretary of Defence Donald Rumsfeld also issued statements supporting Israel's latest depredations. Rumsfeld had recently said that "the only way to defend against terrorists is to go after the terrorists".

Zinni, on his first visit to Israel, paid floral tributes at the spot in Jerusalem where Israeli civilians were killed by a Palestinian suicide bomber. There were no such gestures for the victims of Israeli terror attacks.

Zinni wants the Palestinian side to make all the concessions. Arafat has made many concessions so far, including the arrest of Sheikh Mohammed Yassin, the spiritual leader of Hamas. From available indications, Arafat is now not in a position to deliver any more such concessions. Besides, from his recent statements it is apparent that he has no illusions left about the Americans.

Arafat has openly accused the Bush administration of being pro-Israel, adding that the warplanes which destroyed Palestinian lives and property were bought with the American tax payers' money. The $2.7 billion grant that Israel annually gets from the U.S. is used partly to finance the purchase of fighter planes. The Palestinian people have shown for more than a year now that they are not intimidated by Israeli threats. By targeting Arafat's headquarters and home, Sharon has shown that he does not consider the former as a negotiating partner anymore. His good friend Rumsfeld has already said that Arafat "is not a particularly strong leader". Turkish Prime Minister Bulen Ecevit has said that Sharon told him that Israel wanted "to be rid" of Arafat. Turkey is one of Israel's closest military allies in the region.

Ever since Sharon took over as Prime Minister, the P.A. has been telling all those willing to listen that the Israeli game plan was to undermine it and give the peace process a formal burial. Israel has been trying to accelerate the pace of illegal Jewish settlements in the West Bank and Gaza after the Oslo accords were signed. The Likud-led government has made it clear by its deeds that it will never be reconciled to an independent Palestinian state.

THE reaction of the Bharatiya Janata Parliament-led government to the latest crisis in West Asia has been predictable. It has been evident for some time that under its auspices bilateral relations between India and Israel have become extremely close. External Affairs Minister Jaswant Singh was among the first to ring up Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Perez to express solidarity with Israel's fight against terrorism after the recent suicide bomb attacks. Just hours after Jaswant Singh's telephonic conversation with Perez, Arafat's residence and offices were attacked.

In the first week of December, Jaswant Singh expressed in Parliament his "deep concern" at the escalation of violence and terrorist acts that led to the death of innocent Israelis. He however added that there was no change in India's stand on the Palestine issue and that the government remains committed to the goal of Palestinian independence. While "strongly" condemning the "completely unjustifiable" Israeli aerial attacks on Gaza and the West Bank, Jaswant Singh reiterated India's commitment to the U.N. Security Council resolutions calling for the creation of a separate state of Palestine.

It will be difficult for the BJP-led government to abandon unilaterally India's long-held stand on the Palestinian issue just as it has done on other international issues. However, the close military and security linkages that have crystallised between New Delhi and Tel Aviv under the stewardship of the BJP have made many people view Jaswant Singh's formal statements in Parliament with scepticism. It was the same Jaswant Singh, who on his visit to Israel last year, said that India's support for the Palestinian cause was dictated by "vote-bank" politics in India, alluding that the support for the Palestinian cause was guided solely by the opportunistic politics of India's secular parties. Home Minister L.K. Advani, during his trip to Israel, went a step further and talked about deepening security cooperation between the two countries, including in the nuclear field. Advani was of course all praise for Israel's handling of "terrorism".

Israel is at present India's second biggest supplier of defence materiel. For the BJP and its base organisation, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), Israel is a "natural ally" in the international arena. Since the Kargil conflict in particular, the present government sees Israel as a virtually indispensable ally for India's national security. Israeli expertise in combating terrorism is rated high in the corridors of power in Delhi, though Israel has not been very successful in securing its own borders. The growing closeness between the two countries is evident in the diplomatic field too. At the World Conference Against Racism held in Durban in the first week of September, the Indian government was among the first to object to Zionism being equated with racism, though the issue was raised only on the sidelines by non-governmental organisations and was not on the conference's official agenda.