| Author | Message | | Alpha | | Posted: Fri Jan 10, 2003 10:01 am Post subject: Weapons of mass distraction |
| http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2003/620/fr1.htm
Weapons of mass distraction
Ariel Sharon had hoped a new defamation campaign against Yasser Arafat
and the Palestinian leadership would restore his electoral fortunes. It
hasn't turned out that way, writes Graham Usher in Jerusalem
One minute and 200 metres apart, on Sunday night two Palestinians
detonated themselves in the heart of Tel Aviv, transient home for
thousands of Israel's migrant workers and then teeming with rush hour
traffic. Twenty-two Israelis and foreigners were killed in the blasts
and 100 wounded.
It was the worst atrocity inside Israel since 27 March, when a Hamas
suicide bomber killed 28 Israelis in a hotel in Netanya. Ariel Sharon's
response then was to lay siege to Yasser Arafat's Ramallah headquarters
and order his army to re-conquer most of the West Bank Palestinian
cities, where it has more or less remained ever since.
The reprisals this time included helicopter gun ships pounding
foundries in Gaza City, an even tighter Israeli closure of the West Bank
and an unannounced ban on all Palestinians under 35 travelling abroad.
By Sharonian standards these are tepid reactions, tempered by
pledges he has made to the US not to enflame the occupied territories
ahead of a war with Iraq and the need to solicit $12 billion in US aid
and loan guarantees to steer Israel out of its economic crisis.
Shackled in the "war against terrorism", Sharon instead vented his
rage on the Palestinian leader and leadership, which he again accused of
"supporting, funding and initiating terror".
He prohibited a meeting of the PLO's Central Council that was to
convene on 9 January to discuss a new Palestinian Constitution,
including the new position of a Palestinian prime minister. He also
barred a Palestinian delegation from taking up an invitation from
British Prime Minister Tony Blair to attend an international conference
on Palestinian reform in London on 14 January.
"The time is approaching when the international community will
conclude that there is no hope of progress towards peace until and
unless the Palestinian leadership is replaced," said Israel's Defense
Minister Shaul Mofaz, by way of explanation.
But not all of the international community sees things that way.
While condemning the Tel Aviv attacks, British Foreign Secretary Jack
Straw "deeply regretted" the ban on the Palestinian delegation since "it
is important these people are able to travel and we are able to engage
in a process of reform."
Israel was not to be swayed. Foreign Minister Binyamin Netanyahu
reminded Straw that President Bush had said leaders "compromised by
terror" could not be partners for peace. "You in Britain are doing the
exact opposite," he charged. "No," countered Straw, "it is Israel that
is doing the opposite. Instead of concentrating on dealing with
terrorism, it is striking at delegates."
According to British diplomats Blair is still determined for some
sort of conference to go ahead, backed by lukewarm support from
Washington, which first "regretted" Israel's decision but is now
reportedly requesting that it be reversed.
"The reason there is opposition over our stance on Iraq has less to
do with any love of Saddam, but over a sense of double standards," Blair
told British ambassadors on Monday. "The Middle East peace process
remains essential to any understanding with the Muslim and Arab world."
Sharon is likely to be unmoved by such arguments. He knows nothing
will revive his poll ratings for Israel's upcoming elections more than
another assault on Arafat, whom many Israelis believe is the source of
all the evils that assail them. And such an assault is required because
mounting allegations of sleaze are at last starting to gnaw away at
Likud's commanding lead in the contest.
On Tuesday Israel's Haaretz newspaper ran a story that all but
accused Sharon of lying to Israeli police officers investigating monies
he had received from fictitious straw companies during his 1999 campaign
for the Likud Party leadership. Sharon told the police he had paid back
the company "loans" by mortgaging his ranch in the Negev Desert.
In fact, the money had come from an old South African friend, Cyril
Kern, delivered by the uncanny midwifery of Sharon's two sons, Gilad and
Omri, the latter now running for parliament on the Likud list. Under
police interrogation, Omri insisted on his right to remain silent about
the affair. His father backed him. "Look," Sharon told his questioners,
"Omri's a big boy. He needs to decide by himself."
Last week, Sharon fired a Likud deputy minister, Naomi Blumenthal,
for insisting on her right to silence during police investigations into
allegations of corruption in 2002 Likud primary elections. It was
unacceptable, said Sharon, for a public figure to resort to a citizen's
right to remain silent, vowing to dismiss any Likud candidate who had
used improper means to be elected.
Sharon is now under pressure to come clean on his South African
connection. It remains to be seen whether the wash of good government he
doused over Blumenthal will now extend to his sons or, indeed, himself.
C a p t i o n : Israeli Jews and Arabs demonstrate in Jerusalem on
Tuesday against a decision to bar two Arab MPs, Ahmed Tibi and Azmi
Bishara, from standing in the forthcoming Israeli elections. A decision
is expected from the Israeli Supreme Court today
© Copyright Al-Ahram Weekly. All rights reserved
Al-Ahram Weekly Online : 9 - 15 January 2003 (Issue No. 620)
Located at: http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2003/620/fr1.htm
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