Adam
Keller reports from Israel on why Sharon’s choice will
be costly for all the peoples of the Middle East
On one and
the same evening, the state of Israel got two diametrically
opposed offers. At the Beirut Summit, the Crown Prince of Saudi
Arabia offered Israel a full peace with the entire Arab World
in exchange for ending the occupation and withdrawing to the
1967 borders - "total peace for total withdrawal, and no
further claims upon Israel."
One hour later,
the suicide bomber who arrived in Netanyah made to Israel, on
behalf of Hamas, a counter-offer - an offer of eternal war and
indiscriminate mutual killing. By all indications it seems that
the Sharon Government is about to reject the peace offer and
accept the war offer.
Acceptance
by Israel of the Saudi peace initiative - which, despite the
squalid power struggles evident at the Beirut Summit, enjoys
the support of the Arab world's important leaders - could open
up new horizons, make it possible to achieve an immediate cease-fire
and an end to suicide bombings, convince many desperate Palestinians
that a diplomatic way out of the occupation does exist, and
provide the Palestinian Authority with the strength and credibility
to deal firmly with cease-fire violators.
Acceptance
by Israel of the Hamas war initiative will lead the two peoples
deeper into the abyss of bloodshed and destruction. The Israeli
army will be sent again to invade the Palestinian territories,
which will entail the killing of hundreds and perhaps thousands
- but it will not put an end to suicide bombings, on the contrary.
In the end, Israel will withdraw from
the Occupied territories - after much more blood is shed unnecessarily.
There can be
no question where Prime Minster Sharon stands. He has no intention
of giving up the occupation and the settlements, and therefore
he did all in his power to sabotage the Saudi peace initiative.
Not only did he refuse to let Arafat go to Beirut, but he also
was not willing to remove the ongoing encirclement and siege
of cities and villages
in the Palestinian occupied territories.
As we had another
terrible proof yesterday, that siege cannot stop a few determined
and desperate
people on their way to perpetrate a suicide bombing, but it
does cause untold suffering
and hardship to the entire Palestinian population, strangles
and dislocates the Palestinian
economy and thus creates the very breeding ground for new suicide
bombers.
For the moment,
Sharon got what he wanted. The carnage in Netanya totally overshadows
the peace initiative. But Sharon has no solution to offer the
people of Israel who elected him a year ago - neither peace,
nor security, nor an end to suicide bombings. As we had another
terrible proof yesterday: siege does not the desperately determined
on their way to blow themselves up, an on the other hand it
increases the suffering and hardship of an entire population,
strangling its economy and thus creating the very breeding ground
from which such acts of despair spring.
This article first appeared on the website
of Israeli peace organisation Gush Shalom. Visit their website
at http://www.gush-shalom.org
for up-to-date reports on the occupation, resistance and the
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