Arafat's fate?

[Arthur Dent]

Residents are running out of food and water. The hospital is running out of supplies, too — of food, medicine, bandages, even disposable gloves. Its morgue, with 25 bodies, is full, and the Israelis will not let the bodies be buried.

Yeah, that's not pissing people off even more.

About 2 a.m., Israeli tanks and infantry, with helicopters flying overhead, began their attack on Mr. Rajoub's palatial hilltop compound, a state-of-the-art security complex widely believed to have been built with financial help from the United States. The compound had been surrounded by tanks for several days, and the Israeli Army had been putting out word that about 50 wanted men were inside. There were said to be about 400 people in the compound, although Mr. Rajoub himself was not there.

"They are shooting, shooting," said a deputy to Mr. Rajoub, Abu Osama, in a brief, tense cellphone conversation from inside the compound. "Tanks and snipers."

Mr. Rajoub, like his counterpart in the Gaza Strip, Muhammad Dahlan, had been a crucial figure in the American-sponsored Israeli-Palestinian security cooperation. On a shelf in his huge office, he kept a picture of George J. Tenet, the Central Intelligence Agency director, and a piece of Jerusalem stone, a gift from Avi Dichter, the head of Israel's secret internal security service, Shin Bet.

Always a good idea to attack one of your few potential allies to capture criminals who ARE ALREADY IMPRISONED.

A body of mediators from the United Nations, the United States, the European Union and Russia was barred by Israel from coming here to meet Mr. Arafat. Israel insisted that it wanted to keep the Palestinian leader on the sidelines.

"Yasir Arafat is in isolation, and he is going to remain so until the end of the terrorist threat," said Ranaan Gissin, an adviser to Mr. Sharon.

Yup, not allowing any negotiation is a REALLY good policy.


And everyone forgets how this all started. A hardline Isreali general walked in with armed guards and disrespected a Mosque. That led to rock throwing, which led to an armed Isreali response, which led to more violence, and on and on.

Did Isreali apologize for the disrespect? No. It would have been so easy to offer a public apology and settle things down, but they didn't. Instead they used the violence as an excuse to try to seize more land. Did anyone else see the footage of Isreali bulldozers destroying thousand year old caves burying livestock, food supplies, and other personal belongings inside these caves that had been used by Palestinian shephards for centuries? Or how the Isreali forces destroyed tons of infrastrucure every time they pull out of an area they occupied?

And has anybody else heard about the Isreali forces shooting at Palestinian AMBULANCES?

BOTH sides in this conflict are to blame. Islam was founded by JIHAD, a religious war that raged from the Middle East to the Sahara dessert. Of course they will respond to a threat with violence. It's PREDICTABLE. And anything that's predictable can be dealt with and usually avoided.

As for Arafat, he's an INEFECTIVE leader. But in this climate, he's a MODERATE compared to the extremists. Do you really think the extremists wouldn't kill HIM if they thought he went too soft? He's walking a razor's edge between seeking peace and keeping the extemists in line. He's doing a HORRIBLE job of it, but he's the only one trying. Remove him from power by force and you create a power vaccuum that will be filled by whichever extremist yells loud enough and waves the biggest gun. Then you'll really have problems.

EDIT - And does anybody remember the three weeks back in December when there WASN'T any violence (except a few sporadic shootings?) when nothing was accomplished. Another opportunity blown by both sides. How much credibility did that cost Araftat with the extremists when he convinced them to stop and then came back with nothing?



Edited By Arthur Dent on April 02 2002 at 08:44