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There can be no peace in the Middle East until the United States reins in Israeli aggression.
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The tank-tracks in Ramallah, Bethlehem, Qalqiliya and other towns in the West Bank have pulverised the Middle East peace process more effectively than any suicide bomber. And, once the Israeli army moves on to Gaza, Mr Sharon will have achieved the "fourteen years of Cold War with the Arabs" that he promised at the start of his premiership. He, of course, is the arch-exponent of the Iron Wall proposed by his mentor, Ze'ev Jabotinsky, whereby negotiations with the Arab world could only come after the Arabs had been forced to recognise the reality and legitimacy of Israel.
The peace process, however, was based on the idea of compromise, on the exchange of land for peace and on the ultimate acceptance of a Palestinian state. That, too, was the objective of the Clinton administration, even if it was, actually, more than partial to the Israeli lines. President Clinton also understood the essential principle of diplomacy concealing coercion that the weaker should make concessions to the stronger for otherwise why should he bother to negotiate at all?
So it was that Palestinian aspirations were deliberately downgraded during the 1990s while Israel created new "facts" on the ground, accompanied by endless American indulgence. Even though the Bush administration began by neglecting Middle East peace for the greater lure of eliminating Saddam Hussain in Iraq, it too has now fallen into line. The great difference, however, is that, by its crass and culpable neglect of the Middle East for the past year, it allowed Mr Sharon to push forward his agenda to the point of no return.
Goaded beyond endurance and with little to defend themselves beyond the small arms held by their police and home-made mortars and bombs... as their elected leader, Yasir Arafat, was shorn of his power...and as authority in the Occupied Territories fragmented...the Palestinians inevitably turned to the ultimate weapon of the weak: terrorism. Of course the destruction of innocent civilian life must be condemned, but it is Israel's so-called military "restraint" that has in reality been its driver.
And for President Bush, of course, terrorism has been his excuse not to engage, leaving it, instead, to Mr Sharon to push through his equation of resistance with terror with Arafat as its onlie begetter. But now America's Iraq project is in trouble and Washington has come to accept the linkage between Palestine and Iraq in Arab eyes. Hence American endorsement for the Saudi peace plan - brutally pushed aside by Israel hours after it was approved by Arab leaders - and American condemnation of Israeli aggression at the United Nations.
Yet, in reality, President Bush still believes that Palestinian terrorism is the problem, rather than the response. So, for the Arab world, he has discredited his own mild criticism of Israel and is, instead seen as its real protector. But only the United States has the ability to reverse this situation for ultimately it offers diplomatic credibility and it controls the purse-strings and the supply of weapons. The real tragedy is that it won't act because of its inane belief that the real cause of terrorism lies in Ramallah and not in Tel Aviv!
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RELATED LINKS | | | - Centre for International Studies, Cambridge
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