From: valston-AT-email.arizona.edu
Date: Wed, 5 Dec 2001 13:41:05 -0700
Subject: RE: NYTimes.com Article: Sharon's War Cannot Be Won 



>Sharon's War Cannot Be Won
>
>December 5, 2001 
>
>By ALI ABUNIMAH
>
>
> 
>
>CHICAGO -- Once again the world has had to confront the
>horror of innocent men, women and children killed by
>suicide bombers in the heart of Jerusalem and in Haifa. No
>decent person can refrain from condemning such attacks in
>the strongest terms. Such deeds harm not only their
>innocent victims, which in this case probably included
>Palestinian citizens of Israel, but also the just cause of
>Palestine. 
>
>As a Palestinian I am often challenged by the press on my
>views about such horrific bombings. I emphatically repeat
>my condemnation and state that I oppose the targeting and
>killing of innocent civilians regardless of whether they
>are Israelis or Palestinians. 
>
>Yet I wonder why no one asked how I felt when five
>Palestinian schoolboys were killed by a bomb planted by the
>Israeli occupation forces in a refugee camp in Gaza less
>than two weeks ago - or why Israelis and pro-Israel
>spokesmen, who are called for comment by the same radio and
>television stations that call me, are rarely asked to
>condemn the violence that is committed in their name. 
>
>I watched in sadness the latest American envoy to the
>Middle East, Gen. Anthony C. Zinni, laying a wreath in
>Jerusalem at the site of the bombings. But where was the
>American wreath for the five boys killed in Gaza? Why are
>the targeting and killing of hundreds of Palestinian
>civilians, including more than 150 children, and the
>suffocation by siege of three million Palestinians so often
>considered mere background noise to Israel's drama? 
>
>In response to the suicide attacks, Secretary of Defense
>Donald H. Rumsfeld said, "The only way to defend against
>terrorists is to go after the terrorists." This can only be
>understood as an endorsement of Israel's policy of
>extrajudicial executions, which on Nov. 23 took the life of
>a senior Hamas leader and set off the latest round of
>suicide bombings. The retaliation by Prime Minister Ariel
>Sharon of Israel - bombing Gaza and the West Bank - is the
>beginning of a new stage of war. What other punishments
>will be imposed on the Palestinians? More shelling of
>refugee camps? More houses destroyed? More kidnappings?
>More torture? An even tighter blockade? 
>
>None of these strategies are likely to end the violence;
>after all, all have been used relentlessly and without
>mercy. Perhaps this time Mr. Sharon will order the special
>forces to either kill Yasir Arafat or send him back into
>exile. 
>
>My response to all of this is a big shrug. So they send
>Yasir Arafat back to Tunis or assassinate him - the
>occupation will still be there. The Israelis will be the
>losers because they will no longer have the decrepit old
>man, their bin Laden, to blame for all their problems. They
>will come face to face with the fact that it is the
>occupation that is the fuel of the conflict. Palestinians
>will be neither better off nor worse off. Some even think
>that a return to direct military occupation without the
>intermediary of the Palestinian Authority can only sharpen
>the confrontation and bring about a conclusion - however
>miserable - more rapidly. 
>
>Certainly no serious person believes that Mr. Arafat and
>his lieutenants, nominally controlling a few divided scraps
>of land in the West Bank and Gaza, can through coercion,
>arrests and torture do what Israel with all its might has
>failed to do: bring about an unconditional end to all
>resistance against the occupation or attacks on Israeli
>civilians. 
>
>Mr. Rumsfeld revealed that even he doubts that Mr. Arafat
>can succeed when he said on NBC's "Meet the Press" that Mr.
>Arafat "is not a particularly strong leader" and added, "I
>don't know that he has good control over the Palestinian
>situation." But the view of the Bush administration,
>reinforced by Israel's intransigent lobby, blames one man
>for all the ugly symptoms of 53 years of repression of
>millions of people in Palestine - policies supported for
>decades by the United States. All too aware of his assigned
>role, Mr. Arafat has declared a state of emergency. This
>amounts to little in practice since all the means of
>repression and arbitrary rule at the disposal of the
>Palestinian Authority are already in full use while none of
>the means that could actually improve the lives of
>Palestinians are granted to it by Israel. 
>
>The burden of death has fallen on Palestinians as it has
>fallen on Israelis. The only surprise will come if dozens
>more innocent people are not killed in the coming weeks. 
>
>Mr. Zinni said he will stay in the region until he succeeds
>in getting a cease-fire. But if American policy avoids
>dealing directly with the root causes of the conflict, he
>should plan to be in the Mideast war zone a long time. 
>
>
>Ali Abunimah is vice president of the Arab American Action
>Network.
>
>http://www.nytimes.com/2001/12/05/opinion/05ABUN.html?ex=1008593656&ei=1&en=be826fd21e239347
>
>
>
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