People's Democracy

FOR the first time Israel has attacked Palestinian positions in the West Bank with F-16 fighter planes. The first attacks using the fighter planes was said to be in response to a suicide attack by a Palestinian, owing allegiance to the Islamic party Hamas in the fourth week of May. Yasser Arafat has always been saying that he is agaisnt all acts of terrorism, whether it was by a Palestinian or an Israeli. A few days before the Israeli forces had killed five Palestinian policemen in cold blood. Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon, has given armed forces a blank cheque to do as they wish in the occupied territories. Junior army officers have been allowed to carry out incursions into areas under the control of the Palestinian authority without approval from headquarters.

At the same time Sharon is accelerating the pace of Jewish settlements in the West Bank. The Israeli prime minsiter has been unwilling to resume talks with the Palestinians which were broken off by his predecessor, Ehud Barak. Time and again, the present Likud government has let it be known that Israel is not willing to part with more than 48 per cent of the West Bank and that too pock marked with Israeli settlements and Israeli by-pass roads.

Killing Palestinians has been Sharon’s pastime since the forties. Very few Zionist leaders have had more innocent blood on their hands than Sharon. The man who has been held responsible by an Israeli court for the massacres of Shabra and Shatila in the eighties during the invasion of Labanon was given a warm welcome by the Bush administration when he visited Washington, when other leaders trying to defend the integrity of their countries are being charge sheeted at the International War Crimes Tribunal. Sharon was accorded the privilege of being among the first leaders to visit Washington after George W Bush took over the American presidency.

Despite worldwide criticism of Israeli actions, the Bush administrtion has been solidly behind its long time ally. The US voted the UN security council resolution calling for the introudction of an international peacekeeping force in the occupied territories. The Palestinians have been long demanding the introduction of such a force. They feel that only such an impartial force will stop the ongoing massacre of unarmed civilians by the Israeli forces. The Bush administration has unambiguously taken the side of the Sharon government and is at this juncture even pretending to play the role of a "peace keeper" in the middle east.

A committee set up the Clinton administration to go into the origins of the violence which started eight months ago under George Mitchell, a former US senator and the man responsible for Irish peace accords, has criticised Israeli’s excessive use of force against unarmed demonstrators. The Mitchell commission report submitted the third week of May also called for a total freeze on Israeli settlements. But Sharon has continued with his killing spree and has in fact further accelerated the building of settlements in the occupied territories.

More than 450 Palestinians have been killed since the new "intifada" started. Around 80 Israelis, many of them settlers in occupuied territories have also lost their lives in the violence. The Bush administration is doing precious little to pressure its most loyal ally to halt the settlement policy on the occupied land or to stop the killing of unarmed Palestinians. In recent weeks, Israeli security has started targeting prominent Palestinian leaders and officials. Many senior officials have been selectively targeted for elimination.

Yasser Arafat has described the undeclared war being waged by Israel as an act of state terrorism against defenseless people and a crime against humanity. The EU has strongly criticised Ariel Sharon for the escalation of violence and the spurt in the killings. The Arab Leagure in the fourth week of May called on Egypt and Jordon, the only two Arab states having diplomatic contacts with the Zionist state, to snap all contacts. The two countries have been left with no other option but to comply.

Though international sympathy is with the palestinians, nothing tangible is being done on the ground for the long suffering people. The Arab countries have promised money but very little of it has reached the Palestinians so far. The response from the Arab states has been minimal. Even the 30 million dollar a month which the Arab states have promised is in the form of a loan and not outright aid. The BJP-led government in India prefers to continue doing lucrative business with Zionist state, mostly related to arms. The BJP leadership views Israel as a model state.

By pretending to be for peace, Israel has prospered. By signing the Oslo peace accord and talking with Yasser Arafat, Israel has gained tremendously. Countries like India expanded their business ties with the Jewish state from the early nineties. The Arab states ended their boycott around that time. Foreign investments turned the Israeli high-tech sector into an engine of growth.

From 1990 to 1999 Israel’s annual trade with Asia rose from 3 billion dollars to 8.2 billion dollars. Israeli’s trade with India grew six fold. But all these gains have not been a sufficient incentive for Israel to implement the flawed Oslo agreements with the Palestinians. Now the Israeli leadership seems to have concluded that even without arriving at a final settlement it could continue to reap the economic benefits while refusing to make the minimum concessions necessary for peace.

The "al-Aqsa intifada" has not yet had any imapct on the Israeli economy while the impoverished state authority has lost more than one billion dollar in revenue due to punitive Israeli sanctions. High level delegations from countries like India have been visting Tel Aviv when the Israeli planes and helicopter gunships were bombing unarmed Palestinian civilians. Ariel Sharon has made it clear since taking over that he is opposed to a final-status solution on Palestine. Insetad the old war monger seems intent on widening the conflict.

In April, Israel attacked Syrian positions deep inside Lebanon. Three Syrian soldiers were killed. The Arab world has reacted strongly to the attack. Syrian troops are in Lebanon at the invitations of the government in Beirut and all the important Lebanese political factions. It was the Israeli invasion of Lebanon under Sharon that left the country in shambles. Syria’s timely intervention preserved Lebanon’s unity. After the Israeli attack, Syria has said that it reserves the right to retaliate against Israel but at a time of its own choosing. Syria does not want to fall in Sharon’s trap and get sucked into the vortex of an all out war in the region. A war at this juncture would be to the liking of Israel as the Arabs lack unity. Besides, like in earlier times, they do not have the backing of a superpower like the Soviet Union.

Israel may be the strongest power in the region but there are reasons to be optimistic about the future. The Palestinians are virtually waging a guerrilla war against the Israeli occupation forces. The Palestinian leader, Yasser Arafat, has said that as long as the Israeli state continues with its brutal policies, the struggle will contiune. Many in the Arab world feel that ultimately the Israeli occupation forces will have to withdraw like they did in Southern Lebanon last year.

The Hezbollah guerrillas had waged a relentless war against the Israeli war machine since the eighties. Israel was forced to make a humiliating withdrawal from territories it had occupied in Lebanon. The Palestinians have shown in the last eight months that they will not be cowed down. The fact that Israel has started using F-16 fighter planes against unarmed civilians shows the extent of its desperation. Time and international opinion is on the side of the Palestinians.