[ALBSA-Info] NYTimes.com Article: For Israel's Sake

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For Israel's Sake

October 6, 2001 

By ANTHONY LEWIS


 

The Middle East peace initiative that President Bush was
planning before Sept. 11 is desperately needed now. It
would help the international struggle against terrorism.
But more important, it is the only hope of ending the
ratcheting cycle of violence that afflicts Israel and the
Palestinians. 

One thing must be understood first. Our support for Israel
was not the major factor in Osama bin Laden's decision to
strike at America. His hatred goes far beyond any
particular policy. Prof. Michael Ignatieff of Harvard put
it well this week in The Guardian, London. 

"What we are up against is apocalyptic nihilism . . .," he
wrote. "It is absurd to believe they [the terrorists] are
making political demands at all. They are seeking the
violent transformation of an irremediably sinful and unjust
world." 

American policy on the Israeli- Palestinian conflict does
negatively affect public attitudes in the Arab world toward
the coalition's antiterrorism effort. Even in the
pro-Western Persian Gulf states, Warren Hoge of The New
York Times reported this week, there is a "general dismay
about perceived American tolerance of violence against the
Palestinians." A minister of the United Arab Emirates said
that if Israeli killings of Palestinians continued, "most
of us will certainly have to reconsider our role in the
coalition." 

But for me the tragedy is the unraveling of all the past
efforts for peace between Israel and the Palestinians. It
is tragic because this need not be a situation of
apocalyptic nihilism. The conflict is susceptible of
political solution. But on both sides today the leadership
lacks the domestic political support needed to make a deal.


The costs are terrible. Think of our ally, Israel. Week
after week its people, innocent civilians, are killed by
Palestinian bombers and gunmen. And the government's policy
answer - to respond with punishing military attacks - is
demonstrably a failure. The policy not only fails to make
the Israeli public more secure; it arouses more anti-Israel
violence. 

This week two Hamas gunmen raided a Jewish settlement in
the Gaza Strip and killed two Israelis. In response,
Israeli tanks shelled a town, killing six Palestinians -
who may have had nothing to do with the raid - and
bulldozers destroyed Palestinian farmland. The result: more
funerals, more deprivation, more rage. 

Then, yesterday, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon rebuked the
United States for seeking Arab support for the coalition
against terrorism. And a few hours later he sent tanks,
troops and helicopters against Palestinians in Hebron,
killing at least five. 

Mr. Sharon's coalition government has been beset by
right-wing demands for ever stronger military action. I
thought Mr. Sharon, for all his past acts of provocation
and brutality, understood that more and more force could
not assure Israelis a tranquil life. That may not be so. 

The Israeli government always blames Yasir Arafat for acts
of terrorism. But it is a fantasy to believe that the
leader of a non-state, beset by antagonistic factions and
his people's desperation, can exercise that kind of
control. When he arrested four teenage militants recently,
angry mobs surrounded the compound where they were held. 

The single Israeli action that would most effectively
reduce Palestinian desperation and militancy would be a
halt to building of settlements in the West Bank and in
Gaza. That process of colonization has gone right on
through all the talk of peace and cease-fires. A Peace Now
survey just completed shows that in the last four months 10
new settlements were established. 

Some 6,000 Jewish settlers in the Gaza Strip take up 20
percent of the territory, with one million Palestinians
crammed into the rest. Those settlements, provoking burning
resentment, are flashpoints for violence. It would be
logical - and a powerful symbol - to abandon them. But Mr.
Sharon would do that only if the United States put heavy
pressure on him - and he could use that as an excuse with
the far right. 

The Bush administration has been saying that it will go
ahead with its initiative only if and when violence stops.
But that won't work; the violence will not stop unless we
act. The most effective way to ease the violence is for
America to come forward with a plan that would make
Israelis and Palestinians begin to believe, again, in a
political cure for their traumas. 

http://www.nytimes.com/2001/10/06/opinion/06LEWI.html?ex=1003672007&ei=1&en=57bcbe293691ba6e



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