A rchive Date
[ 26-05-2003 ]
Category
[ International Relations ]
sub-Categoy
[ Palestine ]
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[http://www.canoe.ca/Columnists/worthington.html
A speed bump on the road to peace
By PETER WORTHINGTON -- Toronto Sun
May 23, 2003
It doesn't take much for hope to spring eternal in the Middle East - even when there's precious little reason for optimism.
Over the years, look at how often Yasser Arafat created hope for something resembling peace or coexistence with Israel. By merely protesting that he is reasonable and responsible and eager to give peace a chance - even decrying suicide violence to western listeners - he has persuaded some that the way Israel reacts to terrorist attacks is mostly to blame for the Mideast impasse.
After all, Arafat has a Nobel Peace Prize, which is more than Israeli Premier Ariel Sharon can say.
Arafat hoodwinked Bill Clinton when he was U.S. president and too eager to be the mediator for a peaceful settlement. Perhaps Bill hoped for a Nobel Peace Prize, too. Hence, Arafat was the world's most frequent visitor to the Clinton White House. Arafat did the same with George Bush the Elder when he was president - and as he has done with varying success with every U.S. president he has dealt with.
No American administration wants to turn its back on even the slightest chance for a peaceful resolution, despite grave reservations as to the value of various proposals. After all, longshots occasionally win. The most promising chance for an agreement with Arafat and his Palestinian Authority occurred in 1997 when Israel agreed - despite huge doubts and under considerable U.S. pressure - to turn something like 97% of the volatile West Bank over to the Palestinians for an independent, more or less sovereign state.
The world held its breath. At the eleventh hour, Arafat reneged. Typical. The man is a born conspirator, incapable of truth, dedicated to the lie, big, small or in-between. And this guy has a Nobel Peace Price! Even North Vietnam's Le Duc Tho had the grace to refuse the prize when he got it for winning the Vietnam war.
When he became president, George Bush the Younger was determined not to be snookered into gambling his administration's legacy by plunging into the Israeli-Palestinian sand trap. His most positive gesture was to refuse to have any dealings with Arafat personally - wouldn't even talk to him on the phone, which drove the old rogue nuts. Arafat then tried unsuccessfully to waylay Bush at the UN to presumably say he was being "misunderstood."
After all, no previous U.S. president resisted his charms. But Sept. 11, 2001, changed everything - George Bush, America's attitude, world opinion.
Strangely (to some), enthusiasm once again is in ascendency for a peace agreement eventually leading to Palestinian statehood. This is because Mahmoud Abbas, the first Palestinian prime minister, and considered sensible.
This new plan, curiously called the "Road Map," has already run into obstacles in the form of a series of Hamas attacks that have killed a number of Israelis. Abbas and Sharon have met and disagreed.
Surprise, surprise. Abbas wants Israel to accept the peace plan before the violence stops (if it will); Sharon wants the violence to stop before negotiating the peace plan. You decide which is the most sensible stand.
Despite being figuratively joined at the navel with Arafat for some four decades, Abbas still generates some optimism for peace. There's hope he will turn out to be like Nikita Khrushchev when he assumed leadership of the old Soviet Union.
At one time Khrushchev was more Stalinist than Stalin, if that's possible - a toady capable of any obscenity. But once the old dictator was dead, Khrushchev found some humanity and eased the terror that was paralyzing the country - even dabbling in liberalism by briefly allowing the publication of Alexander Solzhenitsyn's One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich.
It's hoped Abbas will be something similar - which may well be the case but for one awkward reality: Yasser Arafat is not dead. Alive, Arafat is not only a monumental hindrance to peace, but makes peace unobtainable. Despite rival factions, he is the only figure of real authority among Palestinians. He operates several security forces, which know he doesn't mean it when he condemns terrorist acts.
Many of those whom Abbas must work with among Palestinian "politicians" are linked to Arafat ... owe their position to Arafat ... are held emotional hostages by Arafat, who knows what they've done.
Whatever loyalty there may be to Abbas, it's divided and uncertain. In other words, Abbas is hardly his own man. He is hobbled and will remain so until Arafat is dead - not retired, not exiled, but as dead as the Monty Python parrot.
The Israelis could - and should - have killed Arafat when they periodically attacked in the past. That would have changed the whole dynamic. Still would, but the Israelis cannot assassinate him now, without invoking huge international outrage.
Certainly, give peace a chance, give Mahmoud Abbas a chance - but not until Palestine's Stalin is no more.
Letters to the editor should be sent to editor@sunpub.com.
 World Fact Book (CIA)]
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