THE HANDSTAND |
OCTOBER 2002 |
>pROFESSOR
aVRAHAM oZ WRITES: Dear Friends,
Conspiracy of silence By Osama El-Sherif September 25, 2002, 01:43 PM TORONTO What does
Ariel Sharon really want from the Palestinians? What is
the end game for the aging former commando officer now
holding in his hand the future of both Israelis and
Palestinians? In the past weeks the prime minister of
Israel has managed to knock down the few remaining
signposts of the Oslo peace agreements, and today as his
tanks encircle the ramshackle headquarters of his
archenemy, Yasser Arafat, in Ramallah he seems ready to
cut free the hair-thin line that connects the two peoples
who are destined to share the same piece of land. So
again: what is Sharon's end game? It doesn't take a genius to see what Sharon and his
generals are up to. The world is shamefully quiescent
about this latest atrocity, a dismal chapter in a
hair-raising modern-day holocaust where the only thing
that is missing is the gas chambers. Whatever the
Palestinians are accused of, there is nothing that
justifies their wholesale humiliation and subjugation.
Sharon's war is not a means to an end, but an end in
itself. He can offer nothing to his people or his victims
because in all honesty he has nothing to peddle. But Sharon is true to his beliefs. What is shocking is
how the world has succumbed in resignation to what is
happening in the Holy Land. Sharon could give the order
to blow up to smithereens the last standing building,
with Arafat and his aides still huddled inside, and that
would be the end of it. Other than the usual statements
of denunciation and regret life for the rest of us would
go on. The Palestinian people are destined to carry their
burden alone and face the wrath and fury of their
tormentor. In fact the plight of the
Palestinian people, who have been struggling for
liberation and independence ever since the mighty British
army marched into Jerusalem more than 85 years ago ending
centuries of Ottoman rule, is unique in modern political
history. It's a checkered history of ephemeral victories and
nagging disappointments. No nation on earth today has
suffered as much as the people of Palestine. The irony is
that international legality, the result of unprecedented
diplomatic largesse, is on their side, as dozens of UN
resolutions attest. In the eyes of the world, they are an
occupied nation who has an alienable right to
self-determination and independence and accordingly their
resistance of occupation is a legitimate one. The siege of Yasser Arafat's headquarters epitomizes
decades of Palestinian struggle that has never looked so
futile and hopeless. Between the first Palestinian revolt
of 1936 and the latest Intifada, which erupted in
September 2000, many deals and agreements, treaties and
resolutions have been trampled on and deposited into the
dustbin of history. It is true that in hindsight, and to
a minority of observers, the Palestinians, and Arabs,
appear to have sacrificed one "generous" offer
after the other, but that is not only a harsh judgment to
make but a simplistic one as well. Those who pontificate about Palestinians not honoring
their agreements and turning to terror to achieve
political goals only demonstrate their ignorance, or
their use of other people's ignorance, of Palestinian
history. The bare truth is that the Palestinians have
been let down time and time again by the powers of the
day. Ariel Sharon knows that history very well. He believes
the world could very well afford to abandon the
Palestinians to their fate, and he sees a rare
opportunity to carry out a fantastic scheme to rob the
Palestinians of all of their land and of all of their
rights. Global and regional realities have given him that
chance. The tanks surrounding the dilapidated building in
Ramallah underline these realities. The failure of the UN
to investigate what happened in Jenin refugee camp
earlier this year has enticed Sharon to pursue such
scheme with impunity. This is really not a war between Sharon and Arafat,
nor is it about Israel's right to defend itself against
Hamas and Islamic Jihad. This is a colonial war to finish
off Palestinian aspirations for statehood, to usurp the
last plot of their land and to drive them into exile for
good. It would be foolish to read this war in any other
way. Sharon will not offer anything to the Palestinians,
not after Arafat, not after he turns his guns against
Hamas and others. There is a conspiracy of silence that makes this whole
saga even more sinister. That conspiracy transcends
borders and ideologies to include everyone from the
liberals of Europe and America, to the progressive and
secular left inside Israel, to the Palestinians' own
brethren in Arabia and beyond. And this poses a real
moral dilemma to all. If we wash our hands of Palestinian
blood how can we then pretend to go on with our lives as
individuals, as nations and as a world community?
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