By Dipo Ola

(Nigerian and Canadian Affiliate for Renaissance Connection Network)

29th May 2003

The hordes of Israel-haters out there will no doubt have found the past week a difficult one to explain, or to use as ammunition to continue the name-calling and hate-mongering of that nation and in particular, it’s present Prime Minister. Despite the series of suicide bombings that have rocked the nation from corner to corner, in an obvious attempt to halt the peace process, Prime Minister Sharon has not cut off talks, and in fact has gone farther than most of the right in Israel wants-by endorsing the principle of a Palestinian State. The cabinet has not accepted the entire peace plan, but is content to address the problems within the plan on a case-by-case basis, rather than insisting on a perfect plan right from the start.
Herein lies the fundamental difference between the Israeli Cabinet and Mr. Arafat. The cabinet, and particularly the Prime Minister is not afraid to make the harsh decisions that they are not entirely happy with, but that they understand must be made. According to Prime Minister Sharon: ‘the time has come to say yes to the Americans; the time has come to divide this piece of land between us and the Palestinians.’ Those certainly do not sound like the words of an eternal war-monger that the Israel-haters have made Mr. Sharon out to be. Rather, they sound like a man who is seizing the moment, doing what Mr. Arafat chose not to do, when Prime Minister Barak offered him that opportunity in 2000. Mr. Sharon could refuse to agree to any plan with the Palestinians until the terrorism stops completely, and in this climate of anti-terrorism in the world, and particularly in the U.S., it is unlikely that he would suffer any major political damage. Expectations for him, as a ‘war-monger’ were after all very low. Mr. Sharon, however, the only Israeli politician to have fought in every war since the state’s inception in 1948 is looking beyond present political advantage. He is looking for a lasting peace for his weary people who have faced hatred and terrorism for centuries, and who even after gaining statehood, have faced internationally supported and justified terrorism more recently, on the basis of the ‘occupied territories.’
He is trying to quench that terrorism, or to at least quench the ostensible source of excuses for that terrorism, namely the Israeli control of the Gaza Strip and West Bank, lands that were won in 1967 in a war launched by Egypt, Jordan and Syria against Israel. He is prepared to seize the moment now, because FOR NOW, Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas, although he has not stopped the terrorism, is clearly not inspiring, condoning and possibly directing it, in the way Arafat did. Mr. Arafat spoke gentle, congenial words to the international press and the Israelis, and then went back to his people and in Arabic, thundered out praise to the martyrs, and called for a march on Jerusalem. He was speaking out of both sides of his mouth, simply because although he had officially renounced PLO terrorism, he could never fully abandon the belief that violence could sometimes achieve more than words. So when Mr. Barak offered him 90% of what he wanted, rather than do what Mr. Sharon and the Israeli cabinet is doing now, and accept the plan in principle, before ironing out the kinks, he chose to employ terrorism to obtain the remaining 10% that he had not obtained from Mr. Barak, primarily the possession of Jerusalem, the eternal Israeli capital, AS the capital of the new Palestinian state. Further, Mr. Arafat, rather than confronting the extremists within Hamas, Islamic Jihad and his own Fatah movement, chose to re-assert his nationalist, authentic credentials, which means he chose to compete with them in their anti-Israeli cause, while of course outwardly speaking gently and congenially as a peace-maker, while inspiring terrorist acts verbally and implicitly and possibly directly facilitating them. It is unclear at what point exactly, Mr. Arafat (who obtained the Nobel Prize with the late Israeli Prime Minister Rabin and Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres for his INITIAL peace efforts), lost his nerve to make peace, but it is equally clear that the Israeli people and government knew that he had lost that nerve. And so they lost their belief in his commitment to peace. And that led to them losing their trust in him and the peace process. Once that happened, the peace process was as good as dead, and there was nothing anybody in the world could say that would force the Israelis to talk to a man who spoke out of both sides of his mouth. After the Palestinian scorched earth terrorist tactics of the past 3 years, it finally became clear to them that terrorism was not working-in fact it was having the opposite effect-hardening Israeli attitudes, and reducing the credibility of Palestinian representatives, in the eyes of the Americans. It would take the election of a new man who the Israelis are willing to talk to, and the active engagement of Israel’s only friend, the U.S., to get things moving again. And having got things moving, Mr. Sharon has shown a willingness to be a Prime Minister of Israel, and not just a politician. A leader of a people who want peace, and who in the right circumstances, will make sacrifices for that peace. The present circumstances appear to be right. Hopefully Mr. Abbas will not lose his nerve.

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