Editorial
Condemn the Genocidal Policy of the Israeli State
On November 23rd, Israel's security services assassinated Mahmud Abu Hunud, a leader of Hamas, one of the Palestinian organizations which has taken credit for past suicide bombings. The murder was ordered by Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, knowing full well that it would put an end to the informal two-month moratorium on suicide bombings brokered by Palestinian Authority leader, Yasser Arafat. Less than a week later, the moratorium came to a tragic end, with attacks killing more than 25 innocent civilians.
Sharon's response to the suicide attacks was to order military strikes at numerous institutions of the Palestinian Authority, including Arafat's offices and the international airport. Extremists within the Sharon government are calling for the assassination of Arafat or his expulsion and exile from the occupied territories. Meanwhile, the Israeli government has handed Arafat a list of Hamas and Islamic Jihad leaders, demanding that they be arrested and handed over to Israel for trial.
It is clear that Sharon knew that the assassination of the Hamas leader would result in the deaths of dozens of Israeli civilians. Yediot Achronot, Israel's largest mass newspaper predicted such a result in its November 25th editorial. It also pointed out that retaliatory attacks by Hamas were given further legitimacy amongst Palestinians because of a previous assassination attempt by Israeli security forces which resulted in the killing of five Palestinian children.
The Sharon regime has deliberately shattered prospects for a negotiated peace; it has set the stage for a vicious cycle of escalating violence and death. The question is: why has it done so? Some are suggesting that the Israelis have lost confidence in Arafat's ability to sell the need for concessions to his own people and want to bring down his government. However, that scenario makes little sense since, given the current atmosphere, Arafat's successor would almost certainly come from Hamas or Islamic Jihad. At the very least, whoever succeeds Arafat is likely to be even less inclined toward making concessions to Israel.
Another suggestion is that Sharon is trying to goad Arafat into rounding up the entire leadership of Hamas and Islamic Jihad, an action which would inevitably lead to civil war amongst the Palestinians. However, that scenario is also quite unlikely, given reports that members of Arafat's own organization, Al Fatah, are actively protecting members of those organizations from arrest by Palestinian police.
The current developments make sense only if Sharon's motive is to foment full-scale war between Israel and the Palestinians. Such a war would almost certainly spread to the entire Middle East and engulf the region in flames. However, given the arrogance of the Israeli Zionists and their American sponsors, it is entirely possible that they believe they can not only win such a war, but emerge as the dominant force in the region..
Tragic as that scenario may be, the facts point to it as the only logical conclusion. Sharon and other Israeli politicians have to know that peace between Israel and the Palestinians can only come about by dismantling the illegal Jewish settlements in the occupied territories and with the establishment of a viable Palestinian state. Sharon and his followers have made it clear on numerous occasions that they are not prepared to agree to either. The Palestinians have made it equally clear that they are not prepared to make any more concessions on these questions. So Sharon's solution is a "final solution", a genocidal war against the Palestinian people and their expulsion from all territories claimed by Israel.
Some commentators have claimed that the United States will intervene to force Sharon's government to see reason, since any escalation of violence between Israel and the Palestinians is bound to destabilize the American's shaky "coalition against terrorism". However, Israel may be gambling that, as the situation in the Middle East becomes more and more volatile, the U.S. will have no option but to increase support for Israel, as its sole reliable ally in the region. If the U.S. does fall into the Israeli trap, a holocaust of unprecedented proportions awaits the entire peoples of the Middle East.