Commentary

Peace Begins With A Palestinian State

The resignation of Palestinian prime minister Mahmoud Abbas last week was the final nail in the coffin of the Bush administration's road map for peace. Abbas failed on two accounts. He was unable to render Yasser Arafat and his Fatah movement irrelevant, despite or perhaps because of the pronouncements by Israeli and U.S. government officials that this was the case. He was also unable to win any broad support from the Palestinian people, to whom he appealed for compromise on every significant issue they have fought for over the past 55 years. The final straw for Abbas, though, was when the Israeli government violated the cease-fire agreement with a targeted assassination of a Hamas leader, which predictably caused another round of suicide bombing attacks.

Within days of Abbas' resignation, the Sharon government abandoned any pretext of pursuing the road map, and for the second time in 15 months, sent troops to surround Arafat's compound in Ramallah. Members of the Israeli cabinet once again began speculating on whether Arafat should be murdered or exiled, with the most recent public opinion polls showing that 60 per cent of Israelis favour one of the two proposals.

Sharon has so far proved indifferent to international pleas against an attack on Arafat, including those from U.S. President Bush. One of his cabinet ministers told Israeli journalists that, while America is a close friend, "Israel does not take orders from America". Her statement, while contradicting the last 35 years of Israeli-U.S. history, provides some clues as to what the Israelis may be contemplating. Either they have decided that, with the Americans sinking all their energies into occupying Iraq and Afghanistan, now is the time to launch a full-scale war against the Palestinian people. Or the Israeli government may once again be playing games with the lives of their own citizens and the Palestinians in an attempt to win further concessions when they eventually acquiesce to international pressure and back down from the attempts to violently oust Arafat.

Whichever is the case, the situation in the Middle East will continue to deteriorate. The Israeli policy of targeted assassinations is sure to continue, despite its obvious failure. In the past three years, IDF forces have killed virtually all major political and military leaders of Hamas, along with hundreds of Palestinian civilians in so-called targeted attacks. Far from weakening Hamas, dozens of new leaders have emerged to fill the gap and the organization is now reportedly stronger than it has ever been. The Sharon government has also shown that it is incapable of and unwilling to dismantle the settlements, and instead continues to build a wall to protect their existence, something clearly denounced by the U.N. as illegal.

Meanwhile, the frustration amongst the Palestinian people can only continue to grow, providing Hamas and other militant organizations with new youth to whom they can strap bombs and send out to blow up Israelis.

The chaos of the past month has made one thing perfectly clear - no road map or peace process or even negotiations can succeed without the creation of a Palestinian state. Every attempt to work towards this gradually has failed, with thousands of lives lost. It should be clear to everyone by now, even the Israelis and the Bush administration, that the Palestinian people are not prepared to vanish from the face of history. Anyone genuinely interested in peace in the region must support the immediate creation of a Palestinian state. Only when they have their own state can the Palestinians enter into real negotiations towards creating a lasting peace. Without such a state, no peace is possible.