Author:
Publication: The Indian Express
Date: December 5, 2001
Even the US seems to have run out
of words and deeds of patience for the Palestinian leader, Steve Mufson
reports.
It has become a ritual over the
years: after every new round of bloodletting between Israelis and Palestinians,
a senior US official somberly urges both sides to exert maximum restraint
to prevent further violence. Not on Monday. With buildings still ablaze
near the Gaza headquarters of Yasser Arafat after an Israeli rocket attack,
the Bush administration had few words of sympathy for the Palestinian leader.
Instead, the administration said
that the Israeli reprisals for suicide bombing attacks over the weekend
that killed 26 people were legitimate responses, and that Israel "has a
right to live in security.'' The sharp American reaction marks the culmination
of months of US exasperation with Arafat's failure to deliver on pledges
to restrain Palestinian violence. The administration also was not impressed
by the low- to mid-level arrests made by Arafat's Palestinian Authority
on Sunday after the first wave of suicide bombings, for which the militant
group Hamas claimed credit. ''After these many months of missed opportunities,
there's a reluctance to accept the same old excuses and half measures,''
said a senior administration official, who said the initial arrests ''seemed
like a business as usual response from the Palestinian Authority.''
Moreover, the administration felt
the weekend bombings scored a direct hit on recent steps it had taken to
address Palestinian concerns, with Bush's recognition of the need of a
Palestinian state in a United Nations speech, Secretary of State Colin
Powell's November 19 speech in Louisville, and the dispatch to the region
of Anthony Zinni, a politically savvy retired general with superb contacts
in the Arab world. ''The administration has tried very hard to build the
atmosphere for moving forward toward a genuine cease-fire and a resumption
of a negotiations process,'' the senior official said. ''We now see a direct
challenge to those efforts and a direct challenge to Arafat's authority
from Hamas. And in that context, people (in the administration) feel very
strongly that the burden is on Arafat to deliver the leadership to demonstrate
that he is a eader for peace.''
The Bush administration, which even
at the beginning of the year believed Arafat could do more to restrain
violence, has been further swayed by an effort by visiting Israeli leaders
to persuade the administration of Arafat's complicity in the continued
violence. Sources say that last month Foreign Minister Shimon Peres and
last Tuesday senior Israeli intelligence official Avi Dichter gave the
United States damning information about Arafat's role and broken pledges
on security measures. As a result, there was no US effort at even-handedness
to assigning blame for the latest round of attack and counter-attack. The
administration did not mention that the attacks were preceded by the Israeli
assassination last month of top Hamas commander, Mahmoud Abu Hanoud.
The latest bloody incidents appear
to have solidified the view among administration members that the Palestinian
leader has brought Israeli retaliation upon himself, while undercutting
any US plan to pressure Israeli PM Ariel Sharon. ''The burden clearly is
on Chairman Arafat,'' Fleischer said. ''Arafat is capable of doing much
more." Even people sympathetic with the Palestinian cause and critical
of Israel's policies have been trying to convince Arafat of the importance
of this moment. ''In terms of the Bush administration, this is a very critical
point right now because of 9/11 and the administration's position on terrorism,''
said Edward Abington, former US consul general in Jerusalem and a political
consultant to the Palestinian Authority. ''If he (Arafat) wants to be taken
seriously, he has to deal with terrorim seriously.''
On Monday, Fleischer echoed language
Bush has used in talking about terrorism. ''It's important now for Chairman
Arafat to show that he does represent peace and does not harbour terrorists,''
he said. Abington said the bombings also came just as the administration
was asking Arafat to give them something to work with so it could pressure
Sharon. ''These bombings essentially undercut anything (Bush) people were
trying to do vis-a-vis Sharon in terms of him exercising moderation,''
Abington said. ''How can the president, when these terrible bombings take
place, ask Sharon to act with restraint?''
(LA Times-Washington Post)
