During Mr. Sharon's six weeks in office, he has gone beyond his predecessor, Ehud Barak, in the use of tanks, helicopters and heavy automatic rifle fire against Palestinian civilians and military targets. In recent weeks, Israel also has begun to use surface-to-surface missiles to bombard Gaza.
Bethlehem was shelled for at least two hours Wednesday, the most persistent attack on a Palestinian town since the latest round of Israeli - Palestinian conflicts erupted last September. The targets selected for shelling were economic ones; not only was a stone cutting factory severely damaged, but Israeli tanks bombarded a new conference center on the southern end of the city. The buildings are integral parts of Bethlehem's major industries; stone working and tourism. And then the Israelis moved into Gaza, if only for 24 hours. Facets of Sharon's strategy have been in full view during recent weeks. Dozens of homes on the edges of the Khan Younis and Rafah refugee camps in Gaza were destroyed. But the tin roofed, one-story houses, set close to one another, are not suitable for launching mortars and most offered no line of fire for snipers. The houses were destroyed to punish the Palestinians and hundreds of residents were left homeless. (Part of a report by Daniel Williams - Washington Post service.)
With the Americans taking an isolationist stance, the thinking in Israel went, the Israeli forces would be able to make use of all the force at its disposal to combat Palestinian (resistance) that is limited in its capability. The Israeli forces started with rubber-coated steel bullets and live bullets fired at stone throwers, volleys of missiles launched at police stations, liquidations that resembled contract killings, and it ended with ground operations in Area A (under full Palestinian control). All this continued uninterrupted and threatened to extend the confrontations, while also inducing the Palestinians to respond as intensively as they could. When Israel enters the city of Khan Younis in the Gaza strip and demolishes dozens of homes, the Palestinian Authority cannot, and perhaps should not, sit idly by. It owes its people a reaction. And then, when the Palestinians escalated the use of their wretched weapons, Israel drew its Doomsday weapon: the re-conquest of Area A. With the dangerous trinity- Ariel Sharon, Benjamin Ben- Eliezer and Shaul Mofaz-it was clear that a re-occupation was only a matter of time.
It was just at this juncture that Powell - US Secretary of State - intervened, showing magnificent timing. It is clear that the Israelis and the Palestinians will not be able to reach a viable settlement. It is equally clear that in the absence of a settlement the situation will continue to deteriorate and the bloodshed will continue to intensify. There is nothing wrong with Israel saying to the international community: We have failed in our attempt to find a solution, we are too violent and the Palestinians too violent - so come and help us. American and European troops separating the Palestinians from the Israelis can be good news for everyone concerned. Let's issue the invitation. If we can not help ourselves, at least let the world help us. (The above is Part of Gideon Levy's article in Ha'aretz April 22, 2001)
Joint Palestinian Israeli security meeting took place yesterday near Gaza. The Palestinian side presented the Israelis with a memorandum detailing Israel's violations and the measures Israel should take to reduce violence. The Israeli side described the meeting as positive.
President Arafat suggested a joint Israeli Palestinian declaration confirming their adherence to the Sharm understandings and the acceptance of the Jordanian Egyptian initiative. A Palestinian source said that Palestinian Israeli contacts are taking place, they can not however be described as negotiations. The contacts are more of brain storming sessions to find ways on how to calm the situation.
The Israeli occupation army storms into Rafah again and destroys a Palestinian police position. Israeli occupation soldiers prevent Israeli and Palestinian peace activists from distributing food to Palestinian villages under siege.
Palestinian families who were made destitute due to Israel's destruction of their homes are having very hard times trying to reconstruct their lives. Women, men and children, old and young people with no work and no schools sleep in the open, no sanitary, no running water and no place to prepare food to feed their children. The Israeli soldiers go into Palestinian residential area firing on people and property, destroy Palestinian homes and businesses and leave people destitute.
President Mubarak of Egypt describes the Israeli Prime Minister Sharon as some one who is only interested in violence. The German newsmagazine Der Spiegel quoted President Mubarak as saying: "Sharon wants to force the Palestinian people to follow his line." President Mubarak also said that Sharon had extinguished any glimmer of hope that had followed the 1993 Oslo Accords.
The Arab League is preparing to send a delegation to Washington, to the EU and to the UN to explain the gravity of the deteriorating situation in the Middle East.
It appears that some of the Israeli public and intellectuals began to realize the mistake they made when they chose Sharon as a Prime Minister in Israel. The awakening however will become stronger and stronger when the depth of the strategic mistakes being done by Sharon's government becomes clearer to the overall Israeli public.
Over the years, Israel defended itself in the West by describing itself as having common values with the West and that Israel being a democracy, reiterating time after time that Israel is the only democracy in the Middle East.
With the advent of the global village and information technologies allowing the people the world over to know almost instantaneously what is happening anywhere in the world, Israel is no longer capable of hiding its real self, being a theocracy not a democracy, and as one of the most cruel abuser of human values and human rights, particularly those of its Palestinian Israeli citizens in Israel proper and the Palestinian population in the occupied Palestinian territories in the West Bank including Arab East Jerusalem and Gaza. Sharon's government took the mask covering Israel's real face exposing the savage occupation, the racism inherent in Israel's being, and the absolute disregard of human values as dictated in international conventions and agreements.
What is clear is that Sharon's policies are having a reaction amongst the world nations, particularly in the West. More and more people in the West are questioning Israel's true character, questioning its policies of negating Palestinian national and human rights, questioning more fundamental issues pertaining to Israel's past, present and future. The tragic mistakes being made by Israel's new government are having immediate reactions, they are re uniting an Arab nation, they brought back dormant almost forgotten types of hate and hostilities amongst new generations against Israel, they are reawakening anti Semitism the world over. The Israeli public made a big mistake when they elected Sharon, and they need to rectify it, the sooner they do it and distance themselves of his anti peace policies, the better it is for them and for the Palestinian people, indeed the better for the Middle east and for the world.