U.S. and Israel should own up to their mistakes George S. Hishmeh

Opinion, August 2003, www.aljazeerah.info

U.S. and Israel should own up to their mistakes

George S. Hishmeh
| Special to Gulf News | 28-08-2003

August, usually the preferred month for most vacationers, has turned out this year to be anything but peaceful or restful, jolting people in many parts of the world. Thousands perished in Europe because of the record-setting heat wave, and terrorists in the Middle East and Southeast Asia turned the tables upside down in various chancellories of power. The Bush administration received a devastating one-two punch that could threaten the chances of a second term for U.S. President George W. Bush, unless it is capable of withstanding this dizzying spell.

The unpardonable bombing of the United Nations headquarters in Baghdad and the deplorable suicide bombing of an Israeli bus in Jerusalem, killing several children, will most likely shatter the dreams of both the perpetrators and the policy makers here and in the region.

If anything, it underlined the weakness of these leaders for failing to commit themselves, totally and wholeheartedly, to the much trumpeted programmes like the roadmap or the liberation of Iraq from Saddam Hussain's bloody regime.

The "weakest link" in the drama that played out on the Eastern Mediterranean is Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas who, along with his security chief, Mahmoud Dahlan, has U.S. backing. But Abbas remains unable to control all the Palestinian security forces because they remain loyal to Palestinian President Yasser Arafat, who has long been shunned by the Bush administration. But Arafat's surprise appointment on Monday of Brigadier General Jibril Rajoub to establish a new national security council, which Arafat will chair, amounted to a slap in the face of U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell and a re-assertion of his primacy in Palestinian affairs.

Last week, Powell had appealed in vain to Arafat to help Abbas assume full authority over all the Palestinian security elements, a crucial step before any confrontation with Islamic militants.

Crushing blow

But it was not Arafat as much as Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon who dealt Abbas a crushing blow when he resumed his targeted assassination of leaders of Hamas, the Palestinian group that claimed responsibility for the bombing in Jerusalem in which 21 Israelis were killed. The Palestinians, by all accounts, have started to take on militants in the Gaza Strip. But the subsequent collapse of the cease-fire and Sharon's failure to pull out his occupation forces from the Palestinian cities to improve the living conditions there has hurt the standing of the Palestinian prime minister among his people. Especially since life began to return to normal on the Israeli side and the Israeli economy showed signs of picking up once the Palestinian militant groups agreed to a truce.

Of course, this is not to overlook the fact that Israel has failed to dismantle the so-called "outposts" or freeze expansion of its colonies, and, adding insult to injury, the Bush administration has yet to lift a finger against Israel which was rewarded with a $9 billion loan guarantee.

On the eastern side of the Arab world, the picture looked gloomier this month.

The Bush administration would like to blame the blood-letting in Iraq, be the targets Iraqis, international personnel or American soldiers, on foreign mercenaries rather than face the fact and concede, as most press accounts assert, that the uprising is largely home grown.

Even in Afghanistan, the Taliban were reportedly behind a military ambush that killed five soldiers.

The Christian Science Monitor noted that "a few have gone so far as to compare the events of last week to the Tet Offensive, the 1968 North Vietnamese-led assault that convinced many Americans that victory was not at hand in Vietnam". It added: "The attack on the UN compound in Baghdad had many targets as well as the physical one, and one was U.S. opinion."

Military commitment

Hence, the call (lately echoed by some Democrat presidential aspirants) for a larger international military commitment in Iraq, something the Bush administration foolishly rejects (probably because it is too proud to admit that it had made a mistake in sidestepping the UN) but in time may come around to accept.

Likewise Israel, despite its massive arsenal, should also concede that it, too, has failed in its 1000-day war against the Palestinians to win security for its people.

It is high time that Israel accepted an international role in policing the border areas and ended forthwith its 36-year occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

The writer can be contacted at ghishmeh@gulfnews.com

Earth, a planet hungry for peace

The Israeli apartheid (security) wall around Palestinian population centers (Ran Cohen, pmc, 5/24/03).

The Israeli apartheid (security) wall around Palestinian population centers in the West Bank (Ran Cohen, pmc, 5/24/03).