Aqaba, the Palestinian government's faux pas, Bassam Abu Sharif

Opinion, June 2003, Al-Jazeerah.info

Aqaba, the Palestinian government's faux pas

Bassam Abu Sharif

The Daily Star, 6/26/03

The Israeli government’s reply to US President George W. Bush’s decision to appoint Assistant Secretary of State John Wolf as head of the US intelligence team that will monitor progress under the “road map” was quick to come. It materialized in the attempt to assassinate Abdel-Aziz Rantissi, one of the political leaders of Hamas. This assassination attempt, despite its failure, will give birth (according to Israeli security organs) to Palestinian retaliation providing Israeli Premier Ariel Sharon with all the excuses he needs to delay implementing the road map and to refuse to execute US demands. The Israeli government had also assassinated (after the Aqaba summit) two Hamas leaders near Nablus. Despite Palestinian efforts to prevent retaliation, Sharon went on to issue orders to assassinate Rantissi. He knew that the Palestinian response would be massive, and would provide him with all the playing cards he needs until next September, when the American presidential elections campaign is launched. Bush has made several mistakes in the past. However, this time, and during his visit to the Middle East, he made great mistakes. Elliot Abrams, dispatched by Bush to hold talks with Israeli officials before Sharm el-Sheikh and Aqaba, did not advise Bush well. The reports Abrams submitted serve Sharon and not US interests in this highly strategic region for the US. The aim behind Bush’s brief tour in the Middle East was to safeguard his country’s interests, now that Iraq is neutralized, even though reports reveal that the situation in Iraq is much more complex than the US administration had thought. Handling the situation in Iraq is much more complicated than preventing crime in Washington. Resistance in Iraq will increase and spread for a multitude of reasons. Iraqi internal conflicts, whether religious or national, are very complicated. Americans will not be able to solve them easily. Bush hoped that his quick tour in the Middle East and that holding the Sharm el-Sheikh and Aqaba summits would help him control the Middle East (before the situation in Iraq became more serious). He wanted to take advantage of the destruction of Iraq and American hegemony over it to attain his aims. He used the peace process to give the world the impression that the US administration applies a single standard in the area, and to provide cover for what was done in Iraq and what would be done in the region in the future to totally control its riches, its markets and its strategic position. However, Bush (because of advice from Abrams, a Zionist who supports Sharon and a high-ranking official in Middle East affairs at the National Security Council) made a great mistake. Once the Palestinian Authority approved the road map (with reservations and against its will), the US president did not insist that Sharon (who received Bush’s support for the killing of Palestinians and the demolishing of their homes for over two-and-a-half years) declare his acceptance of the road map. In fact, Sharon did not declare, neither before nor after the two summits his acceptance of the road map. Moreover, the bigger mistake committed by Bush is that he bit into Abrams’ advice that the road map must not be considered as one package, but rather that the two parties are to consider it item by item, if not paragraph by paragraph. This is indeed what Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas said during the press conference last week in Ramallah. Thus, Abrams succeeded once again, together with his team who planned the destruction of Iraq (and is planning strikes against Syria and Iran once Bush is re-elected) in convincing Bush to adopt an Israeli alternative plan to the road map. Unfortunately, even Palestinian negotiators fell in this trap, and are experiencing the results of the Aqaba summit, during which the road map package was transformed into a series of items in separate paragraphs. Even international efforts might fail in making both parties move from item to item. This, my friends, is how Sharon destroyed peace. Bush made mistakes, and so did the Palestinian premier. No matter what Palestinian ministers say to defend their position in Aqaba, a huge mistake was made. The one-package road map should never have been transformed into several packages that the Israeli government could control. I believe it is vital for the Palestinian government to send a high-ranking team to Washington. They should insist on the road map as a package and not as separate items and on simultaneous parallel measures from both parties. Palestinian negotiators in Sharm el-Sheikh and Aqaba handled issues related to implementation mechanisms very naively. They seemed more keen on shaking Bush’s hand and on attending than on anything else. Therefore Palestinians are neither happy nor satisfied with what took place in Sharm el-Sheikh and Aqaba, they want real solutions to their sufferings. The only way through and the only choice possible, is freedom and independence. The government, which was granted the confidence of the Legislative Council, has to work to achieve this. Palestinians will resist occupation no matter what the price is. If this new government is more interested in protocols than in substance and if it doesn’t implement the road map as a package, then that government will have to face dire consequences even if it receives the support of Palestinian President Yasser Arafat. Let me now return to the assassination attempt against Rantissi. I believe this attempt proves the desperation of the Israelis, and might be the final blow to the peace process. Why now? Why was there no attempt to assassinate him last year or two years ago? The timing was political. The Israeli government is seeking to provoke Palestinian reactions because it does not want peace. It does not want to let go of the West Bank and it does not want to dismantle settlements. But what about Bush’s personal and official commitment to the implementation of the road map? He wagged his finger at the Arabs, but seems to have forgotten to wag it at Sharon.

Bassam Abu Sharif, member of the Palestinian Legislative Council and special adviser to President Yasser Arafat, contributed this commentary to The Daily Star

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).