Report by Khaled Mamdouh, IOL Staff

JERUSALEM, September 17 (IslamOnline) - Israeli Prime Minister ariel sharon Tuesday, September 17, 2002, claimed that the violence between Israel and the Palestinians over the past two years might have been prevented, had Israel responded promptly to the (alleged) Palestinian Authority's violations of the Oslo Accords. Observers refuted Sharon’s ‘lies and twist of facts’, to ‘mislead the Israelis and the whole world’.

Sharon made the comments during a speech at a memorial ceremony at Mount Herzl in Jerusalem for Israeli soldiers killed in the 1973 Octobr War, when Israel was defeated by the Egyptian army.

“The violence of the intifada might have been averted, had Israel promptly responded as needed to the Palestinian Authority's violations of the Oslo Accords, from the first day it was implemented," he claimed.

“Sharon himself ignited the Intifada by his provocative and unjustified visit to al-Aqsa Mosque in September, 2000. Everyone knows that. However, the Israeli Premier wants, as usual to twist the facts and put the blame on the victims of his bloody tactics,” Egyptian analyst, Hamid Abdul Majid told IslamOnline Tuesday.

He added that the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian lands, Israel’s refusal to respect UN resolutions and the accords signed by the Israeli governments themselves are the main and only causes for the violence in the Middle East.

“However, Sharon’s lies will fool no one, outside Israel or even inside it. Look at the growing numbers of young Israelis refusing to join his army of occupation. Wide segments of the Israeli soceity are bored and tired from war and violence. Sharon failed to guarantee security for the Israelis, and he will never achieve that, simply because he has no political agenda.

“Only a short-sighted politician, like Sharon, can expect his military tactics to succeed in convincing the Palestinians to live humiliated under curfews and occupation. The Palestinian resistance will never stop unless Israel withdraws its forces from their territories, allowing them to have their own independent state, with East Jerusalem as its capital. Any other way will lead to more deaths on both sides. Sharon must understand that, or else he must keep fighting till the last Palestinian and also the Israeli,” Abdul Majid added.

Sharon listed the so-called violations of the PA; incitement against Israel in the Palestinian education system and media; ongoing weapons smuggling efforts and arming of Palestinians; the PA's failure to deal with what he called “terror networks of Hamas and Islamic Jihad”. Apparently, Sharon wants the PA’s main and only job to stop legal resistance against the crimes committed by his ‘trigger-happy’ soldiers.

"If we would have responded aggressively to all of these [violations], and in time, we would have likely prevented [the events] that have taken place over the last two years, as well as the last nine years," Sharon claimed.

"Thus it is in the Middle East," he said. "There is no kindness and mercy for showing weakness or restraint in response to violations of agreements. That is the lesson."

According to the Israeli Prime Minister, "another lesson" learned in the past few years was "not to accept anything as self-evident. Not to blindly believe any promise. We must be prepared for everything and to mainly rely on ourselves."

"The Arab world has yet to reconcile itself to our existence, and has yet to accept our right to establish a Jewish state in our homeland," the Prime Minister said. "Such a reconciliation will mark the end of the conflict. But that will also come, if we stand up firmly for our rights."

“It seems that Sharon forgot that the Arabs, during the last Summit of their leaders in Beirut last March, offered Israel a golden opportunity to live in peace and stability, within definite borders recognized by the international community. The Arabs offered Israel full normalization of relations (You can not normalize relations with a country that you yet have to reconcile yourself to its existence, as Sharon claimed).