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Arafat
is Israel’s only chance for peace, Uri Avnery said.
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OCCUPIED
JERUSALEM, September 22 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - While
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said Yasser Arafat was
“finished” in his latest jab at the Palestinian President,
besieged by the army in his Ramallah office, a renowned Israeli
journalist equated the murder of Arafat with the “murder of all
chances for peace.”
But
Arafat adviser Nabil Abu Rudeina, who is trapped with the Palestinian
leader in his embattled compound, swiftly retorted: “We say Sharon
is finished too.”
The
hawkish Israeli premier made his comments during a phone conversation
with Palestinian parliament speaker Ahmed Qorei Saturday, September
21, in a bid to defuse the crisis resulting from the army’s siege of
the headquarters compound, the Ma’ariv newspaper reported Sunday,
September 22.
“Israel
has no intention of harming him. As far as we are concerned, he can
stay where he is as long as he wants, but our duty is to prevent him
from encouraging terrorism,” Sharon told Qorei, Agence France-Presse
(AFP) reported.
“I
hope the Palestinians will understand that Arafat is finished, having
led them to disaster... For us, he has been finished for a long
time,” the Palestinian President’s arch-rival added.
Qorei
also spoke to Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres Saturday to seek
ways of ending the standoff, after Arafat refused to comply with
Israel’s demand for the surrender of some 20 security and
intelligence commanders it accuses of links with resistance groups.
Israeli
journalist Uri Avnery wrote Sunday that “Sharon never wanted to
“deport” Arafat to Gaza or any other place in this world. He wants
to deport him to the next world. Now this is possible.”
“Morally,
the murder of Arafat, the historical leader and elected president of
the Palestinian people, is reprehensible. Like the murder of Rabin,”
Avnery continued.
“Legally,
the murder of Arafat is a war crime.
“Politically,
it will be said about the murder of Arafat what a French statesman
said about another political murder: “It is worse than a crime, it
is a mistake!””
Avnery
points out that Arafat is the man who decided to start on the road to
peace with Israel.
“Since
then,” Avnery wrote, “Arafat has not changed by one iota the
decision he took then: to seek conciliation with Israel within the
framework of peace that will include an independent Palestinian state,
return to the pre-1967 border with mutually agreed adjustments,
Jerusalem capital of both states, withdrawal of the settlers, suitable
security arrangements, a mutually agreed solution of the refugee
problem.”
“On
this basis, peace is possible even now,” Avnery asserts.
“Immediately.
But Sharon rejects is with both his fists. He wants a Greater
Israel, the extension of the settlements, and, eventually, the
elimination of the Palestinian presence west of the Jordan.”
“The
murder of Arafat is the murder of all chances for peace,”
Avnery said.
“That
is a crime against the Israeli people. It will condemn us to making
war for decades, perhaps for generations to come, perhaps forever. The
moral, social and economic decline that we are experiencing now
everywhere in Israel will drag Israel down to new depths and to the
emigration of many.”
Meanwhile,
Abu Rudeina said that the thousands of ordinary Palestinians who had
poured on to the streets overnight in defiance of Israeli curfews had
demonstrated the continuing popular support for the Palestinian
President.
“The
demonstrations in the West Bank and Gaza Strip last night were like a
real referendum in favor of Arafat and they are the only answer to
what Sharon said,” he told AFP on a mobile phone.
After
the Israeli army threatened a huge explosion near Arafat’s office
Saturday night, thousands of Palestinians demonstrated in all major
cities in the West Bank and Gaza Strip in an unprecedented show of
support for Arafat.
The
demonstrations resumed on Sunday morning, as thousands of Arafat
supporters were already massed in front of the parliament building in
Gaza City and more similar protests were planned across the occupied
territories.
For
his part, Israeli Defense Minister Binyamin Ben Eliezer, also quoted
in Ma’ariv, said Arafat was “in a very difficult situation.”
As
Israeli bulldozers were tearing down everything around Arafat’s last
redoubt, Ben Eliezer said: “He is in a very difficult situation
right now, because nobody is showing much concern over his plight.
“He
has hit a new low and all his efforts to muster the world’s support
have failed.
“We
are not going to expel him, but we will not allow him to be welcomed
back as a hero,” he warned.
Arafat,
whose ouster is sought by Israel with U.S. support, has been kept
under siege by the army since Thursday, following back-to-back suicide
bombings inside Israel that left seven dead, plus the two bombers.
“If
this disaster happens, all the government will share the blame. Not
one minister will be acquitted. Neither Ben-Eliezer, nor Peres, nor
any of their colleagues. Nor the army officers who cooperated and even
pushed the political leadership. Nor the members of the Knesset,
whether belonging to the coalition or the opposition, who kept quite
during the recent months,” Avnery said.
“Nor
the correspondents and commentators, who turned themselves into
government and army spokesmen. Nor the professors and intellectuals,
who saw and were silent.
“All
of them will bear the responsibility.”
