US Middle-East policy dangerously unbalanced
Tony Lusvardi
senior
President Bush and his foreign policy team have done a masterful job thus far in waging a complex and multi-layered war against terrorism. They have conducted a prudent and effective military campaign in Afghanistan and have cajoled reluctant allies into our coalition. However, the Bush administration's slavish support of right-wing Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's government is both a moral and a strategic blunder, one which risks undermining America's ongoing effort to fight terrorism in the Arab and Muslim world.
The Bush administration continues to repeat the mantra of the Israeli right that the responsibility for stopping the recent spate of deadly suicide attacks on Israeli civilians falls solely on the shoulders of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat. Such a policy of holding only one side responsible for Middle East violence is almost laughably simpleminded and doomed to certain failure. It fails to account for the role of Sharon's government in stoking the flames of violence.
Nearly all of the recent suicide bombings carried out by Palestinian extremists have been in response to Israeli assassinations of Palestinian political leaders. The line separating Israeli assassinations from state-sponsored terrorism is thin indeed. Israeli assassinations often target political leaders, rather than militants themselves, and frequently cause civilian deaths. They cannot boast even the semblance of due process. And, perhaps most importantly, they do not reduce terrorism. The Israeli policy of assassination is in every way counterproductive.
In fact, the whole thrust of Israeli policy toward Arafat is counterproductive. Sharon's government has demanded that Arafat crack down on militants and yet it has placed him under de facto house arrest and has bombed the offices of the very Palestinian security forces that it demands combat terrorism.
Furthermore, when, in an unprecedented political and personal gamble, Yasser Arafat went on Palestinian television to call for a cessation of violence — even violence in self-defense — and by doing so produced a month of relative calm, Sharon responded by bulldozing the homes of Palestinian civilians, placing Arafat under house arrest, and ordering more assassinations. Last week he destroyed the headquarters of Palestinian television.
If Sharon really wanted peace, he could have capitalized on this period of calm by easing restrictions on Palestinians — who live in poverty and constant fear of Israeli security forces — or at the very least by showing some willingness cooperate with the Palestinians.
Instead, Sharon's actions show that he does not really want peace. This comes as no surprise to those who have followed the career of Ariel Sharon. Sharon's right-wing government came to power as a result of the most recent outbreak of violence in the Middle East and is most likely to stay in power only as long as the fear of violence persists within the Israeli electorate. He has long opposed a Palestinian state and has encouraged Israeli settlements on lands once occupied by Palestinians.
In 1982, as Israeli Defense Minister, he colluded with right-wing Lebanese militias — read: terrorists in the massacre of hundreds of Palestinians in the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps. Now he seeks to destroy the Palestinian Authority and reassert Israeli military supremacy over the West Bank and Gaza Strip. If Sharon's policies were being carried out in Serbia they would go by the name "ethnic cleansing."
If the United States is to maintain credibility in the Muslim world — which we will desperately need as our war on Al Qaeda widens — we cannot continue to unquestioningly support the policies of Sharon's government. We must demand an end to Israeli assassinations and continued settlements and we should support the Palestinian call for international observers to monitor Israeli abuses — a call supported by every member of the UN Security Council except the United States.
Our demand that Arafat crack down on violence must not weaken, nor should our belief that the Jewish State has a right to exist in peace. But if we wish to maintain the moral high ground in the war on terror we must also recognize the right of the Palestinian people to the same enduring freedom for which we now fight.
Tony Lusvardi
senior
Zahm Hall
Feb. 4, 2002
All Viewpoint Stories for Tuesday, February 5, 2002
