Arafat should not be tolerated
Seth Hiland
senior
Sometimes we want something so badly that we will convince ourselves of anything to get it. Peace in Israel certainly seems to be exactly one of those things. Unfortunately, sometimes our desire for an end to the violence leads to a sort of willfull amnesia about the past. Those who are constantly excoriating Israel for its role in the increased violence as of late suffer from this forgetfulness about the region's history.
In his Feb. 5 letter, Tony Lusvardi critiques President Bush's holding of Yasser Arafat and the Palestinian Authority primarily responsible for the on-going violence in the region. He claims that Israel has provoked the violence by assassinating Palestinian "political leaders" and pursuing policies that show that Israel does not truly want to negotiate a peace with Arafat and the Palestinian Authority. This take on the issue, however, is more than a little misleading.
Contrary to what Mr. Lusvardi would have one believe, Israel has been more than patient with the Palestinians over the last 20 or more years, despite the fact that Arafat and his cohorts have done nothing of substance in all that time to further the peace process. Time and again, Israel has made concessions to the Palestinians, agreeing to withdraw troops from heavily-Arab areas under the Hebron Accords and Oslo Accords. This despite the fact that several such areas are of great strategic import when it comes to defending the majority of Israel's industrial base, which happens to lie right next to the West Bank. Under Ehud Barak, Israel had a concrete plan for Palestinian statehood on the table, but it was off-handedly rejected by Arafat without even so much as a counter-proposal.
What has Israel to show for their efforts? Nada. The number of Israelis killed by Arab terrorists in the years since the Oslo Accords has been higher than in the 10 years prior. The Palestinian Authority has not tried even a little to live up to its promise to reduce the anti-Israeli sentiment among its peoples. To the contrary, Palestinian television, controlled by Arafat, continues to run programs encouraging children to pursue "glorious martyrdom." Arafat's police forces engage in terrorist acts, in some instances even firing on Israeli security forces. The Palestinian Authority continues to take children as young as 12 from their homes to train them in the arts of bomb-making and the use of weaponry. Arafat himself, in a recent speech, called recent suicide bombers "martyrs," offering stipends and cash rewards to their families.
As of late, Israel has taken more drastic steps toward holding the Palestinians accountable for their actions. They have punished Arafat and his police forces for their complicity in the violence and have assassinated prominent leaders of Hamas, Hezbollah and Islamic Jihad (who are anything but the "political leaders" Mr. Lusvardi describes). Has this approach helped escalate the violence in Palestine? Probably so, but what would one have them otherwise do? Concessions and patience obviously have not paid-off in the past (a fact we all seem to so quickly forget), and the remaining alternatives have quickly dwindled.
The pressure on Arafat to reduce violence has been up until now a dead end. Even Barak, who once would have handed Arafat statehood now states that he was wrong to have tried to negotiate with the Palestinian leader. Ex-President Clinton expressed similar thoughts when he told current Secretary of State Powell that Arafat was a liar and wholly unreliable. As if to further drive the point home, Arafat's own forces were caught trying to smuggle 50 tons of Katyusha missiles, land mines, plastic explosives and other weapons of war into Palestine.
Despite all this, Ariel Sharon's government has a peace offer on the table that would grant the Palestinians their own state in the West Bank and Gaza (with other details to be hammered-out in the next couple years). Unfortunately, no one on the other side is listening. As for our own President, he is wise to side with Sharon, Barak, Shimon Peres and other Israeli leaders in finally holding Arafat and his Palestinian Authority accountable for their actions.
No longer will the world ignore the antics and duplicity of Yasser Arafat, and no longer should they.
Seth Hiland
senior
Morrissey Manor
Feb. 5, 2002
All Viewpoint Stories for Monday, February 11, 2002
