By Mary Mostert, Analyst, Banner of Liberty (www.bannerofliberty.com)
August 16, 2001
After months of Palestinian terrorism, last week a crowded pizza restaurant in downtown Jerusalem was bombed, killing at 14 people and injuring more than 100. Many of the injured and killed were children. Even the Washington Post seemed to think that was a bit much and called on Yassar Arafat and the Palestinian Authorities to condemn the action.
That didn't happen. In fact, the Palestinian information minister Yasser Abed Rabbo said:
"We believe Sharon alone is responsible for the cycle of violence."Fatah leader Marwan Barghouti went a step further, endorsing the bombing as "the only way to end the [Israeli] occupation of Palestinian territories."
That evening the Israelis occupied the Orient House, which is the headquarters of the Palestinian team to the Peace talks, and the seat of the multilateral talks. According to the Palestinian National Authority's report of the action:
"At around 1:30 am, large numbers of Israeli forces besieged the area of the Orient House and broke into the premises of the headquarters, disregarding all the understandings and agreements reached at the eve of Madrid Peace conference. The Palestinian flag was pulled down and the Israeli flag was hoisted in its place, in an attempt to reinforce their reoccupation to East Jerusalem. Eight employees were arrested in the raid. Moreover, all files related to the negotiations, along with other classified documents and the portrait of the martyr Faisal Husseini, were also confiscated. The raid and closure of the Orient was conducted upon orders, which also included the closure of other Palestinian institutions linked to the Orient House. Furthermore, the Arab Chamber of Commerce, Prisoners Society, and The Higher Council of Tourism are among the other Palestinian institutions sealed off by an order from the Israeli Minister of Internal Security Uzi Landau. "
Note that while the first sentence claims the move "disregarded" the Peace agreements, the last sentence duly notes that the order came from Israeli Minister Internal Security Uzi Landau What exactly ARE the agreements now existing between the Palestinians and the Israelis about the disputed lands , including Jerusalem, which the Israelis seized in the 1967 war? According to the CIA factbook on the subject:
"The Israel-PLO Declaration of Principles (DOP) on Interim Self-Government Arrangements (the DOP), signed in Washington on 13 September 1993, provides for a transitional period not exceeding five years of Palestinian interim self-government in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. Under the DOP, Israel agreed to transfer certain powers and responsibilities to the Palestinian Authority, which includes a Palestinian Legislative Council elected in January 1996, as part of interim self-governing arrangements in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. A transfer of powers and responsibilities for the Gaza Strip and Jericho took place pursuant to the Israel-PLO 4 May 1994 Cairo Agreement on the Gaza Strip and the Jericho Area and in additional areas of the West Bank pursuant to the Israel-PLO 28 September 1995 Interim Agreement, the Israel-PLO 15 January 1997 Protocol Concerning Redeployment in Hebron, the Israel-PLO 23 October 1998 Wye River Memorandum, and the 4 September 1999 Sharm el-Sheikh Agreement. The DOP provides that Israel will retain responsibility during the transitional period for external security and for internal security and public order of settlements and Israeli citizens. Permanent status is to be determined through direct negotiations, which resumed in September 1999 after a three-year hiatus.
Would any sane person think that there is internal security and public order achieved in Israel, with suicide bombers running amuck blowing up families eating pizza in a local restaurant? I don't think so. Is Sharon "responsible" for the school of violence in Jenin where these young suicide bombers are trained? Jenin is controlled by Arafat's Palestinian Authority under the 1993 peace agreements. Under those peace agreement, Israel retains responsibility for internal security. If Arafat refuses to halt the killings, then, according to the Cairo Agreement, the Israelis not only have the right, they have a responsibility to stop the killing of women and children in pizza restaurants.
What Arafat is trying to do, according to the Palestinian Authority's own website, is to force President George W. Bush to ." end its hesitation and return to having an active and effective role in the region, particularly in this crisis." Nabil Sha'ath, the Palestinian Minister of Planning and International Cooperation on Monday, August 13, called on the US Administration to deter "Ariel Sharon's government from continuing its violent policy towards the Palestinian People. He pointed out that a policy that equates between the victim and aggressor, between a People under occupation and the occupier, through asking both parties to end the violence."
Sha'ith added, "Violence is what Ariel Sharon's government exercises against a defenseless People struggling to achieve its national rights so that it can live in freedom and dignity like other Peoples in the world".
In other words, Sha'ath and Arafat are saying that, while it is OK for the Palestinians to continue its campaign of bombing and killing, blowing up children in pizza restaurants, etc., since they merely want to take control of the real estate in the area, but it's not OK for the Israelis to object to them blowing up children in pizza restaurants..
Sha'ath went on to say,
"We would not have gone to the Madrid Peace Conference had the American government at that time not given us enough guarantees, which clearly state that the Israeli government would refrain from changing the demographic, religious, and historical nature of Occupied East Jerusalem".
The Madrid Peace Conference took place in 1991 when George Bush, Sr. was in the White House. Is that what was promised in that conference? At the end of the conference, Secretary of State James Baker summed it up with the following words:
"First, we heard a yearning for peace - the wish of peoples in the region to live in a mutually satisfying relationship with neighbors, a relationship characterized by peace treaties, economic relations, cultural ties, and political dialogue."Second, we heard an emphasis on land - the desire of peoples in the region to exercise authority and political governance over territory they consider part of their national, political, historical, or religious patrimony.
"Third, we heard a need for security - the requirement of people to live free of fear, and the obligation of governments to do their best to protect their citizens.
"What the parties in fact said this week is that these core issues - land, peace, and security - are inseparable elements in the search for a comprehensive settlement.
"The parties have made clear that peace by itself is unachievable without a territorial solution and security; that a territorial solution by itself will not resolve the conflict without there also being peace and security; and that security by itself is impossible to achieve without a territorial solution and peace. The process on which we are embarked can work only if all issues are put on the table, and if all issues are satisfactorily resolved."
The Palestinians simply ignore the security and peace leg of the three legged Madrid agreement. Sha'ath claimed:
"The American Administration, which gave us these guarantees, does not recognize Jerusalem either united or disunited as the capital of the State of Israel. It also does not recognize all the Israeli measures taken in the City, including the illegal annexation of East Jerusalem in 1967 nor does it recognize the expansion of the Jerusalem Municipality area. Instead, it leaves all these issues to the final status negotiations".
He also "strongly criticized the American indecision regarding Israel's repeated aggression against the Palestinian People and land. He called on the American Administration to end its hesitation and return to having an active and effective role in the region, particularly in this crisis."
Yesterday in Cairo the Arab "Information Ministers" in the presence of Yassar Arafat ratified a one million dollar propaganda plan to "improve the media image of the Palestinians in their struggle against the Israeli occupation." The "plan" includes "transmitting TV programs and presenting the Arab viewpoint in the big western newspapers and hold seminars and conferences in an attempt to influence the international public opinion."
You can expect, if that million dollars isn't enough to buy the news desks of key TV and newspapers, more money will be used to do so. The problem here from the Palestinian point of view, obviously, is George W. Bush who has said he will not negotiate until Arafat stops the killing. And Arafat is saying the killing is OK as long as its Palestinians, and not Israelis who are doing the killing.
The propaganda effort is directed at you. It will try to convince you that the 4.7 million Jews in Israel are the majority group mistreating the 111.1 million Arabs in Jordan, Gaza, Egypt, Syria, and Saudi Arabia by demanding that the Arab terrorist activities cease. And, without a doubt, they will succeed with a lot of Americans.
To comment: mmostert@bannerofliberty.com