Wednesday, Jul 9, 2008
Arafat allies cower as Ariel Sharon's army storms Ramallah's "presidential compound," and the U.S. sends mixed messages about the escalation.
Mar 30, 2002 | "I can't talk now, I'm under fire," shouts Bassam Abu Sharif over the phone on Friday afternoon, trying to raise his voice above the din of machine-gun fire and the dull thuds of exploding grenades. The advisor to Yasser Arafat lives right outside the Palestinian leader's headquarters in the West Bank town of Ramallah. "My house was the first to be surrounded by tanks," says a shaken Abu Sharif. "The soldiers came in and they were very rude to me and my wife. I don't want to go into details but it was not pleasant."
As he speaks the sounds of the fighting reach a new crescendo. "They are attacking Arafat," screams Abu Sharif. Some 60 Palestinians have reportedly been detained by the Israeli Defense Forces since the operation began. Abu Sharif implored the U.S. to "act immediately to stop the Israelis. The situation is very dangerous," he added.
The situation is also dangerous in Jerusalem, which was shaken Friday by yet another explosion by a Palestinian suicide bomber. Ayat Akhras, an 18-year-old girl from the Dehayshe refugee camp near Bethlehem, blew herself up outside a supermarket where shoppers were crowding to get supplies in between the Passover holiday and the early Friday Sabbath closure. Akhras killed at least two, wounded 20. In the videotape she recorded in advance, she is pretty, confident and relaxed, slim, dark-eyed, high cheekbones beneath her black and white kaffiyeh. A proud member of the militant Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades -- an offshoot of Arafat's own Fatah movement -- she condemned the failure, as she saw it, of Arab leaders to protect the Palestinian people. And then she annihilated herself.
Arab and European leaders are now condemning the large-scale and seemingly open-ended Israeli attack on Yasser Arafat, which they say can drag the whole region into war. But the key player in the Middle East, the U.S., has given mixed messages about the operation. Secretary of State Colin Powell said Friday that the cause of the escalation was "terrorism targeting innocent civilians," meaning Palestinian attacks on Israelis. He called on Israel not to harm Yasser Arafat and to prevent the loss of innocent Palestinian lives during the attacks, but he did not call for an end to the escalation itself. But early Saturday morning, the U.S. backed a U.N. Security Council resolution urging Israel to withdraw from Ramallah, which passed unanimously (Syria boycotted the vote).
The U.S. is trying to mediate in a conflict where the sides take turns frustrating the progress towards peace. Only weeks ago Washington felt it was the Israelis who had to be reined in, during a previous massive offensive. Almost against the better judgment of many officials, and against its natural inclination, the Bush administration sent its mediator, Gen. Anthony Zinni, back into the fray. Although the latest word is that for now Zinni will stay, his mission seems to be effectively over. He has not succeeded in establishing a truce, nor in mollifying the Arab world during Vice President Dick Cheney's tour of the region to garner support for a strike against Iraq, which was decisively opposed at Thursday's Arab summit in Beirut.
This last week in particular has been one of vast contradictions in the Middle East, a week in which peace moves and armed confrontation have succeeded each other quickly. It has all culminated, for now, in an unprecedented Palestinian wave of attacks on Israeli civilians -- 30 have died in three days, during Passover -- and an all-out Israeli assault on Yasser Arafat and the Palestinian Authority.
The government has set the country on a war footing, ordering the mobilization of more than 20,000 reservists. This feels like the big one, and Sharon knows that he has to deliver if he is to staunch the dramatic loss of support for the way he has dealt with this intifada. His soldiers have already started to die, two during the assault. The escalation has caused Palestinian casualties too -- at least 5, say medics, during the Thursday/Friday assault. Meanwhile, troops and tanks have smashed into the Palestinian leader's compound in Ramallah, and have taken up positions just a few doors away from the man the Israelis hold personally responsible for all the violence.
"Arafat, who has established a coalition of terror against Israel, is an enemy and at this point he will be isolated," Prime Minister Sharon announced as his troops were fighting their way into Ramallah. The Israelis say that they have exercised restraint for several weeks now, giving the Zinni mediation effort a chance. Over the weekend they accepted his bridging proposals for implementing a cease-fire, in the hope of being able to let Arafat attend the summit of Arab leaders in Beirut that took place last Wednesday and Thursday. That was seen as crucial for the success of a Saudi-initiated Arab peace initiative.
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