David Horovitz: This is why the Israelis support Mr Sharon's tactics

11 April 2002Middle East

<A HREF="http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/story.jsp?story=283756">Sharon snubs new calls for retreat resolve</A>

<A HREF="http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/story.jsp?story=283755">Eight killed by suicide bomber from refugee camp</A>

<A HREF="http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/story.jsp?story=283754">Hizbollah steps up attacks on northern border</A>

<A HREF="http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/story.jsp?story=283753">Monk shot in besieged Basilica of the Nativity</A>

<A HREF="http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/story.jsp?story=283752">Jenin: 'Soldier shot my mother in the head'</A>

<A HREF="http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/story.jsp?story=283751">Powell to increase pressure on Sharon</A>

<A HREF="http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/story.jsp?story=283749">Netanyahu insists military action must go on</A>

<A HREF="http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/politics/story.jsp?story=283750">Angry backbenchers accuse Blair of double standards</A>

<A HREF="http://argument.independent.co.uk/regular_columnists/donald_macintyre/story.jsp?story=283685">Donald Macintyre: The PM and his party are not enjoying their Pinteresque 
dialogue</A>

<A HREF="http://argument.independent.co.uk/regular_columnists/simon_carr/story.jsp?story=283684">Simon Carr: What Blair lacked in certainty he certainly made up for in 
banality</A>

<A HREF="http://argument.independent.co.uk/commentators/story.jsp?story=283686">David Horovitz: This is why the Israelis support Mr Sharon's tactics</A>



For months in Israel now, to step outside one's front door of a morning has 
been to enter a grisly lottery. It's been a pretty safe bet that somewhere in 
Israel on any given day, any number of civilians will be blown up by 
Palestinian suicide bombers.

Will it be you or your loved ones? Who knows. It doesn't matter how deep 
inside sovereign Israel you have made your home. Because the bombers aren't 
"merely" targeting settlers in the West Bank or the Gaza Strip, or disputed 
areas of East Jerusalem. They are terrorising all of Israel.

For nine precious days after 31 March, when yet another suicide-bomber blew 
up yet another restaurant – the Arab-run Matza in Haifa – the likelihood of 
dying that kind of vicious death receded a little. It's pathetic, but true: A 
touch more than a week without suicide bombings constituted an extraordinary 
respite. Yesterday, the suicide bombings resumed. Eight more dead on a bus 
outside Haifa.

Why is it that Israelis broadly support the Sharon government's unprecedented 
incursions into the West Bank? This despite the international condemnation. 
Despite the strains induced by tens of thousands of reservists, heads of 
families, being drafted into the front line – 14 of them killed in an ambush 
in Jenin on Tuesday. And despite the widespread awareness that there can be 
no long-term, solely military solution to the conflict. Why? Because, 
briefly, it placed the bombers on the defensive.

For more than 18 months, Israelis have nurtured, along with the fear of the 
bombers, a sense of burning injustice. They don't expect a fair hearing from 
the Arab world and much of Europe, but they are dismayed that the Bush 
administration and the Blair government are not prepared to acknowledge key 
parallels between the Taliban and Yasser Arafat's Palestinian Authority, two 
regimes that have actively incited terrorism. When Israel, as an act of last 
resort, has sent soldiers into Palestinian areas to try and thwart the 
bombings, often by killing the planners and recruiters – actions that pale in 
impact beside the post-11 September assault on Afghanistan – it has been 
repeatedly urged by the US and UK to withdraw without delay.

Now US Secretary of State Colin Powell is flying in, again demanding what the 
army is telling Israelis is a premature withdrawal, again preparing to 
rehabilitate Mr Arafat. Why did the bombings recommence yesterday, with a 
Hamas terrorist from Tulkarm apparently responsible? Because, most Israelis 
will tell you, the army withdrew from Tulkarm 24 hours earlier, under extreme 
pressure from the Bush administration.

Israelis nurse a tremendous grievance, too, against many in the international 
media – who they feel employ a double standard in their coverage: rigorous 
objectivity in presenting the Israeli side of the conflict; fawning 
subservience to the Palestinians line, with little questioning of the 
suicide-bomber culture as a tool for political gain.

At the root of this widespread sense of injustice is the Israeli perception 
of what happened at the crucial Camp David summit talks in July 2000. By and 
large, Israelis are convinced that the then-prime minister Ehud Barak sought 
to end the occupation – to relinquish almost all of the territory the 
Palestinians were seeking – and Mr Arafat turned him down. By demanding a 
"right of return" to sovereign Israel for up to four million Palestinians, Mr 
Arafat, most Israelis believe, effectively sought to overwhelm Israel – 
current population: five million Jews; one million-plus Arabs – by sheer 
weight of numbers.

Israelis are deeply troubled about the impact on Palestinian civilians of the 
current military offensive – natural empathy, combined with the realisation 
that the bitterness this assault is causing will rebound to their detriment. 
But they feel strongly that at the root of the Intifada is not "the 
occupation", which Mr Barak tried to end, but an Arafat-engineered, 
suicide-bomber-backed effort to destroy all of Israel.

They believe that Mr Arafat failed to tell his people the truth about what 
was offered at Camp David, that he used his media to whip them up into a 
state of despair and hatred, and that it is tragic that, many months ago, the 
Palestinians didn't reach the conclusions Mr Bush has recently begun 
publicising about Mr Arafat thus having betrayed his people.

The sense in Israel is that if the man so enthusiastically pleading with the 
almighty to grant him "martyrdom" rides out this offensive, many more 
innocent people on both sides are going to die. In fact, the grim assumption 
is that many more innocent people on both sides are going to die, come what 
may, until a Palestinian leadership emerges that genuinely seeks 
reconciliation with Israel.

For a few days, earlier this month, Israelis were tentatively enjoying the 
simple pleasure of walking around their country – hoping that ruthless 
murderers, legitimised by too much of the international community, were too 
busy facing off against the army in the West Bank to kill them. But then the 
American pressure became too strong to withstand, and the bombers were free 
to start up again.

The writer is editor of 'The Jerusalem Report' 

    
    

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