[GushShalom] Invitation to Terror & Contemplation a week after Akaba

[Gush Shalom (Israeli Peace Bloc)]

GUSH SHALOM - pob 3322 Tel-Aviv 61033 - www.gush-shalom.org

June 12, 2003

-- Invitation to Terror [text of tomorrow's Gush ad in Ha'aretz]
-- Contemplation a week after Akaba / Adam Keller 

>>>>>>><<<<<<
Invitation to Terror
>>>>>>><<<<<<

[Translation of ad to appear in Ha'aretz, tomorrow June 13]

Five generals took the decision to assassinate Hamas leader Abd-al-
Aziz  al-Rantissi: the Prime Minister, the Minister of Defense, the Chief-
of-Staff and the chiefs of the Mossad and the Security Service.

This military Junta is running Israel in practice - instead of the bunch of 
dwarfs called Government and the group of clowns and delinquents 
who have taken over the Knesset.

The aim was 

to bury the Road Map right at the beginning, destroy Abu Mazen (Mahmud Abbas) 
and prevent the planned Hudna (truce), 

in order to 

save the settlements, continue the occupation and prevent the establishment of the 
State of Palestine.

Sharon & Co. invited violence - and violence we got.

Gush Shalom


>>>>>>>>>>>><<<<<<<<<<<<<
Contemplation a week after Akaba
>>>>>>>>>>>><<<<<<<<<<<<<

Suicide bombing in Jerusalem. Once again, one cannot escape the 
horrors flooding every TV screen, and every news broadcast carries the 
details of sixteen simultaneous funerals. And as many family lives for 
ever marked. But - - as always, it is a selective horror show. The 
Israeli media is far more sparing in showing the results of "our" 
retaliatory bombing on Gaza. The body count is already showing more than twenty 
Palestinians dead in the past forty-eight hours, at least half of them civilian 
bystanders; and the number seems set to increase. 

Precisely a week after the Akaba Summit, and before one could even decide 
between scepticism and hope, the cruel game of blow and counter-blow and 
counter-counter-blow is rolling again, full steam ahead.  

Once more, as on so many occasions in the past years, the 
assassination of a prominent Palestinian leader - offcially justified as 
a way of fighting terrorism - only stoked the fires of anger and hatred 
on the other side, escalating the horror all the more. 

After assasinations had this same result so many times before, one 
need not be a brilliant strategist, or have access to confidential files, 
in order to accurately predict the result of sending helicopter gunships 
to Gaza in order to assassinate the well-known Hamas spokesman, Abd-el-Aziz 
Rantisi. (In this case, Rantisi survived  - but a mother and child who happened to 
walk in the street were killed and dozens more wounded.)  Prime Minister Sharon 
certainly knew exactly what he was doing. 

Many potentially positive developments, in the past two years, were 
foiled by a judicious assassination on crucial moment. The cease-fire 
of December 2001, which had lasted for more than a month and aroused many real 
hopes, is a prominent case in point. But hardly ever before were the stakes quite 
so high - an ambitiously (re-)launched peace process under the personal patronage 
of the president of the world's sole remaining super-power.

Two societies torn and weary by two and half terrible years and praying 
for a respite, opinion polls on both sides showing a high percenatge in 
favor of making concessions, a hope against hope that this time the light in the end 
of the tunnel would prove real. 

Is everything irretrievably lost? Hamas, which a week ago seriously 
contemplated the idea of a cease-fire, has been pushed into the most 
militant of moods, and Rantisi - always on the organization's most 
radical wing - has gotten an enormous boost in personal popularity 
courtesy of Sharon's gunships. And, the position of Prime Minster Abu 
Mazen - even at the best of time never very strong among the Palestinian masses - 
has been grieveously, perhaps fatally eroded. His speech in Akaba - by far the 
most conciliatory ever made by any Palestinian leader, and for which he had 
already to wheather considerable Palestinian criticism - was not answered by any 
real confidence-building measures but by lethal provocation. 

Certainly, if George W. Bush regards his jaunt to this region last week 
as something more than a convenient photo opportunity, it is time for him to take a 
strong hand in the situation. Past experience has shown that when Bush seriously 
makes his will known, Sharon hastens to take notice. (What a paradoxical 
situation for those who heartily detest the present incumbent at the White House, 
and who still find themselves hoping for his intervention!) 

And supposing Bush effectively washes his hands off the process he had just 
launched and lets "The Roadmap" go the way of countless earlier peace plans and 
diplomatic initiatives? In that case, the present cycle will run its bloody course, and 
things will calm down a bit, and then a new provocation will start a new cycle, and 
so on. But still, the game could not go on forever. The Israeli economy in in 
shambles, with virtually all economists and business leaders agreeing that advance 
towards peace is needed for its recovery. Not for nothing did the Tel-
Aviv stock market jump sharply up when the Sharon Cabinet adopted the 
Roadmap, and take a plunge when news came of the botched Rantisi 
assassination. Israeli generals no longer make confident predictions of an imminent 
Palestinian surrender, and when pressed admit that there is no real military 
solution (indeed, virtually all militiary options short of large-scale outright war 
crimes have already been tried and failed to subdue the obdurate Palestinians.) 

Whatever the outcome of the Roadmap interlude, Sharon as Prime Minster of Israel 
already made unprecedented and irrevocable statements - however little he meant 
them - recognizing the two-state solution and declaring continued occupation to be 
unacceptable. Despite the sorry state of the Israeli Labour Party and its utter 
inability to present a real alternative, sooner or later some leader will be found to 
seriously lead Israel along that path. But meanwhile, be prepared for more funerals.

Adam Keller

-------
Note: we got some worried messages from people who wondered 
about our prolonged silence. It was not because we had nothing more 
to say, but rather because a nasty virus invaded our computer. By now it seems we 
overcame it but to be on the safe side: don't open 
attachments which seem to come from us. 
--------------------------------------------------------------


--
A map of the separation wall:

http://www.gush-shalom.org/thewall/hebrew.html
http://www.gush-shalom.org/thewall/index.html (English)

--
Our site:
http://www.gush-shalom.org/ (òáøéú)
http://www.gush-shalom.org/english/index.html (English)

with
\\photo's - of action or otherwise informative 
\\the weekly Gush Shalom ad - in Hebrew and English 
\\the columns of Uri Avnery - in Hebrew, Arab and English
\\and an archive full of interesting documents

N.B.: 
On the Gush Shalom website links for:
Articles and documents in German
Articles and documents in French
Articles and documents in Spanish

In order to receive our Hebrew-language 
press releases [mostly WORD documents - 
not always same as English] mail to:
gush-shalom-heb-request at mailman.gush-shalom.org 
+ NB: write the word "subscribe" in the subject line.

To get more of the forwarded reports and announcements 
which we receive from other organizations + a selection of 
English-language articles, send one blank mail to: 
TOI_Billboard-subscribe at topica.com

If you want to support Gush Shalom's activities you can 
send a cheque or cash, wrapped well in an extra piece 
of paper to: 

Gush Shalom
pob 3322
Tel-Aviv 61033
Israel

or ask us for charities in your country which receive 
donations on behalf of Gush Shalom

Please, add your email address where to send our 
confirmation of receipt. More official receipts at 
request only.