2006-01-06-Sharon-peace process |
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jewishsightseeing.com, January 6, 2006 |
By Ira Sharkansky
News media and politicians from many countries, including
Palestine, are concerned that without Sharon there can be no peace
process. The reasoning is that only he can persuade Israelis to give up
more land.
My own perception is that there has been no peace process
at least since the year 2000. What Sharon did in his disengagement was
to signal frustration at the lack of a Palestinian partner, and to leave
some territory in order to simplify Israel's problems of security.
Since then, Palestinians have been a long way from
anything that looks like a peace process. Chaos does not provide the
setting from which a government can negotiate. In recent weeks there
have been kidnappings of foreigners in Gaza, including people affiliated
with humanitarian organizations who came to help. One group seized the
parents of Rachel Corrie, an activist from Evergreen State College who
was killed in 2003 by an Israeli army bulldozer when she entered an
active battlefield and tried to scream peace above the noise and
commotion. When the kidnappers realized that they had taken the parents
of a Palestinian martyr, they gave a pass.
There have been assaults on Palestine Authority offices
by armed gangs wanting to be hired as security personnel by the
Authority, or demanding that their friends be put on the list of
candidates for the upcoming election. The Palestine Electoral Commission
submitted its resignation, due to the way leading members of the
Authority were issuing orders about the election.
One of the most popular candidates of the ruling Fatah
Party is Marwan Barghouti, serving five consecutive life terms in
an Israeli prison for involvement in the killing of civilians. If there
is an election and he is chosen for the Palestinian parliament ,
Barghouti may have to ask a replacement to serve until sometime late in
the 21st century.
Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas has said time and again
that rocket attacks from Gaza to Israeli settlements do not advance the
national cause, but they keep coming. Palestinian security forces, said
to number 30,000 in Gaza, have not made serious efforts to stop them. In
response, the IDF has made a wasteland of northern Gaza. Should one of
those rockets kill an Israeli, the damage to Gaza is likely to be more
extensive.
Has there ever been a serious Palestinian offer for peace
with Israel? My own memory is that there has been one Palestinian demand
after another for Israel to be forthcoming. Joining the chorus have been
numerous Europeans, some Americans, and not a few Israelis. Now
with what seems to be Ariel Sharon's exit from politics, we are
hearing another version of that refrain. To me the problem is still
the lack of Palestinian realism, currently reinforced by chaos within
Palestine.
The next Israeli leader may make additional withdrawals,
similar to Sharon's disengagement in being done when there is no sign of
a Palestinian partner. If that occurs, it should be called strengthening
Israel's defenses, and not a peace process.
Sharkansky is an emeritus member of the political science department at Hebrew University in Jerusalem |