[Peace-discuss] Fwd: [GushShalom] Avnery on collapse of Hudna/Roadmap

[Al Kagan]

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>Subject: [GushShalom] Avnery on collapse of Hudna/Roadmap
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>Uri Avnery
>23.8.03
>
>				A Drug for the Addict
>
>      It was a putsch. Like any classic putsch, it was carried out by a
>group of officers: Sharon, Mofaz, Ya'alon and the army top brass.
>      It is no secret that the military party (the only really functioning
>party in Israel) objected to the hudna (truce) from the first moment,
>much as it opposed the Road Map. Its powerful propaganda apparatus,
>which includes all the Israeli media, spread the message: "The hudna
>is a disaster! Every day of the hudna is a bad day! The reduction of
>violence to almost zero is a great misfortune: under cover of the truce,
>the terrorist organizations are recovering and rearming! Every terrorist
>strike avoided today will hit us much harder tomorrow!"
>      The army command was like an addict deprived of his drug. It was
>forbidden to carry out the action it wanted. It was just about to crush
>the intifada, victory was just around the corner, all that was needed
>was just one final decisive blow, and that would have been that.
>      The military was upset when it saw the new hope that took hold of
>the Israeli public, the bullish mood of the stock exchange, the rise in
>value of the shekel, the return of the masses to the entertainment
>centers, the signs of optimism on both sides. In effect, It was a
>spontaneous popular vote against the military policy.
>      Ariel Sharon realized that if this went on, reality would overturn his
>long-term plans. Therefore, right at the beginning of the hudna, he
>adopted three immediate goals:
>      First, to topple Abu-Mazen as soon as possible. Mahmud Abbas
>had become the darling of George Bush, a welcome guest at the White
>House. The unique standing of Sharon in Washington was in danger.
>The pair Bush-Sharon, which was mutating into a single Busharon unit,
>was in danger of becoming a triangle: Bush-Sharon-Abbas. There is no
>greater danger to Sharon's plans.
>      Second, to wipe out the Road Map in its infancy. The Map obliged 
>Sharon to remove immediately about 80 settlement outposts, freeze all
>settlements, stop the building of the wall and withdraw the army from
>all West Bank towns. Sharon never dreamt of fulfilling even one of
>these obligations.
>      Third, to put an end to the hudna and give the army back its
>freedom of action in all the Palestinian territories.
>      The question was how this could be achieved without a trace of
>suspicion attaching itself to Sharon. The great majority of Israelis, who
>had greeted the hudna, could not possibly be allowed to suspect that
>their own leaders were responsible for extinguishing this glimmer of
>hope. Even more important, it was imperative that no such pernicious
>idea should enter the innocent head of the good George W. All the
>blame must fall on the Palestinians, so that the affection for Abu-
>Mazen would turn into contempt and hatred.
>      The means for attaining this goal were selected with great care,
>taking into account the simplistic world of Bush with its Good Guys
>and Bad Guys. The Bad Guys are the terrorists. Therefore, it was
>advisable to kill Hamas and Jihad militants. That would not upset
>Bush. In the eyes of the President, to kill terrorists is a Good Thing. 
>And as a result, the Palestinians would be compelled to break the
>hudna.
>      This is how it happened:
>       On August 8, Israeli soldiers killed two Hamas militants in Nablus.
>But the retaliation was restrained: on August 12, a Hamas suicide
>bomber killed one Israeli in Rosh-Ha'ayin and another bomber killed
>one person in the Ariel settlement. Both suicide bombers came from
>Nablus. Hamas announced that the hudna would continue. On August
>14, the Israeli army killed Muhammad Seeder, head of the military wing
>of Hamas in Hebron. Five days later, on August 19, a suicide bomber
>from Hebron blew himself up in a Jerusalem bus, killing 20 men,
>women and children. Two days later, on August 21, the army
>assassinated Isma'il Abu-Shanab, the fourth ranking leader of Hamas.
>      This time it was not even possible even to pin on the victim the
>appellation "ticking bomb", as is usual in such cases. The man was a
>well-known political leader. Why was he of all people chosen for
>assassination? A military correspondent on Israeli TV made a slip of
>the tongue: Abu-Shanab was killed, he said, because he was
>"available". Meaning, he was an easy target because he did not go
>underground after the bus bombing, as did the leaders of the military
>wing.
>      This time, at long last, the aim was achieved. The Palestinian
>organizations announced that they were calling off the hudna. Sharon
>and Co. rejoiced. Within hours the Israeli army had again penetrated
>into the centers of the Palestinian towns, starting an orgy of arrests
>and house demolitions (more than 40 in a single day).
>      The addict leapt for the drug. His crisis was over, the officers could
>do all the things they had been prevented from doing for nine long
>weeks.
>      But the situation will not revert to the status quo ante intifada, so to
>speak. The attacks and killings will be more numerous and more cruel.
>The construction of the Wall deep in the Palestinian territories will be
>accelerated, along with the building activity in the settlements.
>      The army propaganda machine is already preparing the public for
>the "expulsion of Arafat". "Expulsion" is a euphemism produced by the
>"verbal laundry" section of the army, one of its most creative
>departments. The intention is not to expel the leader from his Ramallah
>compound, nor from Palestine, but from this world. The reaction of the
>Palestinians and the whole Arab world can be predicted. It would be a
>historic point of no return, perhaps eliminating the chances of peace for
>generations.
>      And the Americans? Never has the Bush administration looked so
>pathetic as here and now. The unfortunate Colin Powell arouses
>compassion with his stuttering and his emissary, John Wolf, a wolf
>without teeth, will go the way of all his predecessors.
>      After the implosion of the new order in Afghanistan and the classic
>guerilla war now engulfing the universally hated occupation regime in
>Iraq, the collapse of the Road Map will put an end to any presidential
>pretensions. It is much easier to have one's picture taken in the
>uniform of a glorious victor with a background of army extras than to
>steer the ship of state.
>      The renewal of the cycle of violence will, of course, exacerbate the
>economic depression in Israel. The crisis will deepen. Together with
>the hudna and the Road Map, tourism, foreign investment and the
>recovery will also die.
>      The economy, too, is an addict who needs his drug: nine billion
>dollars in US government loan guarantees are waiting for Sharon in
>Washington. That should be enough for the political and military elite.
>Only the poor will become poorer. But who cares?
>      All this is being done without consulting the Israeli public. There is
>no open discussion, no debate in the tame media, the silent Knesset
>and the cabinet of marionettes. That's what makes it a putsch.
>      To sum up: The road Map is dead, because Sharon was against it
>from the beginning, Bush saw it only as a photo opportunity on a nice
>background and Abu-Mazen did not get from Israel and the US
>anything that he could present as a Palestinian achievement.
>      What will happen now? After the shedding of yet more blood and
>many tears, the two peoples will arrive once more at the conviction that
>it is better to come to an agreement and make peace. Then they will
>be compelled to learn the lesson of the last chapter: It must all start
>from the end. Only after the picture of the final settlement clearly
>emerges can one deal with the immediate problems. Anything else
>would be a road map to the abyss.
>
>--
>The last few months through the eyes of "The Other Israel" - the
>August-September issue is out. 28 pages with political analysis,
>Mes'ha camp, refusers putting the occupation on trial, and a lot of
>action news. Free sample (if you didn't yet get one) from
>otherisr at actcom.co.il
>
>--
>
>A map of the separation wall:
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>http://www.gush-shalom.org/thewall/hebrew.html (Ú·¯È™)
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>
>//==//==//==//==//==//==//==//==//==//==//==//==//
>
>[from the Coalition Against The Wall]
>Invitation to sign the Petition Against The Apartheid
>Wall that Israel is constructing in the Occupied Territories
>
>
>Now, when the Palestinians are engaging in nonviolent protests against
>this
>unjust wall (which will bring no security to Israel), weóPalestinians,
>Israelis, and Internationals of the Masíha Peace Campóask you to
>help stop construction, NOW. 
>
>(The building of the Apartheid Wall in the Occupied Territories is now at
>a critical stage.  The completed sections of the wall have already
>caused
>considerable suffering to the Palestinian population.  Homes have been
>demolished, thousands of olive trees uprooted, acres upon acres of land
>have been expropriated, roads have been destroyed--all to make way for
>this monster.)
>
>Add your voices to the Petition against construction of the Wall. 
>Read and sign the petition on:
>stopthewall.org.il/cgi-bin/petition.cgi?_conf=petition
>
>//==//==//==//==//==//==//==//==//==//==//==//==//
>
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-- 


Al Kagan
African Studies Bibliographer and Professor of Library Administration
Africana Unit, Room 328
University of Illinois Library
1408 W. Gregory Drive
Urbana, IL 61801, USA

tel. 217-333-6519
fax. 217-333-2214
e-mail. akagan at uiuc.edu