Arafat and Sharon
by Thomas
fpn@vcu.edu
http://www.studentorg.vcu.edu/fpn

     Arafat is portrayed as a terrorist mastermind by the Israelis, which is ironic because they turn a blind eye to their own terrorist mastermind who happens to be their own prime minister.  The difference between Arafat and Sharon is this: Arafat has no control over the Palestinians whom carry out attacks on Israeli civilians (as will be shown in the coming paragraphs) while Sharon has full control over the Israeli soldiers who brutally murder innocent Palestinians. (Like today’s attack when a missile was fired into a crowd of civilians killing 14) This is the difference between Arafat and Sharon, one is incapable of stopping terror, the other is hell bent on creating it.  Sharon has always wanted to kill as many Palestinians as possible.  We are all quite aware that in 1982 he ordered the Phalangist militia (Christians) into the refugee camps of Sabra and Shatila in Lebanon after the United States had negotiated the removal of anyone armed from inside the camps (in return for the American guarantee that the camps would be protected)  All in all probably more than 2,500 Palestinian women and children were murdered and raped, though we will never know the exact number because after the massacre Sharon gave the Phalangists Israeli army bulldozers to bury the dead.  There are three main reasons why Arafat, on the other hand, cannot control the activities of the Palestinian resistance fighters, and all are the fault of the murderous Israeli government.
     Firstly Israel demands that the Palestinian resistance end, but refuses to cease the brutal occupation that breads the resistance.  The absolute brutality and insanity of the Israeli defense forces in the occupied territories is shown through the murder of women and children, the destruction of houses and schools, and the arrest and torture of innocent civilians.  This unending occupation leaves the Palestinian people no recourse than to resist until their deaths.  Arafat cannot control this need to defend oneself from Israeli aggression and with every violent death of an innocent Palestinian that ability decreases.  Arafat does not tell his people what to do, and then they do it.  On the contrary his people will continue to resist whether he says for them to or not.  This is what Israel fails to understand when they blame all the attacks on him.  The two Intifadas have both been spontaneous expressions of Palestinian resistance to Israeli terror, not the manipulation of the populace by Arafat. 
     Secondly Israel purposely destroys all credibility that Arafat has with the resistance fighters.  While they view him still as the leader of their people they understand that the will of the people is to resist.  Every time that Arafat has made headway and convinced the militant groups to respect a cease fire in order to further peace negotiations, Israel purposely shatters the cease fire.  It has happened twice in the past year.  Early in 2002 Arafat convinced all of the militant groups to observe a cease fire, but after 2 weeks of no attacks on Israel, the Israelis assassinated a Hamas activist with a missile, prompting Hamas to vow revenge.  Only a couple months ago Arafat had convinced Hamas and the other militants to agree to stop attacks within Israel.  This was at 10pm in the evening.  At 12am an Israeli warplane dropped a 1 tonne bomb into a Gaza neighborhood killing the top Hamas military commander and 15 other civilians, including 9 children. Israel’s hatred of peace is because of two main factors.  First is the understanding by Ariel Sharon that if peace does take hold then he will very quickly be out of the leadership position in Israel.  Second is Sharon’ realization that if he is out of the leadership of Israel he will not be able to further his goal of the mass genocide of the Palestinian people. Remember it was Sharon who sparked the Intifada by visiting the most holy place to Muslims in Palestine with a full contingent of heavily armed army soldiers.
     Thirdly Israel demands that Arafat control and arrest the militants who resist the Israeli occupation, yet Israel’s main tactic is to destroy all of the Palestinian Authorities infrastructure and throw all of their security personnel in jail.  How can Arafat take steps to arrest militants when the Israelis won’t even let him out of his destroyed compound? Even the CIA who were spending great amounts of time and money training the Palestinian Authority in counter terror know this is counter-productive.  Every time the Palestinians build a new security headquarters, or police station it is inevitably destroyed by the Israelis within a couple of days.  Yet they still want Arafat to “arrest the terrorists”
     Terrorism is a word that is thrown around a lot lately, but without a doubt the most deadly and destructive terrorist group in the Middle East is the state of Israel who, for the past 50 years has done everything in their power to murder and expel the Palestinians from the land that is rightfully theirs.  Terrorism in Palestine is done by the stroke of Sharon’s pen and the boom of a tank shell or F-16 missile.