Prof. Paul Eidelberg
Yasser Arafat knows that Israelis long for peace. He also knows that Ariel Sharon, contrary to most Israelis, has long supported the establishment of a Palestinian state. The combination of these two facts encourages Arafat to wage war—a war of attrition misleadingly called “terrorism.” This war—some call it the “Arafat War”—accomplishes several important objectives.
(1) The Arafat War attracts the diplomatic, financial, and military assistance of Israel’s enemies, including Egypt, Iran, Syria, and Saudi Arabia.
(2) The War trains and hardens a generation of Arab warriors for the State of Palestine as conceived by Arafat.
(3) The War kills and maims thousands of Jewish women, men, and children and demoralizes many more.
(4) The War ruins Israel’s economy, diminishes the number of Jews who immigrate to Israel, and encourages talented Israelis to leave.
(5) The War aggravates political, ethnic, and religious divisions within Israeli society, which cannot but distract and enervate the government..
(6) The War prompts foreign pressure and intervention, and thus diminishes the independence and self-confidence of the State.
(7) The War leads to cease fires and negotiations, during which Israel, longing for peace, makes gratuitous concessions, while Arafat’s forces regroup, rearm, and prepare for the next phase of this peace-and-war strategy.
Enter Abu Mazen (Mahmoud Abbas). Abu Mazen, the General Secretary of the PLO, now serves as President Arafat’s prime minister. Despite his long known career as the PLO’s number two terrorist, Abu Mazen now poses as the PLO’s leading diplomatist. Sharon, who would not shake the blood-stained hands of Arafat, has no qualms about shaking the blood-stained hands of Abu Mazen.
Thus dignified, Prime Minister Abu Mazen—who takes his orders from President Arafat—has already gained unilateral concessions from his Israeli counterpart, who, according to pundits, takes orders from President Bush. (If so, Arafat is using Bush to anesthetize Israel!)
Be this as it may, Abu Mazen has induced Mr. Sharon to make significant unilateral concessions—but only because Sharon is committed to a Palestinian state:
(1) The Israel Defense Forces are being withdrawn from various parts of Judea, Samaria, and Gaza.
(2) Many Jewish settlements and outposts will be evacuated. (This cannot but
cause civil strife and undermine the country’s confidence in its future.)
(3) Arab terrorists—some have either murdered or maimed Jews—are
being released. (This will erode the morale of soldiers who risked their lives
to capture those terrorists. It will also corrupt youth, seeing how their government
has abandoned justice for the sake of a dubious peace.)
(4) Tens of thousands of Palestinian Arabs are being permitted to work in Israel. (Such Arabs will surely provide Intelligence to Arafat’s terrorist organizations as well as a cover for further acts of terrorism.)
(5) Tax payments will be disbursed to Palestinian Arabs via Arafat’s finance minister. (This will augment the financial power of the Palestinian Authority, increase its arms procurement, facilitate the next outbreak of violence, and thus lead to the next cease fire and negotiations!)
The above evidence suggests that the “irrelevant” Arafat has made a fool of Prime Minister Sharon, a once dauntless general who has timidly but wilfully pursued a policy of “self-restraint” or “moderation” in the Arafat War (a policy actually based on his long-standing commitment to Palestinian statehood, to which he sees no alternative).
It may seem irreverent to disparage the prime minister as a fool. But as the great British historian-statesman Thomas Macaulay once said, “moderation in war is imbecility.”