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Israel
Puts ‘Peace Process’ on Hold
by Gerry Foley / March 2005 issue of Socialist Action
As expected, the election of Mahmoud Abbas (Abu
Mazen) as the new president of the Palestinian Authority (PA) in January
has been followed by new attempts to achieve some sort of compromise
between the Zionist rulers and the Palestinian leaders.
From the Israeli point of view, the essential
precondition for any modus vivendi is that the Palestinian Authority itself
has to repress the groups that are waging a guerrilla war against the
Zionist state. Abu Mazen made a gesture in this direction immediately
following his election by deploying PA security forces in the part of Gaza
bordering Israel to prevent the firing of homemade rockets into Zionist
settlements on both sides of the border.
Abu Mazen’s intentions, however, were soon
challenged by a new suicide bombing in Tel Aviv on Feb. 25, which killed
four Israelis and wounded 30. The bomber was a member of Islamic Jihad. And
in a video released after the attack, he denounced the Palestinian
Authority as an illegitimate body and a tool of the Americans. The Zionist security forces accused the
Lebanon-based Islamist guerrilla organization, Hezbullah, of being behind
the attack.
In fact, the Palestinian security forces arrested
two men whom they accused of being implicated in the bombing and promised
to arrest all those found to be involved. Reportedly the two men arrested
were members of Islamic Jihad.
The Islamist organizations, Islamic Jihad and
Hamas, have taken an ambiguous position toward Abu Mazen’s negotiations.
They say that they will not do anything to undermine the peace talks but
that they will not give up the right to fight Israel. Both denied that they
had anything to do with the Tel Aviv bombing. However, Islamic Jihad later endorsed the bombing.
The implication of Hezbullah is potentially
provocative, because the United States has been stepping up its threats
against its sponsor and protector, Iran and Syria. The guerrilla
organization is obviously a target of the U.S. campaign against these two states.
The Zionist authorities claim that Hezbullah has become the major outside
backer and financier of the Palestinian resistance. The Zionist
authorities, moreover, claim that Islamic Jihad has its center in Damascus.
However, the Syrian government has been making
gestures to try to lessen the confrontation with the U.S. and Israel. It
says it is redeploying its troops in Lebanon toward its own border in
preparation for withdrawal from the country. It claims to have closed the
Islamic Jihad offices. And most recently it has captured a group of Iraqi
resisters—including Saddam Hussein’s half-brother, Sabawi Ibrahim
al-Hassan—who, according to the Feb. 27 British Independent, it handed over
to the security forces of the Iraqi government, subordinate to the United
States.
However, the Zionist government is pressing its
claim of Syrian responsibility for the Tel Aviv bombing. The Israeli
defense minister, Shaul Mofaz, issued a statement saying: “Israel sees
Syria and the Islamic Jihad movement as those standing behind the murderous
attack in Tel Aviv.” Obviously, the Israeli accusations against Syria raise
the threat of military confrontations.
The Zionist rulers also stepped up their pressure
on the Palestinian Authority despite its arrests of persons allegedly
involved in planning the bombing and its promise to pursue all those
implicated. The government declared that it was suspending its plan to turn
over security to the PA in parts of the West Bank.
And most ominously, as The New York Times
reported on Feb. 27: “Prime Minister Ariel Sharon warned Palestinian
leaders today that there would be no further moves toward peace unless they
destroyed militant groups behind such attacks.”
While it is possible that Abu Mazen could jail
individuals responsible for attacks on Israel, there is no way that he
could “destroy” Islamic Jihad and Hamas without unleashing an
intra-Palestinian civil war. And he knows that he does not have the support
to win it. That is shown by the weakness of the mandate he got in the elections
and the Islamist victories in the Palestinian local elections.
Thus, these threats by the Israeli government
raise the question whether it really wants to pursue the policy of
negotiations and even limited compromises with the Palestinians.
A previous attempt by Abu Mazen to pursue a
“peace process,” when he was premier of the PA, was scuttled by Israeli
intransigence. This time, however, Israel had been making more concessions,
such a commitment to evacuate the Jewish settlements in Gaza in the face of
furious opposition of the Zionist right. Whatever the outcome of the
present tug of war, the prospects for any sort of reconciliation between
Israel and the Palestinians remain dim.
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